Here’s the bow of one of the ferries that travels between Helsingør in Denmark and Helsingborg in Sweden, opening up to expose the ramp that allows drivers to load their vehicles on the vessel in the harbour.
Interestingly enough, it was a lifting bow like this that caused the ferry Estonia to sink, as described in The Outlaw Sea. The Estonia was used in rough seas that she was not designed for, and the mechanism closing her bow and lifting the ramp was faulty. During a voyage in bad sea conditions her bow opened, flooding the interior of the vessel, and she sank very quickly claiming 852 lives.
I didn’t know all this when I took this particular trip! Fortunately the Øresund, the strait between Denmark and Sweden, is very calm.
