Walker said:...So this graphic brings up a question I have pondered for awhile. How do DTons compare to Actual mass. For example, the Nimitz class carrier displaces 88,000 tons, but it appears comparable in size to an 800 to 1000 DTon Traveller vessel.
Hi,
Here is a copy of an image I put together awhile ago comparing the enclosed volume of some ocean going ships (in terms of traveller dtons) to its hydrostatic displacement (in terms of metric tons)

Unfortunately it doesn't go up to ships the size of the USS Nimitz but it does include some modern Mine Counter Measures (MCM) vessels, some modern Submarines (SS), some modern Surface Combatants (SC), some modern Design Studies (Des), some modern Landing Ship Dock (LSD) type amphibious vessels, and some really rough estimates of a couple WWI and/or Pre-Dreadnaught Era Battleships (WWI).
From the curve fits for these points, you can see that the SS data falls mostly along the line where if you multiply the submarine's displacement (in metric tons) times 0.0732 you get its enclosed volume in dtons.
Similarly, for the MCMs, SC's, & Des points if you multiply the ship's displacement (in metric tons) times 0.2483 you get its enclosed volume in dtons. Looking at this the other way round, for for these type ships (less than about 10,000 metric tons in displacement) if you divide that displacement by about 4, it looks like you might get a reasonable estimate of its size in Traveller dtons.
Hope this helps.
Regards
PF