Page 44 - Greystones Archaeological Historical Society

THE ACCIDENT THAT TIME FORGOT

The Introduction of the Ro-Ro Ferry

The Ro-Ro ship concept is not as new as people may think.
The first Ro-Ro vessels were designed in the 1850’s by Sir
Thomas Bouch, designer of the Tay Bridge spanning the Firth of
Tay in Scotland. These Ro-Ro
ships had railway tracks fixed to
their decks and were designed to
carry trains across rivers, with the
Firth of Forth ferry being one of the
first to enter service. However,
once the rivers were bridged, the
need for ferries declined and they
were not used in Britain after the
1890’s.

Ferries to carry railway rolling
stock were used in the U.S.A. after
the American Civil War in New
York harbour, on the Great Lakes
and the St. Clair River in Detroit,
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and by the last quarter of the 19 Sir Thomas Bouch
century ferries of this type were a
familiar sight in San Francisco and Puget Sound on the U.S. west
coast, in addition to other locations in Canada, Russia, on the
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Baltic, and Japan. By the start of the 20 century, ferries had
become important adjuncts to railway systems particularly those
which were discontinuous due to geography.

During World War 1 train ferries were used to convey rolling
stock and locomotives between Britain and France for military
use as the railway gauge was the same. After this conflict the
first Anglo-Continental freight-only railway ferry service
commenced operation between Harwich, U.K., and Zeebrugge,
Holland, on 24 April 1924 while a passenger train service
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