The chief officer
had the responsibility for cargo handling and planning loading operations.
Both second officers were engaged in the actual loading and unloading on the
car deck and all lashing of cargo was performed under their supervision.
Besides the
second officers, the boatswain was directly engaged in lashing operations
together with the deck hands.
No standard cargo loading plan was followed on board - but there was a general scheme - and a sketch of the cargo allocation was made before loading started. According to the JAIC the overall guidance for the lashing of the cargo, given in IMO Resolution A 581 (14) "Guidelines for Securing Arrange-ments for the Transport of Road Vehicles on Ro-Ro Ships" and in IMO Resolution A 714 (17), was applied. The vessel also carried a cargo securing manual, issued by Estline, which however, was not available during the inspection by the two Swedish Sjöfartsverket inspectors and their trainees some hours before the last departure - see Chapter 15. According to frequent travellers personal cars and vans were never secured, trucks and trailers sometimes and trailers without trucks mostly.
During the voyage the cargo was checked by the seaman of the watch on his watch-round who had to activate control clocks at particular check points. On the car deck there were said to be one in the forward, one in the middle and one in the aft part. The car deck could also be checked on monitors on the bridge and in the engine control room by means of 4 cameras located forward, aft and at both sides of the centre casing.
