To increase the ship’s deadweight capacity, one must increase one or more of the following parameters: length, breadth, draught, or block coefficient. Since the question specifically excludes any increase in length, the remaining options must be examined.

• Increasing the breadth or the block coefficient would be structurally complex and generally impractical for an existing vessel.
• Therefore, the most feasible approach is to increase the draught, which can be achieved by reducing the assigned freeboard in accordance with Load Line Regulations.
• As the vessel is a dry cargo ship (Type B), it normally attracts the maximum freeboard. Thus, any opportunity to reduce freeboard could directly increase the allowable draught and, consequently, the deadweight.
• If the ship is currently fitted with wooden hatch covers, replacing them with steel gasketed covers would allow a reduction in freeboard.
• In the original design and construction stage, additional freeboard may have been assigned due to deficiencies in sheer, extent of superstructures, or bow height.
• If any of these deficiencies still exist, appropriate structural modifications—such as adding a superstructure, increasing deck sheer, or adding a forecastle—could permit freeboard reduction. (However, the first two options would be significant engineering undertakings.)
• The vessel may also be deficient in depth. Increasing the ship’s depth—an alteration that has been carried out successfully on some conversions—would raise the freeboard deck. This allows a greater draught for the same assigned freeboard.
• If the ship is of the open shelter-deck type, converting it by providing permanent watertight closures to all openings would effectively raise the freeboard deck, again permitting an increased draught.
• Another possibility is to structurally modify the vessel for classification as a bulk carrier, allowing assignment of Type B-60, which carries a reduced freeboard compared to a standard Type B vessel.
• Although increasing draught by reducing freeboard is the primary viable option, some additional modifications may also contribute.
• For example, sponsons have been added to certain vessels (notably RO-RO ships) to improve stability; the resulting extra buoyancy could be utilised to increase deadweight.
• Similarly, other hull appendages added for non-buoyancy reasons may still provide additional displacement. A common example is the bulbous bow, primarily fitted to reduce wave-making resistance but which also supplies extra buoyancy.