In Hindsight: A Compendium of Business Continuity Case Studies

CHAPTER 6: HERALD OF FREE ENTERPRISE – CARL DAKIN

Roll on/Roll off ships (Ro-Ro) are widely used across the globe. Despite their success and popularity the Ro-Ro concept has its critics, some of whom point to tragic accidents that they have been involved with such as the Estonia shipwreck in 1994 and the subject of this chapter, the capsizing of the Herald of Free Enterprise some seven years earlier.

‘The World Casualty Statistics for 1994 published by Lloyd’s Register of Shipping show that passenger/Ro-Ro cargo loss rate per thousand ships was 2.3 – the same as the average figure for all ships.’ – (Global Security, 2014).

Despite only sampling 12 months of data, the Lloyd’s Register findings suggest that Ro-Ros are no less safe than any other ...