The maximum sinkage of a ship

A ship moving steadily forward in shallow water of constant depth h is usua lly subject to downward forces and hence squat, which is a potentially dang erous sinkage or increase in draft. Sinkage increases with ship speed, unti l it reaches a maximum at just below the critical speed root(gh) over tilde . Here we use both a linear transcritical shallow-water equation and a full y dispersive finite-depth theory to discuss the flow near that critical spe ed and to compute the maximum sinkage, trim angle, and stern displacement f or some example hulls.