Stringer
A Stringer is a longitudinal structural member that runs fore-and-aft, stiffening the shell, deck or tank boundaries and supporting the transverse frames they cross. Side stringers run along the ship side; a deck stringer is the strake of deck plating at the ship side where deck meets shell.
Stringers spread loads along the length of the hull and help it resist bending and local panel buckling. In tanks and cargo holds they form part of the structure that surveyors examine closely for corrosion and cracking.
Stringers tie the transverse frames together and carry load along the hull, making the structure work as a whole rather than as separate ribs. Their condition in ballast tanks and cargo holds is a recurring survey focus, because that is where corrosion concentrates.
What is a deck stringer?
The outboard strake of deck plating that connects the deck to the side shell — a highly stressed part of the hull girder, given extra thickness in the scantlings.