When loading bulk carriers, when you need to "trim" the vessel, you calculate and tell to shore people, the last tonnes of cargo to be dropped in, usually two specific holds, to ensure a proper trim / sailing draft. Experienced Chief Officers used to have them expressed in metric, long and short tons, just in case.
Loading chromite in Richards Bay, the Supervisor (obviously not a very experienced guy) came on board to see how much I needed to complete the loading. When he saw the quantities in tons he asked them expressed in "scoops".
It took me probably half an hour to learn that "scoop" was not an obscure international unit but the name of an internal thing in the plant used to fill the rail cars coming alongside. Praying for the best, had to calculate backwards based on what he knew of that business to estimate my trim in scoops. Nowadays, I forgot already how many tons it was; sorry.