A roadstead or road is a sheltered body of water where ships can lie reasonably safely at anchor without dragging or snatching.United States Army technical manual, TM 5-360. Port Construction and Rehabilitation. Washington: United States. Government Printing Office, 1964.Oxford Dictionaries: Definition of roadstead in English Many roadsteads are located near ports, but differ from ports in that they do not provide direct access to shore. Protected from rip currents, spring tides, or ocean swell, a roadstead can be open or natural, usually estuary-based, or may be created artificially. In maritime law, it is described as a convenient or safe place where boats usually anchor.
Definition A roadstead can be an area of safe anchorage for ships waiting to enter a port, or to form a convoy. If sufficiently sheltered and convenient, it can be used for the transshipment of goods, stores, and troops, either separately or in combination. The same applies in transfers to and from shore by lighters or barges.
In the days of sailing ships, some voyages could only easily be made with certain wind directions, and ships would wait for favorable winds on a roadstead such as the Downs near the English Channel, or Yarmouth Roads by the North Sea.
Notable roadsteads
Basque Roads on the Bay of Biscay, near La Rochelle, France Birzebbuga roadstead, near Valletta, Malta Bolivar Roads off Galveston, Texas, USA Roadstead of Brest, Brittany, France Carrick Roads at the estuary of the River Fal, Cornwall, England Castle Roads, Bermuda Cherbourg Harbour (la Grande Rade) is an artificial roadstead in Normandy France The Downs, near Deal, Kent, England Fayal Roads in the Azores, Portugal (site of the Battle of Fayal) Gage Roads, Fremantle, Western Australia Hampton Roads, on Chesapeake Bay Virginia, USA Kossol Roads, off Palau, Micronesia Lahaina Roads off the island of Maui in Hawaii, USA Lingga Roads at the Riau Islands, Indonesia Roadstead of Lorient, off Morbihan in Brittany, France Marseille Rade, France Milford Haven Waterway in Pembrokeshire, Wales The Nore sandbank on the Thames Estuary, England Piraeus roadstead in the Gulf of Aegina / Saronic Gulf of Greece Puget Sound, Washington, USA Roosevelt Roads Naval Station / Rosy Roads off Ceiba, Puerto Rico Royal Roads in Greater Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Scapa Flow sheltered among the Orkney Isles, Scotland Schillig Roads off Friesland, Germany Spithead on the Solent, England Tail of the Bank by Greenock on the Clyde estuary, Scotland Roadstead of Tallinn, Estonia Tiefwasserreede off ports of Hamburg and Bremen, Germany Rede van Texel was a historical roadstead off the island of Texel, Netherlands bypassed by the North Sea Canal to Amsterdam Toulon Roads in the Mediterranean of France Road Town on Tortola, British Virgin Islands Trondheim roadstead, Norway Urmston Road, Hong Kong Villefranche-sur-mer roadstead off the French Riviera Yarmouth Roads on the North Sea off Great Yarmouth, East Anglia, England
See also Anchorage Battle of Copenhagen (1801), a naval battle fought at the roadstead of the Port of Copenhagen
Notes
References
External links Harbor Types of the World's Large Sized Ports , Hofstra University site Ports and Ocean Distances, searoutes.com