With the increase in ship sizes, there has been an increased interest in the prediction of ship motions in shallow water, where the possibility of grounding becomes a problem. Theoretical equations governing the ship's motions have been formulated involving various hydrodynamic coefficients. In this thesis these coefficients have been found experimentally for a range of water depths and wave periods. The methods for solving the equations of motion theoretically are introduced and discussed. The equations of motion are solved using the coefficients, found experimentally, to give results in the form of motion response amplitude operators. These are compared against other authors' results derived either theoretically or experimentally. It was found that the hydrodynamic coefficients increase rapidly with decrease in water depth. Relatively good agreement between the empirical results of this thesis and results of other authors would indicate that the theoretical formulae do represent the coefficients to which they are claimed to approximate, for at least the case of zero or low forward speeds.

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