The Sinking of Ro-Ro Ferries

[Amiasurui2]

Why am I watching this in a place where ferries are a main way to travel??

[carltfross]

@Amiasurui2 Ro-Ro Ferries can be made much safer, if a perforated car deck is built above the existing watertight car deck, and the two decks are separated by a large number of dwarf longitudinal bulkheads, going along the 'full' length of the ship. This will stop sloshing, that causes a ro-ro ferry to capsize very quickly, thus preventing an orderly evacuation of the ship. Moreover, if hydraulic pumps are placed within these compartments, the water can be pumped out, as fast as it comes in!!

[carltfross]

@bundawartini Thanks for your valuable comments. Have a look on my youtube video, under "Car Ferry (Ro-Ro Ferry) Losses 24_02-2011"; where I describe, amongst other things; the sinking of the Estonia!

[carltfross]

@carltfross Thanks for your valuable comments. Have a look on my youtube video, under "Car Ferry (Ro-Ro Ferry) Losses_24-02-2011"; where I describe, amongst other things; the sinking of the Estonia!

[bebeheuy]

I am very happy to see the vidoe Most ro-ro ferries have a design weakness in that if their car deck gets flooded, the ro-ro ferry can capsize in a few minutes from you, hopefully the others also are happy for You

[carltfross]

@bebeheuy Thanks for your valuable comments. Have a look on my youtube video, under "Car Ferry (Ro-Ro Ferry) Losses_24-02-2011"; where I describe, amongst other things; the sinking of the Estonia!

[Mjhond]

I Love The Video Most ro-ro ferries have a design weakness in that if their car deck gets flooded, the ro-ro ferry can capsize in a few minutes, without allowing an orderly evacuation of the stricken vessel It Can Increase My Knowledge

[carltfross]

@Mjhond Thanks for your valuable comments. Have a look on my youtube video, under "Car Ferry (Ro-Ro Ferry) Losses_24-02-2011"; where I describe, amongst other things; the sinking of the Estonia!

[AntoMelta]

Good, I like that you share this video Most ro-ro ferries have a design weakness in that if their car deck gets flooded, the ro-ro ferry can capsize in a few minutes, without allowing an orderly evacuation of the stricken vessel, I wish success always

[carltfross]

@AntoMelta Thanks for your valuable comments. Have a look on my youtube video, under "Car Ferry (Ro-Ro Ferry) Losses_24-02-2011"; where I describe, amongst other things; the sinking of the Estonia! 

[carltfross]

@AntoMelta Thanks for your valuable comments. Have a look on my youtube video, under "Car Ferry (Ro-Ro Ferry) Losses_24-02-2011"; where I describe, amongst other things; the sinking of the Estonia!

[willamricard]

Nice Video Most ro-ro ferries have a design weakness in that if their car deck gets flooded, the ro-ro ferry can capsize in a few minutes, without allowing an orderly evacuation of the stricken vessel That You Share , So Very Nice Thanks You

[carltfross]

@willamricard Thanks for your valuable comments. Have a look on my youtube video, under "Car Ferry (Ro-Ro Ferry) Losses_24-02-2011"; where I describe, amongst other things; the sinking of the Estonia!

[imegatrone]

I Really Like The Video Most ro-ro ferries have a design weakness in that if their car deck gets flooded, the ro-ro ferry can capsize in a few minutes, without allowing an orderly evacuation of the stricken vessel From Your

[carltfross]

@imegatrone Thanks for your valuable comments. Have a look on my youtube video, under "Car Ferry (Ro-Ro Ferry) Losses_24-02-2011"; where I describe, amongst other things; the sinking of the Estonia!

[iampeeay01]

Nice design... :) i feel bad for the victims of the capsized roro...

[carltfross]

@iampeeay01 Thanks for your valuable comments. Have a look on my youtube video, under "Car Ferry (Ro-Ro Ferry) Losses_24-02-2011"; where I describe, amongst other things; the sinking of the Estonia!

[EJL2004]

Major communication break down, 2nd bosun (I believe thats who it was) didn't do his job to secure the bow doors, and the Officers and Captain didn't re-trim the vessel after loading, in a day to day attempt to keep her schedule. I work on Ro-Ro's for a living, and Safety first is a bit of a fib. Money and the Schedule seem to over rule things a lot of the time. So thats 3 different steps that didn't happen, creating this tragedy. Of course, we learn a heck of a lot from every accident.

[carltfross]

@EJL2004 Thanks for your valuable comments. Have a look on my youtube video, under "Car Ferry (Ro-Ro Ferry) Losses_24-02-2011"; where I describe, amongst other things; the sinking of the Estonia!

[07SuperchargedSS]

ya go ahead and call another ship "unsinkable". Didnt you retards learn with the Titanic?

[rbjosefs]

the captain ballast the ship 1 meter down to load the upper deck with the cars on upper deck plus ballast water in the tanks will lower the ship down and at speed of the ship going to make up time for the late sailing was the ballast tank trimed ,in the pasted they sailed with bow doors open

[TheIserlohn123]

the roro ferries are carrying cars

[HenryVIII1971]

My father is a former Merchant seaman and these ferries are referred to by sailors as "roll on, roll off, roll over". They have no keel and are death traps in storms.

[carltfross]

@HenryVIII1971 Thank you for your interesting contribution; it is good to see what Merchant seamen thought of them.

[TheSlapdown]

@HenryVIII1971 You're father IS MISTAKEN! How many ferries has he worked on?

[joelang6126]

@HenryVIII1971 Every ship has a keel and they are not death traps in storms any more than any other ship is. The problem the free surface effect on an open deck or cargo shift. Cargo doesn't just effect RO/PAX, it can happen to most cargo ships.

[tupsumato]

@joelang6126, depends on what you mean by "keel". Ships don't have keels like, say, sailing boats - their bottoms are more or less flat. Bilge keels work only against dynamic rolling.

[joelang6126]

@tupsumato Every ship has a "keel" even sailing vessels plus sailing vessels vessels have anything but a flat bottom. Trust me sir im a naval officer.

[tupsumato]

@joelang6126, I think you misunderstood me slightly. I was trying to say that unlike e.g. sailing boats, large oceangoing ships do not have protruding keels - they usually have a flat bottom. Of course they have structural members that can be referred to as keels, but no external appendages to speak of.

[fuglaness]

My Professor of Naval Architecture Professor Burrell in 1962, used to say to his students

"Gentlemen, You don't design ships with holes in the front!"

And if we hadn't a lot of people would still be alive today!!!!!!!!!!

[carltfross]

@fuglaness Professor Burrell was a very great naval architect; he taught me naval architecture from 1956 to 1959.

[carltfross]

@fuglaness Professor L. C. Burrell was a very great naval architect; he taught me naval architecture from 1956-1959

[carltfross]

@fuglaness Professor L. C. Burrell was a very great naval architect; he taught me naval architecture from 1956-1959.

[Marcus666Sund]

Why doesn't she mention Estonia? Thats a even bigger accident than HofE.

[AR123457]

@Marcus666Sund

The estonia had not sunk when this vid was made

[stuartmac88]

@AR123457

the estonia had sank, this programme was made in 2000 13 years after the zebrugge disaster

[carltfross]

@Marcus666Sund For a video on the Estonia, Google

"The Sinking of the Estonia--A Personal View of Why it Sank?"

[cjmillsnun]

@Marcus666Sund She didn't mention Estonia because this was a Programme aimed at the UK audience and was the 30th anniversary of the Herald's capsize.

[CerebralTantrum]

Now tell THAT to JAIC....

[hullnumbers]

Wow, cool glad they came up with this. I'm a big fan of ferries.

[twistedlordi]

The Britany ferry there is the normandie if i'm no mistaken?

[carltfross]

Yes, you are correct; one or two longitudinal bulkheads on the car deck of a ro-ro ferry are no good. You need lots of them!

[carltfross]

Thank you for your interesting comments "TheLatchford". Allowing the water on the car deck to flow off it, is a good idea. In the case of the "Herald", the trapped water on the car deck was the problem.

[carltfross]

Most modern ro-ro ferries are safer than the 'Herald', but a single longitudinal bulkhead on the centreline of the car deck is not much use, because if the car deck gets flooded the water will flow to the side of the ship, causing the vessel to heel even further. Moreover, If the vessel heels to one side, due to the ingress of water, the water would not normally flow back (i.e. upwards) to the centreline of the vessel, because such motion will defy Newtonian physics.

[slimes23]

You might be interested to know that Mauritania and Lusitania both had longitudinal bulkheads but White Star decided against these for the Olympic class liners because they were worried about stability. IMO Longitudinal bulkheads only make sense if there are many of them.

[ATITANIC1992]

The ship never sails before the doors are correctly closed.  Properly constructed bow doors cant be slammed open in big waves like Estonia or Herald.

[AR123457]

the bow doors were open when it set sail

[TheSlapdown]

@ATITANIC1992

"Properly constructed bow doors cant be slammed open in big waves like Estonia or Herald."

Neither could the doors of the Herald. They were clam shell doors which are by far the safest! Provided they're closed of course.

[ATITANIC1992]

yes outwards opening doors are the safest on ships because the waves try to push them in. It is the straight opposite on airplanes though. because there are low pressure outside the airplanes cabin which sucks the doors out if unproper constructed/locked. Failure in outward opening cargo doors have caused some of the worst plane crash in history (DC-10 1970s). With that means proper doors aren't only important on ships

[ATITANIC1992]

The cardeck is located meters above the waterline and it is watertight itself. If water enters the cardeck it would not flood the compartments below, but run out into the ocean again. But the water would never be able to enter the cardeck anyways. First 1000s of tons of water has to climb the meters to the cardeck. which is impossible. Destroy at least 2 independently working bow doors which is impossible.

[ATITANIC1992]

Most bigger RoRo ferries have a long wall in the center of the cardeck, it contains elevators, stairscases, etc. It also works as a longitudinal watertight bulkhead to prevent the water from moving side to side. RoRo ferriers in Europe are very safe today, and it is not nescassary to make additional improvements.

[GTAstuntman101]

Ro-Ro stands for Roll on-Roll off

[carltfross]

I was very sorry to learn of your Dad's loss on the 'Herald'. If you do sleep in your cab or car on the car deck of a ro-ro ferry, you have little chance of surviving, if the ferry capsizes.

[noelmurf08]

my dads friend who was a trucker died on this boat. he was asleep in the cab . he didnt go up to the upper decks like the other truckers. he was irish to

[carltfross]

The 'models' of the 'Herald of Free Enterprise' were 100th scale models of it. Their construction was approximate, but sufficiently precise to demonstrate the behaviour of the 'Herald', if water entered its car deck in the manner shown in the video. About 1 millilitre of water for the model was equivalent to 1 tonne of water for the full-scale vessel, thus the experiment showed that the 'Herald' would have capsized with less than 1000 tonnes of water, allowing for cargo shift. carltfross.

[carltfross]

The full-scale vessel lying on its side in the sea, in the video, was the 'Herald'. It did not 'turn turtle', because it capsized in shallow waters; in this case, above a sandbank. Had it have capsized in deeper waters, the loss of life would have been much worse, because the trapped passengers and crew within the vessel, would have been subjected to much larger and more violent dynamic forces caused by the vessel turning through about 180 degrees instead of about 90 degrees. carltfross.

[stewban007]

2:42: That's not the Herald! which ship is that? did Townsend Thoresen lose another ship?

[joelang1699]

Your right mate, It looks like one of their old freight ships, Im sure it was the European Gateway .

[seamanrob]

yes, can confirm its the European Gateway that was hit by the Sealink operated Speedlink Vanguard and turned onto its side with the loss of 6 lives (i believe this is accurate). this happened before the Herald incident, I think around the early 80s.  She was refloated, and unlike the Herald (which was scrapped) she was refitted and is still sailing today.