Defining a general cargo ship The term “general (multipurpose) cargo ships†covers many different ship designs that do not fi t into other more specialised cargo ship types. Thus, general cargo ships are not specialised for transport of only dry bulks, only containers or only heavy-lift cargoes, but they have flexibility to carry any of these cargo types. General cargo ships are the world’s most numerous ship types, excepting fishing vessels. Thus, in the year 2002 their share in the overall world merchant fleet amounted to about 37% in numbers and to about 11% in dwt.The average deadweight of the world fleet of general cargo ships is about 5600 dwt. Larger vessels, up to about 30000 dwt are intended to carry break-bulk cargo (bagged, boxed and palletised cargo) or containers, while small general cargo ships, usually below 5000 dwt are mostly found as flexible solutions for many dry-cargo types in shortsea shipping.
