A Crash That I Missed.

[Vaughan]

30 years ago today, I was an international truck driver, and was loading my truck in a depot in Frankfurt. I phoned my boss, Jim, in Attleborough, that morning, to say I was loaded and so he booked me on a ferry that evening from Zeebrugge to Dover.

As it turned out, the load was held up by customs paperwork all day, and I just sat there. This did mean though, that I had "driver's hours" to spare, so Jim changed my booking to the 1100 Zeebrugge to Felixstowe the next morning and I drove through the night to get there for it.

I remember how cold it was, as the ice was building up in front of the wing mirrors. The only radio stations I could get were in French, but it was just background and I wasn't really listening. Around midnight, I suddenly began to notice words on the French news such as "Zeebrugge", "Townsend Thoreson", and "naufrage, catastrophe". From then on I listened as the tragedy of the Herald of Free Enterprise unfolded and the news came through of her capsize. This was the ship that I had been booked on.

I pulled into Zeebrugge just before 10 AM that morning and it was all over. All the ambulances and other crews had all gone, and you would not have known anything had happened. And yet the Belgian emergency services and the local fisherman had pulled off one of the World's miracles that night, by saving so many hundreds of people from seas that were so cold they could have killed in less than 5 minutes. What I remember most was the courage of the Townsend Thoreson staff in the port when I booked in. They were carrying on just as normal, and yet they all had friends who worked on the Herald and at that time, they still didn't know whether their friends had survived or not. When my ship sailed, we went past the capsized hull of the Herald, on the shallows just outside the port and we could see that she was actually facing back towards Zeebrugge when she capsized.

It was all very conveniently blamed on some poor little bosun who "forgot" to close the bow doors and this allowed one of the most sinister "cover ups" in maritime history. We still have enquiries into the Hillsborough disaster : I wonder if the authorities are now prepared to admit, after 30 years, what really happened to the Herald?

Anyone ever hear of "metacentric height"?

 

 

[dnks34]

Do you think the Herald had a stability issue even before what happened Vaughan.

I remember reading that what compounded the flooding that night was the ship being trimmed down at the bow for loading reasons bringing the open bow doors closer to the water level.  Had that not been the case it might have made it across without issue and the open doors would then have been discovered when arriving in Dover.

Terrible event and I can still remember watching events unfold on the TV news all that time ago.  

[grendel]

Worse still, I know the man who would normally have been on board that night, apart from a last minute shift swap, he was one of the engineers, and his responsibility would have been to close those doors, he is still affected by that fact thirty years later. one of the issues was that in those days the car deck ran the full width of the ship, thus any water shipped could easily all rush to one side and capsize the boat, especially after it got so far, all of the cars would have slid to the side too. this is a fault since rectified on more recent ships, with the central longitudinal bulkhead along the car deck. The reason she was facing back to port was the captain realising the ship was going down was heading out of the channel onto the sandbanks, probably the only reason there were any survivors.

[dnks34]

After this event and I believe as a result of changes to the SOLAS regulations some car ferries operating from the UK were fitted with exterior sponsons whilst others preferred intermitant moveable bulkheads along the length of the main vehicle deck.  

The Norland & Norstar on the old North Sea Ferries / P&O fleet (both now scrapped) lost a degree of freight space by having a second skin built inside the vessel along the length of the main vehicle deck.  Their counterparts the newer and larger Norsea / Norsun have the opening bulkheads spaced out along the length of the ship preventing any water ingress from causing the effect it did on the Heralds unobstructed main deck.   

Its sad that it takes accidents like the Herald to make things far safer for the future. 

[Vaughan]

Just now, dnks34 said:

the ship being trimmed down at the bow for loading reasons bringing the open bow doors closer to the water level.

Yes, but that was just part of it.

Accident investigators will always tell us that a major accident does not have just one reason : it is a "cascade" of events; each one not being enough to cause the accident but when all added up, they amount to disaster.

I used to serve on logistic landing ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and part of my job was to calculate the stow plan of the army vehicles so that the ship was stable. These ships were basically Ro-ro ferries painted grey and they were inherently unstable if not loaded properly, owing to the huge open space inside, where the vehicle decks have no transverse bulkheads.

Normally the chief officer of a ship like this will look at the load he has on board and will then pump the double-bottom tanks as necessary, to add extra weight low down. "Metacentric height" without getting too technical, means that the ship's centre of buoyancy must be above its centre of gravity. If not, it capsizes. In this case the chief officer had started to pump the double-bottoms but had not finished before the ship sailed, as these ships are just a rapid bus service, and he did not have time.

The Herald was a Dover based ship and they always "bunker up" with fuel and water on a Saturday morning. This was Friday night, and so her tanks were almost empty. Where were these tanks? Low down in the double bottoms.

Most trucks coming back from a week abroad will cross the channel on a Thursday, so on Friday night, there were not many trucks. As it turned out, a lot of the trucks that were loaded had hazardous cargo and so they were loaded outside the holds on the upper decks, leaving the lower vehicle deck almost empty of trucks.

The Sun newspaper had organised a booze cruise that day, so several hundred Sun readers were coming back as foot passengers, who were all gathered in the bars on the upper deck, but had no vehicles stowed below in the holds. This is known by mariners as "top hamper".

The ship was normally used for Calais - Dover crossings and so her bow ramp was not designed for the link-span in Zeebrugge. This meant that on certain tides the ship had to be flooded slightly bow down when berthing.

It was normal practice for the bow doors to be left open when the ship sailed, in order to evacuate the truck diesel fumes from the vehicle deck. The doors would then be closed once the ship had cleared the harbour. The design of the Herald meant that her doors were well clear of the waterline and she would have to heel by easily more than 25 degrees before water came in at the corners.

What actually happened was that the ship sailed in a badly loaded unstable condition and when she turned hard left (as you have to) when leaving Zeebrugge she simply fell over to starboard. The captain realised this and tried to "steer" her back upright by going hard to starboard. Unfortunately although she came up again, she then fell over to port. By this time she had turned right round and the water had started coming in at the corner of the bow doors. The "free surface" effect of this water on the open vehicle deck then finished her off. If the captain had not made his turn to starboard, she would have capsized in the deep channel and gone right over, bottom up. As it is, she only went over sideways into the shallows, so this, and the Belgians, was what saved so many lives.

If all this had become public at the time, most cross channel ferries would have been immediately pulled out of service and it would not just have been Townsend that went out of business. Remember that the present day Pride of Dover and Pride of Calais are exactly the same design of ship and they are still sailing today.

How much more convenient to allow the press to pin it all on some little bloke who "forgot" to close the doors?

 

[tjg1677]

I remember this all to well, we had just loaded 2000 tonnes of Gas oil from Immingjam oil terminal and were just clearing the Humber estuary when the VHF came alive on CH16,  we were listening to events unfolding almost in real time. A very very sad incident and it still makes me shiver now!  Odd metacentric heights should be mentioned ,  immediately afterwards our full ballasting , loading and stability procedures were scrutinised  minutely.

 

Trev

[tjg1677]

Just now, Vaughan said:

Yes, but that was just part of it.

Accident investigators will always tell us that a major accident does not have just one reason : it is a "cascade" of events; each one not being enough to cause the accident but when all added up, they amount to disaster.

I used to serve on logistic landing ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and part of my job was to calculate the stow plan of the army vehicles so that the ship was stable. These ships were basically Ro-ro ferries painted grey and they were inherently unstable if not loaded properly, owing to the huge open space inside, where the vehicle decks have no transverse bulkheads.

Normally the chief officer of a ship like this will look at the load he has on board and will then pump the double-bottom tanks as necessary, to add extra weight low down. "Metacentric height" without getting too technical, means that the ship's centre of buoyancy must be above its centre of gravity. If not, it capsizes. In this case the chief officer had started to pump the double-bottoms but had not finished before the ship sailed, as these ships are just a rapid bus service, and he did not have time.

The Herald was a Dover based ship and they always "bunker up" with fuel and water on a Saturday morning. This was Friday night, and so her tanks were almost empty. Where were these tanks? Low down in the double bottoms.

Most trucks coming back from a week abroad will cross the channel on a Thursday, so on Friday night, there were not many trucks. As it turned out, a lot of the trucks that were loaded had hazardous cargo and so they were loaded outside the holds on the upper decks, leaving the lower vehicle deck almost empty of trucks.

The Sun newspaper had organised a booze cruise that day, so several hundred Sun readers were coming back as foot passengers, who were all gathered in the bars on the upper deck, but had no vehicles stowed below in the holds. This is known by mariners as "top hamper".

The ship was normally used for Calais - Dover crossings and so her bow ramp was not designed for the link-span in Zeebrugge. This meant that on certain tides the ship had to be flooded slightly bow down when berthing.

It was normal practice for the bow doors to be left open when the ship sailed, in order to evacuate the truck diesel fumes from the vehicle deck. The doors would then be closed once the ship had cleared the harbour. The design of the Herald meant that her doors were well clear of the waterline and she would have to heel by easily more than 25 degrees before water came in at the corners.

What actually happened was that the ship sailed in a badly loaded unstable condition and when she turned hard left (as you have to) when leaving Zeebrugge she simply fell over to starboard. The captain realised this and tried to "steer" her back upright by going hard to starboard. Unfortunately although she came up again, she then fell over to port. By this time she had turned right round and the water had started coming in at the corner of the bow doors. The "free surface" effect of this water on the open vehicle deck then finished her off. If the captain had not made his turn to starboard, she would have capsized in the deep channel and gone right over, bottom up. As it is, she only went over sideways into the shallows, so this, and the Belgians, was what saved so many lives.

If all this had become public at the time, most cross channel ferries would have been immediately pulled out of service and it would not just have been Townsend that went out of business. Remember that the present day Pride of Dover and Pride of Calais are exactly the same design of ship and they are still sailing today.

How much more convenient to allow the press to pin it all on some little bloke who "forgot" to close the doors?

 

Absolutely 100 % spot on there Vaughan!! 

[FairTmiddlin]

I remember this very well I had 5 good freinds lost on that Piece of Junk that was hardly seaworthy.

3 good freinds survived but they were never the same people after that

[dnks34]

Very interesting reading Vaughan.  

The bosun not closing those enormous bow doors would easily be accepted by the victims families and public as the reason for the capsizing.  Did the Captain or Chief Officer take any portion of the blame, did they even survive?  

It seems to me that time pressure from the company could have played a big part in procedures not being followed and vital tasks not being completed before sailing.  

My father was in the British Army and I had the pleasure of spending all of my childhood in Germany so we used the various channel and north sea routes quite frequently.  In my early adult years I had experience with the RFA while assisting the  movements squadron whom i then worked for as a civillian unload tanks and various other military vehiclage returning from conflict on an RFA ship called the Sea Crusader at Emden.  That ship returned to its original name of Celestine years later and I think is owned or atleast operated now by Cobelfret Ferries.  I also had a spell working for P&O in Hull and was sometimes involved in loading the evening Zeebrugge service at that time served by the Norland &  Norstar.  I remember one particular evening we were loading the self drive trucks onto the Norstar,  they all drove on at the stern up the port side then looped back at the bow to come back along the starboard side.  The ship suddenly took on a hefty starboard list and chaos ensued on the radios to get more weight on the port side as the ship was being supported mainly by its mooring lines.  It never was explained why that happened, id never seen it happen before nor after in the time I was there before I moved on. 

[Vaughan]

I don't recall the RFA ship that you mention but I well remember the Norland and Norstar. they were smaller ships than the Herald, with a narrower beam and only a stern ramp, so what you describe is indeed possible! Trucks would be loaded up internal ramps to the upper vehicle deck and when this was full the ramps would be raised and then trucks would drive onto the lower deck. As a truck weighs 44 tonnes then what you describe is a classic case of instability!

The ships I served on were the Sir Lancelot class landing ships, of 7000 tons, based in Marchwood on Southampton water. If they were fully bunkered and stored for an ocean crossing, then we could only load about 15 standard Bedford army trucks before they were down to the Plimsoll Lines! Luckily they usually also had Mexeflote rafts lashed to the sides of the ship when on exercises, and these covered up the Plimsoll Lines! We were always very aware that ships such as this with open vehicle decks can be very unstable if you don't load them carefully and properly. 

[dnks34]

I have heard of the Sir Lancelot class ships.  They were still using a few of the remaining ships into Antwerp from Marchwood at the time I was over there although I never saw them, just a vessel name on a piece of paper in Northern Germany. 

This was Sea Crusader:

 

 

[Vaughan]

Yes, I have heard of her. Rather a while after my time, I'm afraid!

[Guest]

I was booked onto the Herald for this crossing. Drove back from Italy after a business trip contracting hotels for a holiday company. Made such good time and we were so early that we diverted to Calais to get an earlier ferry as they ran more frequently. We heard the news as we came out of the Dartford Tunnel and just pulled over on the hard shoulder in shock. We were lucky - 193 people werent.

[Hylander]

Just in front of where Mum and Dad are buried in Sittingbourne in Kent there is a large grave for a family that perished in this disaster.    It was so sad.          My boss' wife now sadly also deceased was one of the main stays in Zeebrugge helping families. 

[LondonRascal]

We (my family and I) back then were often going back and forth over the channel mainly on offers and stamps saved out of the papers, this was not quite 'booze cruise' culture that would follow in the 1990's but the start of it - you'd get a cut price day return for foot passengers and a free bottle of wine, you might be lucky and get a case of free bear - and us and many others would have our folding trolley's ready to wheel back our treasures from the hypermarkets or on board duty free. I can remember the scene so well of people huddled waiting to leave the boat with a mix of trolley's and bungee cords holding their bear and wine and wheels straining with the weight.

I was 8 years old and it was one of those times when you could take a kid out of school on a sneaky trip say they are unwell and nobody would know the wiser.

Just a few days before the capsize of the Herald of Free Enterprise we had gone over to Zeebrugge a couple of times, and certainly once but maybe on both occasions we were on the Herald of Free Enterprise - and a quick call to my mum to confirm things.

She reveals that she had noticed how the doors at the front would be open as the boat arrived into into the harbour the but it seemed so normal, that is just how it is no cause for concern. She also said that my dad had paid an extra supplement to have a 'quiet room' - an area glassed off front the main accommodation with smarter reclining seating. Shorty after departing for the UK, the boat, Herald of Free Enterprise, 'vibrated' and slowed suddenly. She recalls being concerned and thinking "ships like this doe not sink" but wondering what had happened since the usual rumble had subsided so much and others around looking around and wondering. She also said hearing a distant sound what she can best describe like running water. Time passed, then the engine rumble came back and the boat proceeded back over the channel and we docked safe and sound. 

I went back to school and then suddenly come the Friday it was all over the news that the Herald of Free Enterprise had capsized. You can imagine that we were all so shocked at this and blew my cover right out the window when I began telling friends 'I was on that' and 'I could have been on it when it sank' type things, but I think when you are that age you don't appreciate the scale of this and it was only as I grew older I came to see how this was a pretty close run thing.

 

[LondonRascal]

Hard to find - but here is the video of the salvage operation and very interesting it is too:

 

[Speleologist]

One good thing that came out of this was the setting up of the Marine Accident Investigation Branch, which since its inception has done an excellent job of researching the causes of accidents but without seeking to apportion blame.Over the years much has been learned in both commercial and recreational seafaring from their findings.

The  Wreck Commissioners Report on thee Herald of Free Enterprise makes salutory reading and picks up many of the points that Vaughn raised. It also makes it abundantly clear that there were serious failures by senior management, not just by the crew on board.

[ScrumpyCheddar]

Vaughan It's good that you have posted this of that sad night 30 years ago.... I remember I was with my best friend at the time... and his dad had lucky escape by missing the boat by having a blow out... at the time he was reported missing... when he phoned home to say he had missed the boat it was big relief and tears of joy.. also tears of sadness... of those who didn't make it and loss of life's.....  sad day for loss of life's sad for a brand name that was brought down by it... many lessons was learnt... 30 years on il be showing my respect at 6pm this evening for those who was lost and respect the survivors..... I met a survivor and he told me the nightmare what had happened... I would of hated it... it would of scared me for life and not got near a boat again... but he over come his fear of water and boats and he bought a boat and had it on the great Ouse where we had many happy times meeting up...

[Vaughan]

5 hours ago, Speleologist said:

The  Wreck Commissioners Report on thee Herald of Free Enterprise makes salutory reading

Thank you very much for posting this, it is the first time I have seen it.

What I have posted above is based on my own practical knowledge of ship stability, as well as what I was told by friends in the ports and on the ships at the time. One of these was once the chief engineer on the Pride of Calais.

What astounds me personally, is what the report has glossed over! They do not mention anywhere, the actual load that the ship was carrying and whereabouts it was stowed, to affect metacentric height. No mention either of the contents of the fuel and fresh water tanks, on that Friday night. I was also surprised that her speed on passing the outer mole at Zeebrugge was around 17 knots. That is a very high speed, for a ship of 8000tons loaded, to make a hard turn to port in a dredged channel!

But then, if the ship's officers were unable to read her draught marks, then they were unable to calculate her trim and were also unable to calculate the stability of her load, let alone her metacentric height, before sailing.

No wonder it was so much easier, at the time, to blame it all on one poor little bosun who, as far as I was told, was not necessarily responsible for closing those doors anyway.

[quo vadis]

The captain is ultimately responsible for his vessel and crew/passengers 

[Vaughan]

Thank you very much for that film Robin. Very informative and also most nostalgic. I had already sailed on that ship several times, before the day.

I had to go and find someone else's computer before I could play it, but well worth the effort.

 

 

Out of interest, here is the RFA landing ship Sir Galahad, in 1972. I sailed on her many times, as well as the others of her class. I was also in charge of the helicopter flight deck, which was great fun! She went on to be sunk, 10 years later, in the Falklands War.

I took the photo in Belfast docks, just after we had discharged a battalion of soldiers, with all their vehicles, weapons and stores. By entire co-incidence, I took the photo on the same day that later became known as Bloody Sunday.

 

 

[truckyboy]

As a frequent traveller on many of these ships..from the FE1 to the present day ones..we always left port with the bow doors open..supposedly to clear the fumes,,on the day in question i was working for ( wally) Eldridge..i had arrived in good time to the port, and was booked on this ferry..had the boarding pass etc to hand as well..another driver from the same company arrived, and couldnt get booked on, but needed to get home early because his boy who was with him had to go to school..he asked if i would swap places, and i agreed. I spoke with him afterwards, and he told me there were no cabins available, and decided to sleep in his cab..but there was lots of noises of banging at the bow doors, as if something was stuck..so decided to go back upstairs..they never reached the top, when she keeled over..but none the less survived the ordeal..and yes i am a genuine person and not one who states something that isnt true.

[NotDeadYet]

On 06/03/2017 at 12:07, LondonRascal said:

the video of the salvage operation and very interesting it is too

Thank you for this Robin, Vaughan, and other contributors. Very interesting and impressive heavy engineering.  I was somewhere in Africa at the time, but news of the tragedy went around the world - the recovery less so.  Since the disaster, I've been on large ferries perhaps four times, but have never felt comfortable.  Similarly, I've resisted all attempts to get me on to one of those ridiculously large cruise ships that appear to defy stability logic.  

[Smoggy]

I remember a short time after the event seeing the name of a guy I was at school with in the local paper, he wasn't one of the unfortunate ones but had recieved a bravery award (not sure what or who from now), it seems he had ran along the side with an axe knocking windows through and helped quite a few get out when it was on it's side.

He was a daft sod but great respect to him for that little stunt.