Also 5–6 tonage, 6 to(u)ndage, t(o)unage), 7– tunnage, (8 tunnige). [In sense 1, a. OF. tonnage (1300 in Du Cange), tonaige (1374 in Godef.), tonage (1477 ibid.), f. tonne TUN: see -AGE, also med.(Anglo-)L. tonnāgium (Du Cange); in senses 2–7, f. TON sb.1 + -AGE.]
I. Charge, duty, or payment of so much per tun or ton.
1. English Hist. A tax or duty formerly levied upon wine imported in tuns or casks, at the rate of so much for every tun. Commonly in association with poundage: see POUNDAGE sb.1 1.
By some historical writers and in some dictionaries written tunnage for distinction’s sake, and to emphasize the connection with TUN sb.; but tonnage is the more usual form.
Tonnage and poundage were first levied in the 14th c., and were granted for life to several sovereigns, beginning with Edward IV. They were abolished by 27 Geo. III. c. 13, in 1787.
1422. Rolls of Parlt., IV. 173/2. A subsidie of Tonage and Poundage…, that is to sey of every Tunne iii s; and xii d of every Pounde.
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., vi. (1885), 123. Pondage and tonnage mey not be rekenned as parcell off the revenues wich the kynge hath ffor the mayntenance off his estate, bi cause it aught to be applied only to þe kepynge off the see.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 509, margin. This is the custome whiche we nowe paye, called Tonnage and poundage.
1640. Pym, in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 22. There is First Tunnage and Poundage, and the late new Book of Rates taken by Prerogative, without Grant of Parliament.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., III. § 215. Great Complaint had been made, ‘that Tonnage and Poundage’ (which is the duty and subsidy paid by the Merchant upon Trade) ‘had been taken by the King without consent of Parliament.’
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. viii. 304. Tonnage was a duty upon all wines imported, over and above the prisage and butlerage aforesaid.
1845. McCulloch, Taxation, II. v. (1852), 235. The duties of tonnage and poundage, of which mention is so frequently made in English history, were customs duties.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., II. xvi. 424. The custom of tunnage and poundage, two shillings on the tun of wine and sixpence on the pound [i.e., pound’s worth] of merchandise which had been granted the year before [1371] for the protection of the merchant navy.
† 2. A charge for the hire of a ship of so much a ton (of her burden) per week or month. Obs.
1512. French Wars of 1512–13 (Navy Rec. Soc., 1897), 5. (Charge of the Marie Roose) … Also for toundage, after 3d. a ton a weke, 500 tons: nihil, quia navis regis. Ibid., 7. Also for toundage of 400 tons: 60l. Ibid., 12. Somme total of the charges of the 22 shippes afore said, as in vitayle, wages, deddeshares and toundage for the first 3 mounthes: 5608l. 2s. Ibid., 34. Toundage after 12d a ton a mounth, for 9 shippes tyght 1790 tons, amountyng for 3 mounthes to 268l. 10s.
c. 1525. in Archæologia (1883), XLVII. 335. To David Miller upon the wages and vitailles and tondage of the Vyncent, of Eryth, xxxvij. li. ix. s. iij. d. … To Christofer Coo apon wages and vitailles and tonage of diverse shippes, dclxxix. li. vj. s. viij. d.
1587. Spanish War (Navy Rec. Soc.), 237. For tonnage of the 6 ships for 3 months 141 0 0.
3. A charge or payment per ton on cargo or freight; e.g., that payable at any port or wharf, or on a canal; also, sometimes, that received or earned by a railway (quot. 1838).
1617. Minsheu, Ductor, Tonnage … I haue heard it also a Dutie due to the Mariners for vnloading their shippe arriued in any Hauen, after the rate of euerie Tonne.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. IV., cccxiv. The French … surprised as they stood In harbour, by some English Lords, make out The Tunnage lost, & forfeit stock to boot.
1708. J. C., Compl. Collier (1845), 53. What other Additions and Allowances of Tunnige for other Wares and Merchandize as are paid at the Ports aforesaid.
1789. Constitution U. S., 1. § 10. No state shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any duty of tonnage.
1806. Gazetteer Scotl., 409. [Paisley] to defray the expence by a tonnage of 8d per ton upon all vessels navigating the Cart, except those loaded with coal.
1828. Webster, Tonnage … a duty, toll or rate payable on goods per tun, transported on canals.
1838. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 322/2. It was admitted … that the amount of tonnage received by the Railway Company … was 1,236l. 0s. 6d. per mile. Ibid. They would allow … 30l. 18s. per mile, or 21/2 per cent. for the collection of the tonnage.
II. Carrying capacity, weight, etc., in tons.
4. The carrying capacity of a ship expressed in tons of 100 cubic feet (see TON1 2).
Originally the number of tun casks of wine that a merchant ship could carry. Afterwards estimated by measurements and calculations that gave rough approximations to the actual cubic content (Old Measurement, or O.M.). Now arrived at by measurement of length, and a series of exact measurements of breadth and depth at determinate distances, from which by a mathematical calculation (see Merchant Shipping Acts from 1854 onward, and esp. that of 1894, § 77–82) the cubic content of the space under the tonnage-deck (Under-deck tonnage) is obtained. To this are added the contents of all enclosed spaces above this deck, the result being the Gross tonnage. The deduction from the latter of the space occupied by the quarters of the crew, and that taken up in a steamer by the engines, boilers, etc., gives the Register tonnage, for which vessels are registered, and on which the assessment of dues and charges on shipping is based. The British system of measurement is now adopted in most important countries, but in some places is ignored, and the ship re-measured according to local rules. The Suez Canal tonnage makes a smaller deduction for engine-space, etc., and approximates more closely to the gross tonnage. The expression Dead-weight tonnage (or carrying capacity) is sometimes applied to the number of tons of 20 cwt. that a ship will carry laden to her load-line. Displacement tonnage, the number of tons of water displaced by a ship when thus loaded, used in England in stating the tonnage of men of war since c. 1870.
1718. Steele, Acc. Fishpool, 170. There is a great difference between a shipwright’s and merchant’s way of calculating the tonnage of a ship. Ibid. The shipwright’s way is to multiply the length of the keel by the middle-breadth, and that product by half the breadth and then they divide the last product by 94, and the quotient is the tunnage.
1748. Anson’s Voy., III. vii. 354. The duty … paid by all ships … according to their tunnage.
1751. Labelye, Westm. Br., 86. Of more Tonnage or Capacity than a Man of War of 40 Guns.
1836. W. Irving, Astoria, III. 133. Coasting vessels … of small tonnage and draft of water, fitted for coasting service.
1838. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 384/2. She is 271 tons old measurement, and has 99 ft. 9 in. [length] for tonnage.
1858. E. B. Tinling, in Merc. Marine Mag., V. 306. She had a registered American tonnage of 1035, corresponding with 997 British.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 442/2. There are three terms used in respect of the tonnage of ships,—namely, tonnage under decks, gross tonnage, and register tonnage…. In obtaining the tonnage under tonnage deck, ships are divided in respect of their length into five classes. Ibid., 443. This formula is also applicable for finding displacement tonnage of ships, that is, the external displacement measured by taking transverse areas to the height of the load water-line to find the cubic content, which divided by 35 gives the displacement in tons weight.
1894. Pall Mall Mag., Nov., 388. Gross tonnage means a vessel’s actual burthen;… registered tonnage is her burthen when the capacity of all the space in which cargo is not carried has been deducted.
b. fig. (Used of mental capacity or bodily size.)
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), I. Introd. To settle the comparative tonnage of their minds.
1869. ‘Mark Twain,’ Innoc. Abr., ii. A dignitary of that tonnage.
1897. Flandrau, Harvard Episodes, 323. A person, female, aged—say forty-five; of abundant tonnage and affable manners.
5. transf. Ships collectively, shipping (in relation to their carrying capacity, or together with the merchandise carried by them).
1633. T. Stafford, Pac. Hib., II. xxiv. (1821), 443. Victuals, and tonnage for the victualling and transporting of three thousand and two hundred men.
1748. in Hanway Trav. (1762), I. V. lxxvi. 348. He should not otherwise be able to give us any tonnage.
1808. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp. (1837), IV. 24. If the additional Tonnage does not arrive tomorrow, I shall settle to leave behind the veteran battalion or the 36th. Ibid. (1809), V. 212. To send to Lisbon that part of the coppered tonnage of the country which can be spared from service elsewhere.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Vanderput & S., i. 16. The tonnage of this country is more than half that of all Europe.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, I. I. viii. 515. The amount of tonnage then provided for the private trade had never been fully occupied.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ix. II. 484. The tonnage [of Brixham] exceeds many times the tonnage of the port of Liverpool under the kings of the House of Stuart.
1858. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., III. xviii. (1872), I. 250. The Friedrich-Wilhelms Canal … still carries tonnage from the Oder to the Spree.
1898. Daily News, 14 Feb., 9/5. An inadequate supply of tonnage has prevented the shipments coastwise being carried on on the large scale which the demand would undoubtedly warrant.
1909. Daily Chron., 22 Jan., 1/3. The tonnage built in German yards amounted to only 201,000, against 317,000 in 1907 and 338,000 in 1906.
6. a. Weight in tons. rare.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., Contents 7. Tonnage of the Stone. Ibid., 8. The Moorstone considered as ballast. Its tonnage.
b. Weight of (iron or other heavy merchandise) in the market.
1898. Daily News, 14 Feb., 9/5. Production has … been curtailed with a view to raising prices, but no impression is made upon the tonnage on offer, the Lancashire and Welsh makers being serious rivals.
7. Mode of reckoning the ton of cargo for freightage.
1913. Handbk. Conference of W. I. Atlantic S. S. Comps., Genl. Regulations. All goods to be freighted at actual measurement, or at actual gross weight, which ever tonnage be the greater … the measurement to be taken at 40 cubic feet to the ton, and the weight at 2240 pounds or 1000 kilos to the ton.
8. attrib. and Comb., as tonnage bounty, capacity, due, duty, length, money, tax; tonnage annuity, a government annuity payable out of the proceeds of tonnage duties: see Act 5 & 6 Will. & Mary, 1694, c. 20 §§ 16–18; tonnage-cheater, term applied to a vessel built so as to cheat the rules for tonnage measurement, esp. a yacht with a ‘dog’s-leg’ stern-post, by which its length was diminished; tonnage-deck, in a ship, the second deck from below in all vessels of two or more decks; the only deck in a vessel of one deck; tonnage-displacement = displacement tonnage, in 4.
1698. Lond. Gaz., No. 3374/4. The Purchasers may satisfie the Purchase-Money by Arrears, incurred … on the *Tunnage-Annuities or by Lottery-Tickets, which became due within the same Time on the Salt Act.
1846. M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), I. 631. A high *tonnage bounty was granted upon every buss fitted out for the deep-sea fishery.
1901. Munsey’s Mag., XXIV. 463/2. Commercial competition demanded that *tonnage capacity should be secondary to speed.
1912. Du Boulay, Compl. Yachtsman, 474. Many yachtsmen attributed her [a yacht’s] success to her evading the rule of length-measurement, and she was [1874], commonly known as a *‘tonnage-cheater.’
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 442/2. In obtaining the gross measurement the space under the *tonnage deck is first measured; then the space or spaces, if any, between the tonnage deck and the upper deck.
1888. Daily News, 8 Sept., 2/1. The smaller of the two ironclads will be named the Texas…. Her *tonnage displacement is 6,300, and she will steam about 17 knots.
1834. Tait’s Mag., I. 71/2. At present the orders in Council fix 2s. for the *tonnage dues [in China], and 7s. per cent. on the export and import cargo.
1846. M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), II. 65. The tonnage dues and other revenues being generally insufficient to defray the ordinary expenditure.
1697–8. Act 9 Will. III., c. 37 (title), Annuities … payable out of *Tunnage Duties.
1801. A. Hamilton, Wks. (1886), VII. 217. Rather let the tonnage duty on American vessels be abolished.
1705. Sir C. Wren, Lett., in N. & Q., 3rd Ser. IV. 103/2. I am sorry Mr. Wood has pd you the *Tunnage-money, but … I shal endeavor that you be made to refund it.
1882. D. A. Wells, Our Merchant Marine, vii. 179. *Tonnage-taxes on shipping are not levied by Great Britain, nor, it is believed, by any other of the maritime states of Europe, except Spain. Prior to the war, also, there were no tonnage-taxes in the United States.
1899. Daily News, 19 Aug., 6/6. The challenging yacht is subject to tonnage tax, and must enter and clear at the Custom House like a regular merchant vessel.
