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.67
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.
Charts and nautical publications often use roads rather than roadsteads.[1] Roads is the earlier term.[2] ↩
United States Army technical manual, TM 5-360. Port Construction and Rehabilitation. Washington: United States. Government Printing Office, 1964. https://books.google.com/books?id=K6YXAAAAYAAJ&dq=a+roadstead+is&pg=PA22 ↩
Oxford Dictionaries: Definition of roadstead in English https://web.archive.org/web/20121209030602/http://oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/roadstead ↩
Roadstead: Extensive Definition http://roadstead.askdefinebeta.com/ ↩
Black, Henry Campbell; Garner, Bryan Andrew (2009). Black's law dictionary (9th ed.). St. Paul, Minn: West. p. 1443. ISBN 978-0314199492. 978-0314199492 ↩
For example, in the Second World War, many merchant ships and many troops arriving at the UK were unloaded/disembarked from ships anchored at the Tail of the Bank in the upper Clyde estuary.[7] /wiki/Tail_of_the_Bank ↩