This paper aims to clarify a number of issues concerning the dynamics of a damaged ship, interpreting the results of recent towing tank tests by means of a simplified linear model with two degrees of freedom. In this sense, this work can be seen as the natural evolution of the extensive body of work in this field undertaken by the SSRC during a long series of large research projects, including the Joint North West European Project [2], the MCA funded Time Based Survival Criteria of Passenger Ro-Ro Vessels, Phase 1 and 2 [3] and, above all, the Fifth EC Framework RTD projects HARDER and NEREUS [1], during which the experimental evidence presented in this paper was collected
