Lights - P&O Ferries - Liverpool

[merseyj]

Hi,

Wasn't sure which forum to post this question on so if this is the wrong place please let me know.

I live in New Brighton and have a great view of all the ships as they enter and leave the Mersey, I've noticed though that the P&O ferries that go from Liverpool to Belfast and Dublin have a light configuration that I'm not familiar with, nor can I find any reference to it in colregs. Basically as well as the normal two white lights for vessels over 50 metres, the P&O ferries have an additional single red masthead light just a bit further back from the white light on the bow. I've asked lots of other sailing friends, but noone has been able to tell me what this red light signifies. So can anyone here tell me what it means. I know that vessels with hazardous cargo have a single red light towards the stern, but I've not been able to find any reference to the same thing on the bow - and being passenger ferries, hazardous cargo doesn't really make sense. It's been driving me mad trying to find out what it means, so I'd be eternally grateful if anyone is able to explain

Many thanks

MerseyJ

[steve149c]

MerseyJ

You are correct in your assessment, it is a single all round red light for the carriage of Hazardous cargo - the reason that it is in the fore part of the vessel is that she is forward accomodation. The Christmas tree (as we call it, lots of different colour lights) is near the forward mast on most ferries.

The all round red light for carriage of hazardous cargo has never been accepted into the collision regulations, but I believe that the port of liverpool has a local byelaw. Hazardous cargo is more common on ferries than you would believe, almost every crossing we have between 2 and 6 units of hazardous cargo. The usual ones are UN1950 Aerosols (Class 2.1), Carbon Dioxide (Class 2.2), Batteries (Class , Straw (Class 4.1) etc etc, there are so many out there - even perfume and concentrated Coca-Cola are hazardous - Coke being a Class 8 corrosive!!! 

Hope this helps,

Steve

[merseyj]

Cheers Steve! And thanks for the explanation as to why the 'Christmas Tree' is at the fore of the vessel rather than aft as you'd normally get on cargo vessels etc.

I can now stop annoying friends with this question

[steve149c]

You are most welcome -any ferry questions I should hopefully know the answer to as I have worked on them for the last 9 years - Norfolkline and DFDS.

Cheers

Steve