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.
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
4.
Sinking of MV Sewol
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The sinking of MV Sewol occurred on the morning of 16 April 2014, en route from Incheon to Jeju in South Korea. The ferry capsized while carrying 476 people, mostly secondary school students from Danwon High School, the 6, 825-ton vessel sent a distress signal from about 2.7 kilometres north off Byeongpungdo at 08,58 Korea Standard Time. In total,304 passengers and crew died in the disaster. Of the approximately 172 survivors, more than half were rescued by fishing boats, the sinking of Sewol resulted in widespread social and political reaction within South Korea. Many criticized the actions of the captain and most of the crew, more criticized the ferry operator and the regulators who oversaw its operations. Additional criticism was directed at the South Korean government and media for its disaster response, on 15 May 2014, the captain and three crew members were charged with murder, while the other 11 members of the crew were indicted for abandoning the ship. An arrest warrant was issued for Yoo Byung-eun, the owner of Chonghaejin Marine, which operated Sewol. On 22 July 2014, police revealed that they had established that a man found in a field 415 kilometres south of Seoul was Yoo. Foul play was ruled out, but police say they have yet to establish the cause of Yoos death, at the time of her purchase by Chonghaejin Marine in 2012, the ship that would come to be known as the Motor Vessel Sewol was 18 years old and dilapidated. She was first named Ferry Naminoue and was operated from 1994 to 2012 as a ship for cargo. According to A-Line Ferry, she did not experience any problems while being operated by the company in Japan, after she was purchased on 8 October 2012, she was registered by Chonghaejin on 22 October 2012 and underwent modifications from 12 October 2012 to 12 February 2013. The modifications were found to have been based on an illegal redesign of the ship. The modifications also resulted in her center of gravity being moved upward by.51 m as well as a left-right imbalance, the South Korea governments Audit and Inspection Board later revealed that the Registers licensing was based on falsified documents. After the inspections,37 tons of marble were added to the gallery room at the bridge deck located on the back of the ship. Sewol began operations on 15 March 2013 and she made three rounds trips per week from Incheon to Jeju, each one-way voyage of 425 kilometres taking 13.5 hours to complete. On 19 February 2014, she received an inspection and a periodic inspection from the Register. She had made the trip a total of 241 times until the day of the incident. On 15 April 2014, Sewol was scheduled to leave the port at Incheon on 6,30 p. m. Korea Standard Time and she departed around 9 p. m. and was the only ship to leave port that evening
5.
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
6.
MV Cougar Ace
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The MV Cougar Ace is a Singapore-flagged roll-on/roll-off car carrier vessel. The Cougar Ace was built by Kanasashi Co. of Toyohashi, Japan, specifications cite a length of 199m, draft of 9. 72m, beam of 32. 26m and a maximum speed of 18.6 knots. She is owned by Mitsui O. S. K, on May 4,2005, Cougar Ace delivered 5,214 automobiles at the Fraser River wharves in Richmond, British Columbia. This set a Canadian record for the most vehicles offloaded from a single ship, on July 23,2006, she was en route from Japan to Vancouver, British Columbia, Tacoma, Washington, and Port Hueneme, California, with a cargo of 4,812 vehicles. During an exchange of ballast water south of the Aleutian Islands, she lost stability, there were reports of a large wave striking the vessel during the ballast transfer, but it is unknown what effect this had on her loss of stability. On July 24, the United States Coast Guard and the 176th Wing of the Alaska Air National Guard successfully rescued the 23 crew members,4,703 of the vehicles on board were Mazdas, 60% were 2007 Mazda3s and 30% were Mazda CX-7 crossover SUVs. The remaining Mazdas were mainly RX-8s and MX-5s, according to Car and Driver magazine, the exact contents of the shipment were 2804 Mazda3s,1329 CX-7s,295 MX-5s,214 RX-8s,56 Mazda5s and 5 Mazdaspeed6s. 110 of the vehicles were Isuzu vehicles, mostly Isuzu Elf, the cargo was valued at US$117 million. Later Mazda North America scrapped all of their vehicles on the vessel during the incident, a marine salvage team from Titan Salvage arrived on site on July 30,2006. Led by Salvage Master Captain Rich Habib, the team was able to get aboard the vessel via a U. S. Coast Guard helicopter from the cutter Morgenthau. Later that day naval architect Marty Johnson slipped and fell to his death as the team was preparing to leave the Cougar Ace. Johnson was a 40-year-old resident of Issaquah, Washington and employee of Crowley, Titan Salvage subsequently towed the vessel through Samalga Pass to the north side of the Aleutian Islands for protection from the weather using the tugboats Sea Victory, Gladiator and Emma Foss. It was then taken to Old Womans Bay, Unalaska Island and it was righted and redelivered to Mitsui on August 16,2006. On August 25,2006 the newly upright vessel was put under tow to Portland, Oregon for inspection, Mazda officials reported minimal damage to the vehicles on board despite the ship listing for over a month. However, according to the US Coast Guard,41 vehicles broke loose and shifted, and the few public pictures from inside the ship do show severe damage to at least some cars. On September 11,2006, one day before the Cougar Ace arrived in Portland to begin unloading, Mazda USA published a list of VINs for the affected Mazda vehicles on the www. MazdaUSA. com website. On December 15,2006, Mazda announced that all vehicles on the Cougar Ace would be scrapped, after an extensive process to deploy all the airbags in each vehicle, all of the Mazda cars were crushed onsite at the Port of Portland by Pacific Car Crushing. The last Mazda car from the shipment was crushed on May 6,2008, the Cougar Ace was covered extensively by the automotive press because of the sheer number of new cars that Mazda scrapped after the incident
7.
MV Baltic Ace
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Baltic Ace was a car carrier, a roll-on/roll-off ship designed to transport vehicles in a large, fully enclosed garage-like superstructure running the entire length and width of the vessel. She had eight cargo decks with a free height of 2 metres. Two decks could be hoisted up to increase the clearance of the decks below to 4.8 metres for large vehicles and her car capacity, measured in RT43 units, was 2,132. For loading and unloading cargo, Baltic Ace had a ramp for normal ro-ro berths. Baltic Ace was 148 metres long and had a beam of 25 metres, fully laden, she drew 7.9 metres of water and had a deadweight tonnage of 7,787 tons. Like most ships of her kind, she was propelled by a single 5. 84-metre nickel-aluminum alloy fixed pitch propeller directly coupled to the main engine. Her prime mover, a 7-cylinder MAN-B&W 7S46MC-C low-speed crosshead diesel engine, had an output of 9,710 kW at 129 rpm, in addition, she had three 7-cylinder MAN-B&W Holeby 7L23/30 auxiliary engines for onboard electricity generation, each with an output of 1,120 kW. For manoeuvering at ports, she had a 1,000 kW transverse bow thruster and another 660 kW thruster in the stern, calling ports in the Baltic Sea regularly, Baltic Ace was strengthened for navigation in ice and held a Finnish-Swedish ice class 1A. She was classed by Det Norske Veritas, Baltic Ace was of a standard design offered by Stocznia Gdynia, the fifth of six relatively small car carriers built in 2005–2007. Her sister ships are Elbe Highway, Thames Highway, Danube Highway, Seine Highway, the contract for the construction of the vessel was signed on 23 December 2005 and she was laid down at Stocznia Gdynia in Poland on 26 February 2007. Launched on 3 June 2007, Baltic Ace was delivered to her owners on 11 July 2007, the incident took place some 40–50 kilometres off the Dutch coast south of Rotterdam on one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world at 18,15 GMT. According to a representative of the company, the cause of the accident was likely a human error. After the collision, Baltic Ace began taking on water, capsized, according to the ships manager, Corvus J likely hit Baltic Ace on the side, where void tanks forming a double side are only 1.3 metres wide, quickly flooding the cargo decks. Corvus J was severely damaged and her bulbous bow was bent, the weather conditions, three-metre waves and snow, made the rescue operation difficult. As the search for survivors resumed on the day, five members of the 24-person crew had been confirmed dead. Thirteen crew members, including the ships Polish captain, were winched to safety from liferafts by helicopters or picked up by nearby ships, after the sinking, a number of news reports featured a photograph of a sunken vessel incorrectly identified as Baltic Ace. The similarly-coloured wreck, visible through the surface in water, was in fact Asia Malaysia. In March 2014, Rijkswaterstaat awarded contract for the removal of the sunken car carrier to the Dutch company Royal Boskalis Westminster
8.
MV Queen of the North
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On March 22,2006, with 101 people aboard, she failed to make a planned course change, ran aground and sank. Two passengers, whose bodies were never found, died in the incident, the ship had a gross tonnage of 8,806, and an overall length of 125 metres. She had a capacity of 700 passengers and 115 cars, the ship was built by AG Weser, Bremerhaven, Germany in 1969, and was originally operated by Stena Line as Stena Danica on the route between Gothenburg, Sweden and Frederikshavn in Denmark. She was sold to BC Ferries for CAD $13.8 million, after purchasing Stena Danica from the Stena Line, the ship was rechristened Queen of Surrey by then NDP Minister of Transportation and Communications, Robert Strachan, in April 1974. Queen of Surrey began operating between Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver and Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, the ship was decommissioned in 1976 and laid up at BC Ferries dockyard at Deas Island in Vancouver while the government debated what to do with her. In May 1980, after an extensive $10 million refit for longer haul and she was assigned to the Inside Passage route between Port Hardy on Vancouver Island and Prince Rupert in north-western BC. She occasionally also served Bella Bella, Skidegate, and several other small, due to the isolation of some of these communities, she served as the main source of transport, picking up residents and medical patients, and dropping off food, mail and supplies. In 1985, she was refurbished and designated the flagship of BC Ferries fleet, after the sinking of the M/S Estonia in 1994, BC Ferries installed a second set of internally welded doors to prevent the bow from flooding in rough seas. During 2001, she was given a major $500,000 refit at Vancouver Shipyards, however, owing to her older single hull design, the ship was not designed to survive a significant hull breach or the flooding of more than one bulkhead compartment. All newer ferries can survive flooding of at least two bulkhead compartments and because of concern, the ship was intended to be replaced between 2009 and 2011. Queen of the North sank after running aground on Gil Island in Wright Sound,135 kilometres south of Prince Rupert and she sank at 12,25 am or 12,43 am PST on March 22,2006, there are conflicting reports about the exact time. News reports indicated that the failed to make a planned course change and was at the time of the collision one kilometre away from where it should have been. She was bound for Port Hardy, according to emergency responders the ship took approximately an hour to sink, giving passengers time to evacuate into lifeboats. Eyewitness reports confirmed the time between the accident and the sinking and also suggest that the ship sank stern first. The ships final position is 53°19. 917′N 129°14. 729′W according to the BC Ferries investigation, the Canadian Hydrographic Services electronic navigational charts show the wreck at 53°19. 932′N 129°14. 794′W,77 metres WNW of the position cited in BC Ferries investigation. The ships captain was not on the bridge at the time of the accident. Local weather reports indicated winds gusting to 75 km/h in the vicinity of Wright Sound, according to Kevin Falcon, the BC Minister of Transportation, the autopilot equipment had been certified by Transport Canada as recently as March 2 of that year. On March 26,2007, BC Ferries released its investigation into the sinking.5 knots on Gil Island
9.
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
10.
MS al-Salam Boccaccio 98
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The ship was carrying about 1400 passengers and crew. The majority are thought to have been Egyptians working in Saudi Arabia, the ship was also carrying about 220 vehicles. No Mayday had been heard from the ship and poor conditions hampered the search. The immediate cause of the sinking appears to have been a build-up of sea-water in the hull and this was compounded by design faults inherent in Ro/Ro vessels, where minor flooding of the deck can gain rapid momentum. When the captain asked permission to return to port, the owners ordered him to continue. The owners were jailed in 2009 after their original acquittal was overturned, the vessel was built by the Italian company Italcantieri in 1970 with IMO number 6921282 and named Boccaccio at Monfalcone, Italy for Tirrenia di Navigazione. She was originally intended for Italian domestic service and her dimensions were 130.99 m length overall with 23.60 m beam and 5.57 m draft. The main engines were rated at 16,560 kW for a speed of 19 knots. The vessel had a capacity of 200 automobiles and 1000 passengers. The vessel was rebuilt in 1991 by INMA at La Spezia, maintaining the outer dimensions albeit with a higher superstructure. At the same time her automobile capacity was increased to 320, the most recent gross registered tonnage was 11,799. of Panama. She is also referred to as Salam 98 and her last known position was 100 km from Duba, when she lost contact with the shore at about 22,00 EET. First reports of statements by survivors indicated that smoke from the room was followed by a fire which continued for some time. In a BBC radio news broadcast an Egyptian ministerial spokesman said the fire had started in an area, was controlled. The Red Sea is known for its winds and tricky local currents. The region had been experiencing high winds and dust storms for several days at the time of the sinking and these winds may have contributed to the disaster and may have complicated rescue efforts. The closest maritime weather report for 3 February 200600,00 UTC was from MV Glasgow Maersk, call sign MZGK7. Reporting from 27. 00°N34. 40°E, approximately 150 km north-north-west of the sinking, Sea temperature was 25 °C and a significant wave height of only 45 cm
11.
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
