To make matters still worse, there was at that time no regulation which fixed the maximum draft to which a vessel could be loaded to ensure a safe height of freeboard.
The stories that have been written about the 'coffin ships' in the 19th century are not exaggerated, and on many occasions a crew was sent to its doom by the force oflaw, after having unwittingly signed on a crank and grossly overloaded ship. In 1840 an average Of 1.5 ships per day of those in Lloyd's Register were lost, from all causes. The assessment of a safe load line was left to the discretion of the owner, and freeboard used to be 'guessed' at about one-eighth of the beam.

   By 1835 Lloyd's had proposed a freeboard of 3 in. per foot depth of hold, which was not compulsory, however; and it was not until 1854 that draft marks at stem and stern were made compulsory by Act of Parliament, although many ships carried them for their own convenience long before this time. In the golden days of Venice, merchants had a maximum draft mark made in the shape of a leaden diamond or cross nailed on the side of their galleons, which showed a healthy concern for the safety of their ships.
In Britain many efforts were made to make ships safer and in 1876 the first fixed load line marking, a diamond with a horizontal line each side of it, and the letters LR, was required by Lloyd's for a certain class of vessel only, known as 'awning decked' and built with light superstructures.

   Even this measure was opposed by one prominent shipowner, who fortunately lost a lawsuit when trying a test action against it. It was at this time that the well known figure ofMr Samuel Plimsoll MP was prominent in Parliament, fighting for the greater safety of ships, and in the same year , 1876, through his efforts an Act of Parliament was passed whereby all vessels had to carry a load line marking of a circle with a horizontal line through its center-the familiar Plimsollline. This mark did not necessarily have the letters LR on it, but letters, if any, appropriate to the society under which it was classified, which could be foreign. This Plimsollline, however, was not fixed in a definite position by any mathematical computation, but was decided at the owner's discretion for any particular cargo he intended, the amount of freeboard being arbitrary. Lloyd's experts meanwhile were preparing tables of freeboard assessed in a more scientific way and were encouraged in this endeavour by the majority of shipowners, who asked for guidance with their load line markings, and by 1886 tables were supplied and the non-obligatory mark of the circle and horizontal line was used for a fixed position. It was not made compulsory for all vessels until the Merchant Shipping Act of 1890. It should  be noted th-at Lloyd's load line mark for ships registered with them was not the same thing as a Government mark.