1.
Roll-on/roll-off
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This is in contrast to lift-on/lift-off vessels, which use a crane to load and unload cargo. RORO vessels have either built-in or shore-based ramps that allow the cargo to be rolled on. While smaller ferries that operate across rivers and other short distances often have built-in ramps, the ramps and doors may be located in stern, bow or sides, or any combination thereof. At first, wheeled vehicles carried as cargo on oceangoing ships were treated like any other cargo, automobiles had their fuel tanks emptied and their batteries disconnected before being hoisted into the ship’s hold, where they were chocked and secured. This process was tedious and difficult, and vehicles were subject to damage, an early roll-on/roll-off service was a train ferry, started in 1833 by the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway, which operated a wagon ferry on the Forth and Clyde Canal in Scotland. The first modern train ferry was Leviathan, built in 1849, the Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway was formed in 1842 and the company wished to extend the East Coast Main Line further north to Dundee and Aberdeen. The company hired the civil engineer Thomas Bouch who argued for a train ferry with an efficient roll-on/roll-off mechanism to maximise the efficiency of the system. Custom-built ferries were to be built, with lines and matching harbour facilities at both ends to allow the rolling stock to easily drive on and off the boat. To compensate for the tides, adjustable ramps were positioned at the harbours. The wagons were loaded on and off with the use of steam engines. ”The company was persuaded to install this train ferry service for the transportation of goods wagons across the Firth of Forth from Burntisland in Fife to Granton. The ferry itself was built by Thomas Grainger, a partner of the firm Grainger and Miller, the service commenced on 3 February 1850. Train-ferry services were used extensively during World War I and this involved three train-ferries to be built, each with four sets of railway line on the main deck to allow for up to 54 railway wagons to be shunted directly on and off the ferry. These train-ferries could also be used to transport vehicles along with railway rolling stock. Later that month a second train-ferry was established from the Port of Southampton on the South East Coast, in the first month of operations at Richborough,5,000 tons were transported across the Channel, by the end of 1918 it was nearly 261,000 tons. There were many advantages of the use of train-ferries over conventional shipping in World War I and it was much easier to move the large, heavy artillery and tanks that this kind of modern warfare required using train-ferries as opposed to repeated loading and unloading of cargo. The increase of traffic because of the war effort meant that economies. After the signing of the Armistice on 11 November 1918, train ferries were used extensively for the return of material from the Front, indeed, according to war office statistics, a greater tonnage of material was transported by train ferry from Richborough in 1919 than in 1918. As the train ferries had space for motor transport as well as rolling stock, thousands of lorries, motor cars
2.
MV Princess Victoria
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MV Princess Victoria was one of the earliest roll-on/roll-off ferries. Built in 1947, she operated from Stranraer to Larne, during a severe European windstorm on 31 January 1953, she sank in the North Channel with the loss of 133 lives. This was then the deadliest maritime disaster in United Kingdom waters since World War II, Princess Victoria was built in 1947 by William Denny and Brothers, Dumbarton. Although being innovative in her methods, the vessel looked externally similar to her namesake. She could hold 1,500 passengers plus cargo and had sleeping accommodation for 54, Princess Victoria was initially employed by London, Midland & Scottish Railway and then by its successor British Railways, on the crossing from Stranraer in Scotland to Larne in Northern Ireland. Captained by the 55-year-old James Ferguson, the vessel left Stranraers railway loading pier at 07,45 AM with 44 tons of cargo,128 passengers and 51 crew, Captain Ferguson had served as master on various ferries on the same route for 17 years. A gale warning was in force but he made the decision to put to sea, Loch Ryan is a sheltered inlet and the immediate force of the wind and sea was not apparent, but it was noted that spray was breaking over the stern doors. A guillotine door had been fitted, because of an identified problem with spray and waves hitting the stern doors. This would have provided protection for the sliding stern doors. On this occasion it was not lowered, shortly after clearing the mouth of Loch Ryan, the ship turned west towards Larne and exposed her stern to the worst of the high seas. Huge waves damaged the low stern doors, allowing water to enter the car deck, the crew struggled to close the doors again but they proved to be too badly damaged and water continued to flood in from the waves. The scuppers did not seem to be allowing the water to drain away, the ship took a list to starboard and at this point Captain Ferguson decided to retreat to the safety of Loch Ryan by going astern and using the bow rudder. At 09,46 AM, two hours after leaving Stranraer a message was transmitted in Morse code by radio operator David Broadfoot to the Portpatrick Radio Station, with a list to starboard exacerbated by shifting cargo, water continued to enter the ship. At 10,32 AM an SOS transmission was made, possibly the first warship in the area was HMS Launceston Castle, commanded by Lt. Cdr J M Cowling, a frigate which was en route to Derry. Searches were carried out but Launceston Castle was forced to leave when her condensers were contaminated by salt, upon the upgrade of the assistance message to an SOS, the Portpatrick Lifeboat the Jeannie Spiers was dispatched, as was the destroyer HMS Contest. Contest, commanded by Lt Commander HP Fleming, left Rothesay at 1109hrs but, although she came close to her position at 1330hrs, poor visibility prevented the crew from seeing the sinking ship. The destroyer had been trying to maintain a speed of 31 knots to reach the ferry but, after sustaining damage from the seas. At 1308hrs, the ship broadcast that her engines had stopped, the final morse code message at 1358hrs reported the ship on her beam end 5 miles east of the Copeland Islands
3.
SS Heraklion
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The SS Heraklion was a car ferry operating the lines Piraeus – Chania and Piraeus – Irakleio between 1965 and 1966. The ship capsized and sank on 8 December 1966 in the Aegean Sea, SS Heraklion was built as the SS Leicestershire by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Glasgow in 1949, for the Bibby Line to operate the UK to Burma route. She was chartered to the British India Line for some time to supplement its London to East Africa service, in 1964 she was sold to the Aegean Steam Navigation Co to operate under their Typaldos Lines, renamed SS Heraklion. Once Typaldos Line took ownership, she was refitted as a passenger/car ferry, the ship had an overall length of 498 ft, a beam of 60 ft, gross tonnage of 8,922 tons, single prop reaching a speed of 17 knots. Winter capacity was 35 trucks with a weight of 10 tons. S/S Heraklion had her last survey on 29 June 1966, with the doors opened, the sea flowed in and after 15 or 20 minutes the ship capsized, sometime after 02,00 on 8 December 1966, at 36°52′N 24°8′E. At 02,06, an SOS signal from Heraklion was received by various shore stations, the SOS signal was repeated twice. Unfortunately the ferry Minos, which was 24 km away from the scene, at around 02,30, the head of the Hellenic Coast Guard was alerted, followed by the Minister of Mercantile Marine and the Minister of Defence. The Ministry of Defense reported that a ship of the then Greek Royal Navy was at Syros, a number of ships, including two British Royal Navy warships northeast of Crete, received the SOS and altered course for the scene. At 04,30 the RHS Syros was ordered to sea, while an hour later the minister was informed of the situation. A C-47 Skytrain took off from Elefsis airport followed shortly by two more, the first aircraft arrived at the scene around 10,00 at the same time as the HMS Ashton, which started picking up survivors aided by the three aircraft. At 19.00 the Ashton docked at the port of Piraeus, a number of United States Navy ships, deployed in the Mediterranean Sea at the time of the sinking, participated in the search and rescue operations. They included the USS Lawrence, the USS Bordelon, the USS James C, officially, out of 73 officers and crew and 191 passengers, only 46 were rescued, while 217 died. The exact number remains unknown since, at the time, it was customary to board the ship without a ticket, one of the dead was Michael Robert Hall King, a grandson of Robert Baden-Powell. The company was charged with manslaughter and faking documents. Haralambos Typaldos, the owner of the company and Panayotis Kokkinos and it was also found that twelve of the companys fifteen ships failed inspection under international law. The companys remaining ships were taken over and sold either for scrap or sold off for other uses, neither ship attracted buyers and so were laid up for 20 years before being sold for scrap and broken up in Turkey in 1989. In the meantime, the badly rusted Athinai was used in 1978–1979 as a set for the film Raise the Titanic and was renamed Titanic for the duration of filming
4.
TEV Wahine
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TEV Wahine was a twin-screw, turbo-electric, roll-on/roll-off passenger and vehicle ferry of the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand. She was launched at the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Govan, Scotland, in 1965, on 10 April 1968, near the end of a typical northbound crossing to Wellington, she was caught in a fierce storm stirred by Tropical Cyclone Giselle. She foundered after running aground on Barrett Reef and capsized and sank in the waters near Steeple Rock at the mouth of Wellington Harbour. Of the 734 people on board,53 people died from drowning, exposure to the elements or from injuries sustained in the hurried evacuation and abandonment of the stricken vessel. The wreck of the Wahine is one of the better-known maritime disasters in New Zealands history, although there have been worse, with far greater loss of life. Radio and television captured the drama as it happened, within a distance of shore of the eastern suburbs of Wellington. TEV Wahine was designed and built for the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, from 1875 ferries have plied Cook Strait and the Kaikoura coast ferrying passengers and cargo, making port at Wellington in the north and Lyttelton in the south. From 1933 the Union Companys Wellington – Lyttelton service was marketed as the Steamer Express, by the early 1960s the Union Company was starting to face major competition. The Wahine was the Union Companys first purpose-built roll-on/roll-off ferry, introduced to competition with the Railways ferries. Wahine was built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Govan, Glasgow, plans were made by the Union Company in 1961, and her keel was laid on 14 September 1964 as Hull No.830. Built of steel, her hull was completed in 10 months and her machinery, cargo spaces and passenger accommodations were installed in the following months and she was completed in May 1966. She left Greenock, Scotland for New Zealand on 18 June 1966 and arrived in Wellington on 24 July 1966, she sailed on her voyage to Lyttelton one week later. She was 488 feet long, had a beam of 71 ft and 8,948 gross register tons, at the time she was the Union Companys largest ship and one of the worlds largest passenger ferries. She had turbo-electric transmission, with four boilers supplying steam to two turbo-alternators that drove her twin propellers, gave a top speed of 22 knots. She had stern and bow thruster propellers to propel her sideways for easier berthing and she had stabilisers that halved the amount she rolled and the frequency with which she did so. Her hull was divided by 13 watertight bulkheads into 14 watertight compartments, Wahine entered service on 1 August 1966 with her first sailing from Wellington. Between then and the end of the year she made 67 crossings to Lyttelton, common areas included a cafeteria, lounge, smoke room, gift shop, two enclosed promenades and open decks. She had two decks with a combined capacity for more than 200 cars
5.
MS Herald of Free Enterprise
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MS Herald of Free Enterprise was a roll-on/roll-off ferry which capsized moments after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on the night of 6 March 1987, killing 193 passengers and crew. When the ship left harbour with its open, the sea immediately flooded the decks. The vessel was salvaged and put up for sale, and on September 30th 1987, was sold to Naviera SA Kingstown, then on March 22nd 1988, she was taken to Taiwan to be broken up. Since the disaster, improvements have made to the design of RORO vessels, with watertight ramps, indicators showing the position of the bow-doors. In the late 1970s, Townsend Thoresen commissioned the design and construction of three new ships for its Dover–Calais route for delivery from 1980. The ships were branded the Spirit-class and were named Herald of Free Enterprise, Pride of Free Enterprise, the name Free Enterprise dates from Townsend Car Ferries pioneering private sector roll on / roll off ferries, introduced in 1962. The Herald began active service on 29 May 1980, to remain competitive with other ferry operators on the route, Townsend Thoresen required ships designed to permit fast loading and unloading and quick acceleration. The wheel house was positioned towards the stern, making visibility of the bow doors difficult, loading of vehicles onto E deck and F deck was through a weathertight door at the bow and an open portal at the stern. Vehicles could be loaded and unloaded onto E and G deck simultaneously using double-deck linkspans in use at Dover, the ships were constructed by Schichau-Unterweser AG in Bremerhaven, Germany. Propulsive power was by means of three 8000bhp 12-cylinder Sulzer medium-speed diesel engines driving variable-pitch propellers, the vehicle deck bow doors were constructed by Cargospeed, Glasgow, Scotland. On the day the ferry capsized, Herald of Free Enterprise was working the route between Dover and the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, to compensate for this, the vessels bow ballast tanks were filled. However, the ships natural trim was not restored after loading, had Herald of Free Enterprise survived, she would have been modified to obviate this procedure. Before dropping moorings, it was practice for the assistant boatswain to close the doors. The first officer, Leslie Sabel, was required to stay on deck to make sure the doors were closed, Sabel said he thought he saw Stanley approaching. He was seriously injured in the disaster and the concluded that his evidence was inaccurate. It is believed that, under pressure to get to his station on the bridge. The court also described the attitude of boatswain Terence Ayling, believed to have been the last person on G deck, asked why he did not close the doors given there was no one else there to do it, he said it was not his duty. However the court praised his work in the rescue, captain David Lewry assumed that the doors had been closed since he could not see them from the wheelhouse owing to the ships design, and had no indicator lights in the wheelhouse
6.
MS Jan Heweliusz
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MS Jan Heweliusz was a Polish ferry named after astronomer Johannes Hevelius that served on the route Ystad-Świnoujście. It was built in Norway in 1977 and was owned by PLO, in the early hours of January 14th 1993 it capsized and sank in 27 metres of water off Cape Arcona on the coast of Rügen in the Baltic Sea while sailing toward Ystad with 64 passengers and crew. The accident claimed the lives of 20 crewmen and 35 passengers, the sinking of Jan Heweliusz is the most deadly peacetime maritime disaster involving a Polish ship. In September 1986, the ship suffered a serious fire, no one on board was injured, but the ship was heavily damaged. At 4,10 am on Jan 141993, the ship started listing in hurricane-force winds, the waves were up to 6 metres high and ferries in the nearby port of Sassnitz had been cancelled. Prior to its sinking, Heweliusz had been involved in 28 incidents, including collisions with fishing boats, listing, engine failure, and a fire in 1986. It had ballast problems and had damaged its hull in Ystad during docking. It sailed two hours late, carrying 10 railway carriages from 5 European countries, today, the wreck of the ship is located at the depth of 27 metres and is frequently visited by divers. ORP Heweliusz List of RORO vessel accidents List of Poland disasters by death toll Underwater pictures of the Jan Heweliusz wreck Björkman, estonia revisited +Learning from the often forgotten Jan Heweliusz disaster
7.
MS Estonia
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MS Estonia, previously Viking Sally, Silja Star, and Wasa King, was a cruise ferry built in 1979/80 at the German shipyard Meyer Werft in Papenburg. The ship sank in 1994 in the Baltic Sea in one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century and it is, after the Titanic, the second-deadliest European shipwreck disaster to have occurred in peacetime and 852 lives were lost. The ship was ordered from Meyer Werft by a Norwegian shipping company led by Parley Augustsen with intended traffic between Norway and Germany. At the last moment, the company withdrew their order and the contract went to Rederi Ab Sally, originally the ship was conceived as a sister ship to Diana II, built in 1979 by the same shipyard for Rederi AB Slite, the third partner in Viking Line. Meyer Werft had constructed a number of ships for various Viking Line partner companies during the 1970s. Worth noting is the new ships bow construction, which consisted of an upwards-opening visor, an identical bow construction had also been used in Diana II. On 29 June 1980 Viking Sally was delivered to Rederi Ab Sally and she was the largest ship to serve on that route at the time. In 1985 she was rebuilt with a duck tail. Rederi Ab Sally had been experiencing financial difficulties for most of the 1980s, in late 1987, Effoa and Johnson Line, the owners of Viking Lines main rivals Silja Line, bought Sally. As a result of this, SF Line and Rederi AB Slite forced Sally to withdraw from Viking Line, Viking Sally was chartered to Rederi AB Slite to continue on her current traffic for the next three years. When her charter ended in April 1990, Viking Sally had a change of service. She was painted in Silja Lines colours, renamed Silja Star and placed on the route that she had plied for Viking Line. Also in 1990 Effoa, Johnson Line and Rederi Ab Sally merged into EffJohn, the following spring Silja Star began her service with Wasa Line, another company owned by EffJohn. Her name was changed to Wasa King and she served on routes connecting Vaasa, Finland to Umeå and it has been reported that the Wasa King was widely considered to be the best behaving ship in rough weather to have sailed from Vaasa. The actual ownership of the ship was rather complex, in order for Nordstöm & Thulin to get a loan to buy the ship, as a result, the ship was actually registered in both Cyprus and Estonia. As the largest Estonian-owned ship of the time, the Estonia symbolized the independence that Estonia regained after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Estonia disaster occurred on Wednesday,28 September 1994, between about 00,55 and 01,50 as the ship was crossing the Baltic Sea, en route from Tallinn, Estonia, Estonia was on a scheduled crossing with departure at 19,00 on 27 September. She had been expected in Stockholm the next morning at about 09,30 and she was carrying 989 people,803 passengers and 186 crew
8.
MS Express Samina
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MS Express Samina was a French-built roll-on/roll-off passenger ferry that collided with a reef off the coast of Paros island in the central Aegean Sea on 26 September 2000. The accident was caused by negligence by the crew, for several members were found criminally liable, and resulted in 81 deaths. She was built as MS Corse in 1966 at Chantiers de lAtlantique, St Nazaire, in 1969 she was transferred to Compagnie Generale Transmediterraneenne. After six years service, the changed its name again. In 1982 she sailed from France for the last time as she was sold to a Greek company, Stability Maritime, in 1988 she was sold to the Agapitos Bros for service in the Aegean sea without name change under Agapitos Lines. In 1999 she was sold to Minoan Flying Dolphins, again for service in the Aegean, on the evening on Tuesday 26 September 2000, MS Express Samina left the port of Piraeus with 473 passengers and 61 crew members. At 22,12,2 nmi off the port of Parikia, Paros, the wind at the time was 8 on the Beaufort scale. The ship sank near there at 23,02, resulting in the deaths of 82 people from a total of 533 on board. The first responders to the call were fishing boats from the nearby port, followed by the port authorities and British ships. The fact that some of the crew did not help the passengers evacuate the sinking ferry contributed to the death toll, the crew placed the ship on autopilot and did not have a crew member watch the ship. Even with autopilot on, standard practice calls for one member to watch the controls. The crew deployed the fin stabilizers system to decrease the motions in bad weather and this caused the ship to drift and therefore not travel in a straight line. A crew member discovered the problem and, at the last minute, at 10,12 P. M. the ship struck the east face of the taller Portes pinnacle. The rocks tore a long and one-meter wide hole above the water line. After that impact, the rocks bent the stabilizer fin backwards, and the fin cut through the hull through the side, below the waterline, the water from the three-meter gash destroyed the main generators and ended electrical power. Professor David Molyneaux, a ship safety expert, said that the damage sustained by the MS Express Samina should not normally sink such a ship. The ship sank nine of the ships eleven watertight compartment doors were open when safety laws require ship operators to close. The water spread beyond the room, and due to a lack of power the operators could not remotely shut the doors
