Ro-ro and passenger ships: the English of the ship
Ferries, ro-pax ships and cruise ships carry vehicles that drive on and off and people who need to be counted, informed and, in the worst case, evacuated. Their English is the English of the vehicle deck, the announcement and the muster.
On a ro-ro ship the cargo drives on board through a bow or stern door, is lashed on a wide open deck, and drives off a few hours later. On a passenger ship the "cargo" walks on board, needs a cabin, a meal and a safety briefing, and must be found and led to a lifeboat if something goes wrong. Many ships are both: a ro-pax ferry with two thousand passengers and three hundred trailers.
The English of these ships is public. Announcements are made to people who are not seafarers, in a calm, clear voice, and crowd management is a certified skill. Behind the scenes the vocabulary is technical: door indicators, drencher systems, free surface, lane metres, marine evacuation systems.
The two great lessons of ro-ro history, the Herald of Free Enterprise and the Estonia, are about water on the vehicle deck. Every rule about closed doors, indicators on the bridge and stability comes from them, and every test asks about them.
Words you will use every day (26)
- Ro-ro
- Roll-on, roll-off: cargo on wheels drives on and off over ramps instead of being lifted.
- Ro-pax
- A ro-ro ship that also carries passengers, with cabins or lounges: the typical ferry.
- Bow visor and bow door
- The opening bow of a ferry; the visor lifts and the inner door lowers to make the ramp. Both must be closed and locked before sailing.
- Stern ramp
- The ramp at the stern that vehicles use; also a watertight or weathertight door when raised.
- Vehicle deck (car deck)
- The open deck where vehicles are parked and lashed; the largest undivided space on the ship.
- Hoistable deck
- A car deck that can be raised or lowered to fit cars or high vehicles.
- Lane metre
- The unit of ro-ro capacity: one metre of a lane wide enough for a truck.
- Trailer lashing
- Chains or straps with tensioners that hold a trailer to the deck; a trestle supports an unaccompanied trailer's front.
- Door indicators
- The lights on the bridge that show every shell door closed and locked; the ship does not sail on a red light.
- Free surface
- Water moving across a wide deck reduces stability dramatically; a few centimetres on a vehicle deck can capsize a ferry.
- Drencher system
- The fixed water spray system on the vehicle deck, released by section, for fires among vehicles.
- Vehicle deck ventilation
- Powerful fans that remove exhaust gases, including carbon monoxide, during loading and unloading.
- Passenger count
- The exact number of persons on board, by name for longer voyages, given to the shore before departure.
- Muster (assembly) station
- The place where passengers gather in an emergency; shown on the back of the cabin door and on signs.
- Safety briefing
- The announcement or demonstration before departure that tells passengers the alarm, the muster station and the lifejacket.
- Crowd management
- The STCW A-V/2 training for crew who direct passengers in an emergency: keep them calm, moving and counted.
- Crisis management
- The STCW A-V/2 training for the officers who lead the emergency response on a passenger ship.
- Marine evacuation system (MES)
- An inflatable slide or chute from the deck to liferafts, for evacuating many people quickly.
- Lifeboat capacity
- The number of persons the survival craft can take; passenger ships carry places for everybody plus liferafts.
- Purser and hotel department
- The staff that runs reception, cabins, restaurants and shops; they are crew with emergency duties too.
- Cabin steward
- The crew member who cleans and serves the cabins; in an emergency checks that the cabins are empty.
- Dangerous goods on trailers
- Packaged dangerous goods carried in vehicles: declared, marked, stowed apart from the accommodation and noted on the manifest.
- Turnaround
- The port stay of a ferry: unload, load, sail, often in under an hour.
- Security screening
- The ISPS check of passengers, vehicles and baggage before boarding.
- Public address (PA) announcement
- The message to passengers over the loudspeakers: clear, slow, in the languages of the route.
- Low location lighting
- The strips of light along the floor of passenger corridors that show the way to the exits in smoke.
Ten things you will hear
Vehicle deck clear, ramp up, doors closed and secured, indicators green.
Chief Officer to the bridge before departure.Lash the trailers in lanes three and four, chocks under the wheels, trestles under the unaccompanied units.
Deck officer to the lashing crew during loading.Passenger count one thousand two hundred and twelve, crew one hundred and ten, total one three two two.
Purser to the bridge and to the shore before sailing.Attention please, this is a safety announcement. Your assembly station is shown on the back of your cabin door.
PA safety briefing after departure.Drencher on deck five, section two, fire alarm confirmed by the patrol.
Bridge to the engine control room during a fire.All passengers to assembly station Charlie; crew, take your emergency positions.
PA during a real emergency or a full drill.Ventilation full on the car deck during loading; no engines running after the lashing is done.
Standing order on the vehicle deck.Boarding closed, gangway secured, reception to the bridge.
Purser reporting readiness for sea.Dangerous goods on two trailers in lane one, stowed forward, manifest on the bridge.
Chief Officer to the Master.Marine evacuation system port side deployed, liferafts inflated, crew at the head of the slide.
Report during an abandon ship drill.
Numbers are said digit by digit on board: "one decimal five", "channel one six", "zero seven three zero". Train your ear in listening practice.
Safety on ro-ro and passenger ships
- Doors closed before sailing, every time, and checked on the bridge indicators: the Herald of Free Enterprise sailed with the bow door open and capsized in ninety seconds.
- Water on the vehicle deck is a stability emergency, not a housekeeping problem: free surface on a wide deck capsizes a ferry.
- Carbon monoxide on the car deck during loading: fans on full, engines off as soon as the vehicle is parked, nobody working in a closed deck without ventilation.
- Fire among vehicles spreads fast: drencher by section, boundary cooling, and the vehicle deck kept clear of loose material.
- Crowd management: crew who direct passengers must be trained (STCW A-V/2), speak the languages of the route, and count.
- Drills with passengers: the safety briefing before departure and, on longer voyages, the muster drill; cabin checks are part of every real muster.
- Dangerous goods on trailers are declared and stowed according to the ship's document of compliance; an undeclared tank of chemicals in a truck is a fire risk under the passengers.
What recruitment tests ask
- Why shell doors must be closed and indicated on the bridge, and what free surface does to stability.
- STCW A-V/2 crowd management and crisis management training.
- The drencher system and vehicle deck ventilation.
- Muster stations, the safety briefing, the passenger count and the marine evacuation system.
- Dangerous goods on ro-ro decks.
Sit the ro-ro and passenger knowledge test: 30 questions for your rank
The full test mixes up to eight questions on ro-ro and passenger ships with the STCW areas for your rank group, under a 30-minute clock. The names of commercial tests are used on this site only to describe what our training prepares you for.
Quiz: 10 questions on ro-ro and passenger ships
One question at a time, feedback after every answer, score at the end. Keys 1 to 4 answer, Enter goes on.
Sources: SOLAS II-1 (ro-ro doors and stability), II-2 (vehicle spaces, drencher), III (muster, MES, passenger count), STCW A-V/2, IMDG Code.