Embarkation ladder
Identifies an embarkation ladder.
Understanding this sign
Green square or rectangular signs identify emergency escape routes, safety facilities, and rescue equipment.
Follow the complete wayfinding system and local emergency plan. A symbol alone does not establish a safe route.
What ISO 7010 E053 Marks
E053 locates an embarkation ladder — the flexible rope-and-rung ladder rigged at a survival craft station so people can climb down the ship's side to a craft waiting on the water. The green square shows a figure descending the ladder, and the sign belongs at the stowage box or securing point where the ladder is kept ready to deploy over the rail.
It is emergency equipment, distinct from the pilot ladders and gangways used for routine access. The LSA Code specifies its construction — rigid non-slip steps on continuous side ropes, secured to the hull at the embarkation position — and SOLAS requires ladders or equivalent approved means of descent at survival craft launching stations where boarding does not happen at deck level.
When the Ladder Gets Used
The classic case is a throw-overboard liferaft: the E038 canister goes into the sea, the raft inflates below, and the ladder is the controlled way down to it instead of a jump or a swim. It also covers degraded scenarios for other craft — boarding a lifeboat or davit-launched raft at the water's surface when list, trim, or a launching gear failure prevents loading at deck level, or reaching a rescue boat holding position alongside.
Descending a swinging ladder against a moving hull, possibly in the dark and wearing a bulky lifejacket, is genuinely difficult, and abandon-ship training treats it as a skill: face the ladder, keep three points of contact, time the final step onto the raft with the swell. The sign's job is to remove the first obstacle, which is finding the ladder at all.
Placement and Companion Signs
Fix E053 at each ladder stowage and at the rail section where it deploys, keeping it visually paired with the survival craft sign it serves — most often E038, sometimes E036 or E039 as the backup boarding route. On vessels with multiple raft stations along a deck, every rigging point earns its own sign; a single symbol amidships does not help someone launching the forward raft.
As with the rest of the shipboard series, the symbol reflects the merger of IMO location markings into ISO 7010, so it is equally at home on offshore platforms and other installations where evacuation to the sea surface is part of the emergency plan. Photoluminescent material is the sensible default given that abandonments rarely happen in good light.
Where you will see E053
The sign is fixed at each ladder stowage box and at the rail section where it deploys, visually paired with the survival craft sign it serves, most often E038 for throw-overboard liferafts. Vessels with multiple raft stations sign every rigging point rather than one position amidships, and the symbol serves equally on offshore platforms and other installations whose emergency plans include evacuation to the sea surface, ideally in photoluminescent material.
Common questions about E053
What is an embarkation ladder on a ship?
A rope ladder with rigid non-slip steps, stowed at survival craft stations and rigged over the side so people can climb down to a liferaft, lifeboat, or rescue boat on the water. It is dedicated lifesaving equipment under the LSA Code, separate from pilot ladders and accommodation ladders used for normal access.
When would you use an embarkation ladder instead of boarding at deck level?
Whenever the craft is already on the water: after a throw-overboard liferaft inflates below the deck edge, when a lifeboat or davit-launched raft has to be boarded at the surface because deck-level loading is impossible, or to reach a boat holding alongside. Davit-launched rafts and lifeboats are boarded dry when everything works; the ladder covers the cases where it does not.
Is the embarkation ladder the same as a pilot ladder?
No. They look similar, but a pilot ladder is boarding equipment for routine personnel transfer and is governed by different rules. The embarkation ladder is part of the ship's lifesaving appliances, kept at survival craft stations, inspected as such, and marked with the E053 sign.
Reference details
| Symbol code | E053 |
|---|---|
| Sign family | ISO Emergency Signs |
| Standard reference | ISO 7010:2019 / ISO 3864-1 ISO Online Browsing Platform: E053 |
| Screen color reference | #009933. Screen colors are not a production color specification. |
| Download formats | SVG reference artwork; a 1024 × 1024 pixel PNG conversion on a white canvas. |
| Record date | · How to interpret our dates |
| Page updated |
Choosing a physical sign size
Download dimensions are not installation dimensions. Select sign size, material, placement, and lighting using the applicable standard and the actual viewing conditions. Chemical label sizing follows its own rules. Read the artwork and sizing guide.
Sources and artwork credits
- Artwork source
- Wikimedia Commons file page
- Creator credited by source
- Clemenspool
- License
- CC0
- Source metadata checked
SVG files are local reference copies. PNG files are raster conversions. Check the linked file history and license terms before reuse; a source-metadata check is not certification of the artwork or a workplace installation.
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