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The Zeebrugge Ferry Disaster | A Short Documentary | Fascinating Horror - YouTube
Channel: Fascinating Horror
[8]
At around 6:29pm on the 6th of
March 1987 the MS Herald of Free
[19]
Enterprise (an eight deck car and passenger
ferry) capsized just moments after
[25]
leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. The incident resulted in the deaths of
[32]
193 passengers and crew. It was the most
deadly sinking of a British ship in
[39]
peacetime
in more than 50 years. The Herald of Free
[45]
Enterprise began active service in 1980,
having been designed specifically for
[51]
the popular ferry route between Dover
and Calais. This ship, and the others in
[57]
its class, were designed to facilitate
quick loading and unloading and to have
[62]
rapid acceleration. On the day of the
incident the Herald of Free Enterprise
[69]
was not on her normal route. Instead she
was ferrying between Dover in England
[75]
and Zeebrugge in Belgium. This caused some
problems when loading and unloading
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passengers and cars - specifically the
ramp at Zeebrugge could not be raised
[86]
high enough to reach Deck E,
the upper vehicle deck. To address this
[93]
issue water was pumped into the bow
ballast tanks on board the Herald, thus
[98]
lowering the whole vessel in the water
until the deck was low enough for boarding
[103]
to commence. Once all the cars and
passengers had been loaded, however, the
[109]
ballast tanks were not emptied and the
ship remained low in the water. This was
[118]
further exacerbated by something known
as the squat effect. When a vessel is in
[123]
motion the movement of water beneath the
hull creates an area of low pressure and
[128]
causes the boat to sink slightly lower
in the water
[133]
this effect is strongest in shallow
water or when a boat is moving rapidly.
[140]
Both of these conditions were true for
the Herald of Free Enterprise that day.
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The Zeebrugge Harbour was shallow and
the boat pulled rapidly away from port
[150]
in an effort to compensate for a
slightly late departure. The result of
[157]
these combined factors was that water at
the bow of the ship was able to reach
[162]
all the way up to G Deck.
Normally this would not be an issue as
[167]
the doors there would be sealed. However,
on this day, the bow doors on G Deck were
[173]
for some reason wide open. Water cascaded
in flooding the deck and leaking down to
[181]
the other decks below. The car decks on
the Herald were large uninterrupted
[188]
spaces not subdivided by watertight
bulkheads. This allowed the water to
[194]
slosh around freely, throwing off the
balance of the ferry and causing it to
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capsize. The incident unfolded with
astonishing rapidity. The ship left Zeebrugge
[207]
Harbor at 6:24pm with a crew of 80
and 459 passengers. She began to capsize
[215]
less than four minutes later. After
listing to port almost 30 degrees she
[221]
briefly righted herself before listing
to port again and capsizing onto her
[227]
side. The whole events took no more than
a minute and a half. During that minute
[235]
and a half
contact between water and electrical
[238]
systems plunged the ship into darkness. Floors became walls, walls became floors,
[245]
passenger decks were inundated with
water.
[248]
Many people drowned in those first
chaotic minutes, while others died from
[253]
injuries sustained during falls or when
crushed by falling objects.
[259]
It was a stroke of good fortune that the
ship capsized onto a sandbar. Were this
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not the case it would have undoubtedly
sunk completely into deeper water. As it
[272]
was the ship came to rest on its side
partly submerged with hundreds of souls
[278]
trapped inside. Here is an account of the
incident from survivor
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Simon Osborne: "I was standing at a
duty-free counter when I felt a sudden
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"violent jolt a woman behind me in the
queue started screaming and I thought
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"she was overreacting but seconds later
another more violent jolt shook the
[304]
"vessel and then almost instantaneously
the ship capsized. It happened so very,
[310]
"very quickly. I fell onto my back and
slid along the polished wooden decks of
[316]
"the ship's lounge until I landed on the
front of the bar, which had gone from
[320]
"being vertical to horizontal. In the
brief moments before the lights went out
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"I had a clear view of the horror around
me. Everything that wasn't bolted to the
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"decks came crashing down. I recall fruit
machines chairs tables and waste bins
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"tumbling through the air as the vessel
suddenly flipped over. Much worse was the
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"sight of people somersaulting from
one side of the ship to the other. One
[349]
"man cried out as he crashed through a
glass panel just feet from where I stood
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"rooted to the spot, wide-eyed, frozen in
fear.Aa split-second later we were
[360]
"plunged into darkness as the lights
failed and I was instantly swept up by
[364]
"the swirling wave of freezing water
which had crashed through the ship's
[367]
"doors and windows. I thought I was going to die."
[375]
Passengers, like Simon, who survived the
initial capsize of the ship were then
[381]
stuck within the overturned hull, often
submerged in freezing cold water. They
[388]
had no choice but to wait for rescue -
something that for many was too late in
[392]
coming. An immediate inquiry was launched into the
[400]
incident. It found that many different
factors contributed to the sinking but
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that none were more prominent than the
fact that the bow doors were open when
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the ship left port.
Who was to blame for this terrible lapse?
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It was the job of the Assistant
Boatswain, a man named Mark Stanley, to
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close the doors, and the job of the First
Officer, a man named Leslie Sabel, to make
[428]
sure that they were shut before
departure. When the ferry left on its
[433]
fateful voyage, however, Stanley was
asleep in his cabin. Sabel left the
[439]
vicinity of the bow doors to be on deck
for departure without ensuring that the
[443]
bow doors were closed, simply assuming
that Stanley would turn up and do his
[448]
job. The court placed the majority of
blame on these men, but also criticized
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the working culture of the company as a
whole. There was, it reported, "a disease of
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"sloppiness and negligence at every level
of the corporation's hierarchy."
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Seven people from the ferry company were charged with gross negligence
[472]
manslaughter and corporate manslaughter,
but the case swiftly collapsed when a
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judge ordered the jury to acquit all
concerned.
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Nobody was punished for actions
contributing to the disaster. In the
[487]
aftermath many changes were made to
similar vessels. These included the
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addition of indicators on the bridge to
show when the bow doors were open, water-
[496]
-tight ramps fitted to bow sections, and
flaps to allow water to escape from
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vehicle decks in the event of flooding.
Regulations were also changed to require
[507]
a greater minimum distance between the
waterline and any car deck for all
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roll-on roll-off ferries. As for the
Herald of Free Enterprise itself a
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salvage operation was successful in
refloating the ship. The final bodies
[524]
were removed from the vessel a month
after its sinking and the damaged ship
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was towed to a shipyard near Zeebrugge. The
owners attempted to sell her on the
[535]
basis that she could be repaired and
sail again... but, unsurprisingly, no buyer was
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found and she was eventually sold for
scrap to a shipyard in Taiwan. More than
[548]
a year after the disaster had concluded
the ship arrived at its final
[551]
destination and was broken down for
scrap. The Herald of Free Enterprise is
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now nothing more than a memory, but the
incident which cost so many of its
[563]
passengers their lives is one that the
survivors and the world at large will
[568]
never forget.
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