A Preliminary Design Method for the Prediction of Squat in Shallow Water

The sinking of the ferry HERALD OF FREE ENTERPRISE showed the variation of squat with speed in shallow water to be important, yet it is not easily predictable, particulary at higher speeds. The squat characteristics of a number of ship models have been analyzed and an empirical method of predicting the squat at subcritical speeds has been devised. This method has been compared with data from the model tests of the HERALD OF FREE ENTERPRISE and has shown good agreement.