EXPERTS HAD EXPRESSED FEARS OVER RO-RO SAFETY
  As a British government investigation got
  under way into the sinking of the car ferry Herald of Free
  Enterprise with heavy loss of life, experts said doubts had
  already been expressed about the roll-on roll-off type of ship.
      Shipping minister Lord Brabazon said a preliminary
  investigation had started into why the 7,951 tonne ferry
  capsized and sank in little over a minute as it manoeuvred to
  leave Zeebrugge on a routine four hour crossing to Dover.
      Initial reports spoke of water flooding the car decks
  through the bow doors. But a spokesman for the owners, Townsend
  Thoresen, said it was also possible the ferry had been holed.
      Townsend Thoresen operate two other ships identical to the
  Herald of Free Enterprise, but Brabazon said it was not planned
  to pull them out of service at present.
      "Our investigator is there already. We shall have to wait
  and see. But it is too early to say what happened," he told BBC
  radio.
      As the work of retrieving bodies from the half-submerged
  hulk continued, maritime safety experts in London said doubts
  had already been expressed about the design of so-called "RoRo"
  ferries such as the Herald of Free Enterprise.
      In 1980 the Inter-Governmental International Maritime
  Consultative Committee issued a report saying more roll-on
  roll-off vessels were lost in accidents than ships with deck
  areas divided by bulkheads.
      Townsend Thoresen say the ship, built at the West German
  yard of Bremerhaven in 1980, was built to the highest safety
  standards.
      But salvage expert William Cooper said passengers would
  have had problems getting off this type of ship because of its
  design.
      Former Townsend Thoresen navigating officer Clive Langley
  said the RoRo type of vessels were similar in some respects to
  a barge.
      "As any sailor knows it only takes two or three inches out
  of line and you can turn a barge over. An ordinary ship is
  compartmentalised and you have more stability," he said.
      Cooper said cross-Channel ferries were normally perfectly
  stable but had huge wide deck areas above the water level.
      "If you do get water into that area then you can get very
  severe effects on the stability of the ship," he added.