Dans le livre "MODERN RHINE SEA SHIPS" concernant les petits cargos de type "fluvio-maritime", on trouve :

"A more recent innovation assisted by the presence of side ballast tanks is the fitting of moveable steel bulkheads. Side tanks can present a uniform shape throughout a hold which enables large portable steel bulkheads to be both easily moved and easily fitted at appropriate slots in the cargo holds. These cargo bulkheads have a number of advantages to both shippers and shipowners. The shipper is able to ship multiple parcels of the varying qualities of bulk cargo (or even different cargo) and yet retain the quality and integrity of these various cargo parcels. As the bulkhead positions are not fixed the parcel sizes are variable from voyage to voyage. Prior to this type of arrangement, shippers were frequently reluctant to ship multiple parcels of bulk cargoes of varying qualities as their usual method of separation was by tarpaulin or heavy plastic sheeting, which however carefully fitted and removed, invariably lead to some cargo contamination or degradation. This new type of cargo separation also avoids unnecessary time and cost of labour intensive manual separation.
The introduction of the moveable bulkheads in vessels has been particularly well received in the grain trade as properly used they can avoid the need to bag the surface of the cargo. Heavy grain such as wheat or barley is prone to shifting, particularly in heavy weather as a result of free surface effect upon the cargo. Other agricultural products (such as soya bean meal) need a greater hold space capacity to deadweight ratio in order to load a vessel with the same tonnage. The advent of moveable bulkheads has enabled the same vessel to load to her load line with a higher cubic cargo and yet use the moveable bulkheads to exclude ullage space but fill the remaining hold completely. This avoids free surface and removes the need for bagging cargo which is very labour intensive, time consuming and relatively expensive compared with handling the same quantity of cargo in bulk.

The use of portable bulkheads for the carriage of cereals has been extended to benefit cargo interests wishing to reach ports having a restricted draft below that required for a fully laden coaster.

Moveable bulkheads can also be utilised to enable vessels to load a full quantity of homogenous cargo but to maintain an even trim fore and aft. This is a particular advantage when working to restricted draft locations on rivers and canaIs. Many vessels tend to trim by the head when loaded with a cargo having a stowage factor equivalent to the ratio of the vessel's deadweight to cubic capacity. By creating a small amount of ullage space aft of the most forward fixed bulkhead, this tendency can be overcome."