Focus on IMO
International Maritime Organization, 4 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7SR, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 7611 Fax: +44 (0)20 7587 3210
E-mail:
rkohn@imo.org
or
nbrown@imo.org
Web site:
www.imo.org
IMO and
ro-ro safety
The roll-on/roll-off ship 1
is one of the most successful types operating today. Its flexibility
,
ability to
integrate with other transport systems and speed of operation have made
it extremely popular on
many shipping routes.
The roll-on/roll-off ship is defined in the November 1995 amendments to Chapter II-1 of the
International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974 as being "a passenger ship
with
ro-ro cargo spaces or special category spaces..."
One of the
ro-ro ship's most important roles is as a passenger/car ferry, particularly on short-
sea routes. But despite its commercial success, the
ro-ro concept has always had its critics. There
have been disturbing accidents involving different types of
ro-ro ship, the worst being the sudden
and catastrophic capsizing of the passenger/car ferry
Herald of Free Enterprise
in March 1987 and
the even more tragic loss of the
Estonia
in September 1994.
This
paper looks at the background of
ro-ros, the problems involved and the way in which
IMO has endeavoured to tackle them.
The development of
ro-ros
The modern roll-on/roll-off ship can trace its origins back more than one hundred years to the early
days of the steam train. Ships were specially designed to take trains across rivers which were too
wide for bridges: the ships were equipped with rails, and the trains simply rolled straight on to the
ship, which sailed across the river to another rail berth where the train would roll off again. An
example is the Firth of Forth ferry in
Scotland which began operations in 1851.
It was not until the Second World War, however, that the idea of applying the
ro-ro principle
of road transport became practicable - and was used in constructing the tank landing craft used at D-
Day and in other battles.
The principle was applied to merchant ships in the late 1940s and early
1950s. It proved to be extremely popular, especially on short-sea ferry routes, encouraged by
technical developments on land as well as sea, notably the increase in road transport.
Until the early 1950s someone wishing to
take his car from one country to another by sea had to get it loaded into the ship's hold by crane, a
time-consuming and expensive process. The development of the
ro-ro car ferry changed all that and
many ports boomed as a result.
In the United Kingdom, Dover's first pair of drive-on berths was opened in 1953. Until then
the port had handled only 10,000 crane-loaded cars each year and forecasts that the berths would
enable the port to handle ten times that many must have seemed decidedly optimistic. But the
100,000 figure was exceeded in the first year and by 1985 Dover was handling over 2.5 million
vehicles and units through nine
ro-ro berths. By 1994 the total had risen to more than 4.5 million.
By 1994 around 4,600
ro-ro ships were in operation around the world: They are particularly
popular in Europe, and trading patterns reflect this.
Whereas pure container ships are to be found in
large numbers operating between Europe and North America, Europe and Japan and Japan and North
America,
ro-ros
operate primarily between Europe and North America and Europe and the Middle
East, although there is an important trade between North America and the Caribbean.
Today the world
ro-ro fleet can be subdivided into a number of different types. They include
ships designed to carry freight vehicles only; to carry a combination of containers and freight
vehicles
and to transport cars without passengers. There are various other types and freight-only
ro-
ro ships form about two thirds of the world
ro-ro fleet at present.
However, the
best known
ro-ro ships are ferries designed to transport commercial vehicles
and private cars, together with large numbers of passengers, usually on short voyages.
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