MS Herald of Free Enterprise
Herald of Free Enterprise in Dover's Eastern Docks, 1984
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History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name |
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Owner |
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Operator | Townsend Thoresen (1980–1987) |
Port of registry |
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Builder | Schichau Unterweser , Bremerhaven, Germany |
Launched | 21 December 1979 |
In service | 1980 |
Out of service | 1987 |
Identification | IMO number: 7820485 |
Fate |
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General characteristics | |
Class and type | RORO car and passenger ferry |
Tonnage | 7951.44 gt; 3439.05 net tonnage |
Length | 131.91 m (432 ft 9 in) |
Beam | 23.19 m (76 ft 1 in) |
Draught | 5.72 m (18 ft 9 in) |
Installed power | 23,967 bhp (17,872 kW) |
Propulsion | 3 x Sulzer 12ZV 40/48 diesel engine |
Speed | 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) |
Capacity | 1,400 |
MS Herald of Free Enterprise was a roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ferry which capsized moments after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on the night of 6 March 1987, killing 193 passengers and crew.[1]
The eight-deck car and passenger ferry was owned by
Since the disaster, improvements have been made to the design of RORO vessels, with watertight ramps, indicators showing the position of the bow doors, and banning of undivided decks.
Design and construction
In the late 1970s,
To remain competitive with other ferry operators on the route, Townsend Thoresen required ships designed to permit fast loading and unloading and quick acceleration. The ships comprised eight decks numbered A to H from top to bottom, which contained the following:[5]
- A-deck: crew accommodation and radio room
- Half deck (between A and B decks) wheelhouse (bridge)
- B-deck: passenger areas, crew accommodation and galley
- C-deck: passenger areas and galley
- D-deck: suspended vehicle deck within E deck
- E-deck: upper vehicle deck
- F-deck: crew accommodation (port and starboard)
- G-deck: main vehicle deck
- H-deck: engine rooms, stores and passenger accommodation at the forward end.
Loading of vehicles onto G deck was through watertight doors at the
The ships were constructed by Schichau-Unterweser AG in Bremerhaven, Germany. Propulsive power was by means of three 6,000 kW (8,000 bhp) 12-cylinder Sulzer medium-speed diesel engines driving variable-pitch propellers.[9] The vehicle deck bow doors were constructed by Cargospeed, Glasgow, Scotland.[4]
Accident of 6 March 1987
Background
On the day the ferry capsized, Herald of Free Enterprise was working the route between Dover and the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. This was not her normal route and the linkspan at Zeebrugge had not been designed specifically for the Spirit-class vessels: it used a single deck, preventing the simultaneous loading of both E and G decks, and the ramp could not be raised high enough to reach E deck.[10][11] To compensate for this, the vessel's bow ballast tanks were filled.[10] The ship's natural trim was not restored after loading.[10] Had Herald of Free Enterprise survived, she would have been modified to remove the need for this procedure.[11]
It was normal practice for the assistant boatswain to close the doors before moorings were dropped. However, the assistant boatswain, Mark Stanley, had returned to his cabin for a short break after cleaning the car deck upon arrival, and was still asleep when the harbour-stations call sounded and the ship dropped her moorings.[12][13] The first officer, Leslie Sabel, was required to stay on deck to make sure the doors were closed.[14] Sabel said he thought he saw Stanley approaching. He was seriously injured in the disaster and the court concluded that his evidence was inaccurate.[14] It is believed that, under pressure to get to his harbour station on the bridge, he had left G deck with the bow doors open in the expectation that Stanley would arrive shortly.[15]
The court also described the attitude of boatswain Terence Ayling, believed to have been the last person on G deck.[15] Asked why he did not close the doors given there was no one else there to do it, he said it was not his duty.[13] The court nevertheless praised his work in the rescue.[13]
Captain David Lewry assumed that the doors had been closed since he could not see them from the wheelhouse owing to the ship's design, and had no indicator lights in the wheelhouse.[16]
Capsizing
The ship left her berth in Zeebrugge inner harbour at 18:05 (GMT) with a crew of 80 and carrying 459 passengers, 81 cars, three buses and 47 trucks. She passed the outer
Crew aboard a nearby
The disaster resulted in the deaths of 193 people. Many of those on board had taken advantage of a promotion in The Sun newspaper offering cheap trips to the continent.[26] Most of the victims were trapped inside the ship and succumbed to hypothermia because of the frigid water.[27] The rescue efforts of the Belgian Navy and Royal Navy divers limited the death toll. Recoverable bodies were removed in the days following the accident. During the rescue the tide started to rise and the rescue team was forced to stop all efforts until morning. The last of the people left on board died of hypothermia.[28]
Investigation and inquiry
A public Court of Inquiry into the incident was held under British Mr Justice Sheen in 1987.[29] It found the capsizing was caused by three main factors—Stanley's failure to close the bow doors, Sabel's failure to make sure the bow doors were closed, and Lewry leaving port without knowing whether the bow doors were closed. While the court determined the immediate cause of the capsizing was Stanley's failure to close the bow doors, it was very critical of Sabel for not being in a position to prevent the disaster, calling his actions "the most immediate" cause of the capsizing.[15]
The fact that Stanley was asleep at the time of departure led Sheen to examine the working practices of Townsend Thoresen, from which he concluded that the poor workplace communication and stand-off relationship between ship operators and shore-based managers was the root cause of the capsizing,[12] and identified a "disease of sloppiness" and negligence at every level of the corporation's hierarchy.[30] Issues relating to the breaking of waves high on the bow doors while under way and requests to have an indicator installed on the bridge showing the position of the doors were dismissed; the former because of the attitude that ships' masters would come and "bang on the desk" if an issue was truly important, and the latter because it was thought frivolous to spend money on equipment to indicate if employees had failed to do their job correctly.[16]
The design of Herald of Free Enterprise was also found to be a contributory cause of the capsizing.[12] Unlike other ships, which are subdivided into watertight compartments, the vehicle decks of RORO vessels are normally contiguous: any flooding on these decks would allow the water to flow the length of the ship.[10] This issue had been identified as early as 1980, following the losses of Seaspeed Dora and Hero in June and November 1977 respectively.[31] The need to adjust the ship's bow trim to use the port facilities at Zeebrugge and failure to readjust before departure was another factor in the capsizing.[20]
In October 1983, Herald of Free Enterprise's sister ship Pride of Free Enterprise had sailed from Dover to Zeebrugge with the bow doors open, after her assistant boatswain fell asleep.[13] It was therefore believed that leaving the bow doors open alone should not have caused the ship to capsize. However, tests by the Danish Maritime Institute after the accident found that once water began to enter the vehicle deck of a RORO, it was likely that the vessel would capsize within 30 minutes, while other tests showed that the lack of
Another factor that contributed to the capsizing was the "squat effect". When a vessel is under way, the movement under it creates low pressure, which has the effect of increasing the vessel's draught. In deep water the effect is small but in shallow water it is greater, because as the water passes underneath it moves faster and causes the draught to increase. This reduced the clearance between the bow doors and water line to between 1.5 and 1.9 metres (4 ft 11 in and 6 ft 3 in). After extensive tests, the investigators found that when the ship travelled at a speed of 18 knots (33 km/h), the wave was enough to engulf the bow doors. This caused a "step change": if the ship had been sailing at less than 18 knots and not in shallow water, people on the car deck would probably have had time to notice the bow doors were open and close them.[32]
Inquest
In October 1987, a
Aftermath
Immediate
A salvage operation, conducted by Dutch company Smit-Tak Towage and Salvage (part of
The Townsend Thoresen brand name had inevitably been seen on television and in newspapers around the world. P&O, who had only just taken over TT before the disaster, quickly decided to re-brand the company as P&O European Ferries, repaint the fleet's red hulls in navy blue and remove the TT logo from the funnels.[40]
Long-term
The capsizing of Herald of Free Enterprise caused the highest death count of any peacetime maritime disaster involving a British ship since the sinking of HMY Iolaire on 1 January 1919 near Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, when at least 205 perished of the 280 aboard.[41]
Since the accident, several improvements to the design of this type of vessel have been made. These include indicators on the bridge that display the state of the bow doors, watertight ramps being fitted to the bow sections of the front of the ship, and
Both of Herald of Free Enterprise's two sister ships have since been withdrawn from service. The former
In the UK, an ensemble group named Ferry Aid released a charity record of the song "Let It Be" by the Beatles.[44][45]
The disaster was the subject of an episode from Series 2 of
The disaster was also featured in an episode of Deadly Engineering (Season 1, Episode 5) on the Science Channel.
On 1 July 2014, The History Press released a book called Ninety Seconds at Zeebrugge: The Herald of Free Enterprise Story (
St Mary's Church, Dover houses a permanent memorial to the disaster.[48] In the village of St Margaret's at Cliffe, there is a stained-glass window dedicated to Bob Crone, Bryan Eades and Graham Evans, three of the crewmen who died during the disaster.
Disaster Action
Australian businessman Maurice de Rohan, who lost his daughter and son-in-law in the tragedy, founded Disaster Action, a charity which assists people affected by similar events.[49]
Gallantry awards
The following British awards for
- Herald of Free Enterprise crew
- Michael Ian Skippen, Head Waiter, George Medal (posthumous)
- Leigh Cornelius, Seaman, Queen's Gallantry Medal
- Stephen Robert Homewood, Assistant Purser, Queen's Gallantry Medal
- William Sean Walker, Seaman, Queen's Gallantry Medal
- Thomas Hume Wilson, Quartermaster, Queen's Gallantry Medal
- Herald of Free Enterprise passenger
- Andrew Clifford Parker, Assistant Bank Manager, Nippon Credit International, George Medal
- Belgian Navy
- Lieutenant-Ter-Zee 1ste Klas Guido A. Couwenbergh, Queen's Gallantry Medal
- Lieutenant-Ter-Zee 1ste Klas Alfons M. A. C. Daems, Queen's Gallantry Medal
- Royal Navy
- Lieutenant Simon Nicholas Bound, Queen's Gallantry Medal
- Able Seaman Eamon Christopher McKinley Fullen, Queen's Gallantry Medal
- Chief Petty Officer Edward Gene Kerr, Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct
- Chief Petty Officer Peter Frank Still, Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct
- Tijdelijke Vereniging Bergingswerken
- Piet Lagast, Diver, Queen's Gallantry Medal
- Dirk van Mullem, Diver, Queen's Gallantry Medal
See also
- MS Estonia, a ferry lost in 1994 due to bow door failure
- List of maritime disasters
- List of RORO vessel accidents
- List of United Kingdom disasters by death toll
- MV Tricolor, an automobile cargo ship which sank nearby in 2002
- Why–because analysis
51°22′28.5″N 3°11′26″E / 51.374583°N 3.19056°E
References
Citations
- ^ Sheen 1987, p. 1.
- ^ Yardley 2014, p. 13.
- ^ Yardley 2014, p. 6.
- ^ a b Yardley 2014, p. 14.
- ^ Yardley 2014, pp. 11–12.
- ^ Yardley 2014, p. 12.
- ISBN 978-1-931332-22-4.
- ^ Yardley 2014, p. 23.
- ^ Yardley 2014, p. 10.
- ^ a b c d Wittingham, The Blame Machine, p. 121
- ^ ISBN 1-871947-31-6, p. 89
- ^ a b c Wittingham, The Blame Machine, p. 120
- ^ a b c d Sheen 1987, p. 8.
- ^ a b Sheen 1987, p. 9.
- ^ a b c Sheen 1987, p. 10.
- ^ a b Wittingham, The Blame Machine, p. 120–1
- ^ Sheen 1987, p. 68, 71.
- ^ a b c Bell, Bethan (6 March 2017). "Zeebrugge Herald of Free Enterprise disaster remembered". BBC News. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
- ^ a b Holmes, Geoffrey (4 March 2017). "Zeebrugge Ferry Disaster 30 Years On". The Independent. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
- ^ a b c d Wittingham, The Blame Machine, p. 122
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Seconds from Disaster S02E05 Zeebrugge Ferry Disaster". YouTube.
- ^ Yardley 2014, p. 113.
- ^ Yardley 2014, p. 114-116.
- ^ Maitland, Clay (26 August 2010). "Tragic death of Wolfgang Schroeder". ClayMaitland.com. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
- ^ "Zim Mexico III accident in Mobile, AL" (PDF). Sidelights. 36 (4). The Council of American Master Mariners, Inc. Winter 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 October 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
Captain Schröder was a hero of the MV Herald of Free Enterprise Disaster some years back, when he and his ship saved a large number of the passengers. For his heroic actions, he received a letter of commendation from the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (Margaret Thatcher) and a medal from the King of Belgium.
- ^ Yardley 2014, p. 29.
- ^ Yardley 2014, pp. 86, 100.
- ^ Yardley 2014, pp. 137–8.
- ^ Wittingham, The Blame Machine, p. 119
- ^ Sheen 1987, p. 14.
- ^ Baily, Michael (20 January 1981). "Roll on, roll off freight ships with open garage decks potential death traps, naval men believe". The Times. No. 61529. London. col A, p. 2.
- ^ "The "Squat" effect and the sinking of the "Herald of Free Enterprise"". ExpoNav. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
- ^ "Herald of Free Enterprise disaster in 1987". Kent Online. 6 March 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
- ^ [(1990) 93 Cr App R 72]
- ^ Foundation, Internet Memory. "[ARCHIVED CONTENT] UK Government Web Archive – The National Archives". Retrieved 7 March 2017.
- ^ Micke Asklander. "M/S Herald of Free Enterprise". Fakta om Fartyg. Retrieved 23 February 2008.
- ^ History and photos of Gaelic Ferry Archived 12 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine, visited 5 November 2011
- ^ Gripper, Ann (25 October 2013). "UK weather: A look back at the devastating Great Storm of 1987 that nobody predicted". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
- ^ History of the Herald of Free Enterprise, visited 6 November 2011
- ISBN 978-1-931332-56-9.
- ^ "A BBC drama-documentary will delve into one of the biggest disasters in Dover history". Kent Live. 14 February 2017. Archived from the original on 14 February 2017. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
- RYACoastal skipper/Yachtmaster offshore theory course.
- ^ Koefoed-Hansen, Michael (2007) M/F Oleander, The ferry site, www page, accessed 22 June 2007
- ^ Sweeting, Adam; MacAskill, Ewen (11 October 2015). "Jim Diamond obituary: Singer-songwriter whose top five hits in the 1980s included I Should Have Known Better". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
- ^ Early, Chas (4 March 2019). "March 6, 1987: Zeebrugge disaster claims 193 lives as ferry capsizes mile from port". British Telecom. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
- ^ "House of Commons PQs – Margaret Thatcher Foundation". Retrieved 7 March 2017.
- Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
- ^ "Zeebrugge disaster marked by memorial service 25 years on". BBC News. 6 March 2012. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
- ^ "Disaster Action". Retrieved 7 March 2017.
- ^ "No. 51183". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1987. p. 61.
Sources
- Sheen, Mr Justice (1987), mv Herald of Free Enterprise: Report of Court No. 8074 Formal Investigation (PDF), Crown Department of Transport, ISBN 0-11-550828-7, retrieved 31 July 2018
- Whittingham, Robert B. (2004). "Organizational and management errors". The Blame Machine: why human error causes accidents. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 0-7506-5510-0.
- Yardley, Iain (2014). Ninety Seconds at Zeebrugge: The Herald of Free Enterprise Story. The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7509-5736-6.