Background
In the UK, merchant sailing vessels were historically measured using Builder's Old Measurement to measure tonnage and taxed according. The word 'ton' and hence 'tonnage' originates from the word 'tun' which is a measure of volume equivalent to the size of a barrel which could contain 252 gallons of wine. Due to the long history of measuring or rating merchant sailing ships by their tonnage so tonnage was naturally also used to measure or rate a sailing yacht. Accurately measuring of the internal volume of a sailing vessel was virtually impossible due to the continually changing curvature of a ship's hull from the bow to the stern. So a set of distances at points on the hull was defined to be measured and entered into a formula which then defined the tonnage and hence the taxes to be paid to the government of the day. As each ship was measured on the same basis it did not matter that the tonnage measurement was not a 100% accurate measure of volume as all vessels were measured on the same basis which led to an equitable basis of allocating tax.
Read more about this topic: International Rule (sailing)
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)