Ro-Ro (Roll-on Roll-off)

A roll-on roll-off ship carries wheeled cargo, cars, trucks, trailers, and rolling plant, that is driven on and off over stern or side ramps onto continuous vehicle decks, avoiding the lift-on lift-off handling of containers and break-bulk. The open vehicle decks that make loading fast are also the type’s safety weakness: water that enters above the bulkhead deck can spread across the full breadth and cause rapid free-surface loss of stability, the failure behind the Herald of Free Enterprise and Estonia losses and the resulting Stockholm Agreement damage-stability rules.