March 6: On This Day in World History … briefly
The vessel was salvaged, put up for sale, and sold to Naviera SA Kingstown on September 30, 1987, renamed Flushing Range. It was taken to Taiwan on March 22, 1988 to be dismantled.
1987: British ferry sails into a nightmare
A British-owned cross-channel ferry overturned in shallow water outside the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. 193 passengers and crew members drowned in one of Europe’s worst maritime disasters in recent years. Most of the passengers were British. The eight-deck car and passenger ferry was owned by Townsend Thoresen, designed for rapid loading and unloading on the competitive cross-channel route, and there were no watertight compartments.
The Herald of Free Enterprise had just set sail after taking scores of cars on board through the open bow section, but rescuers could not confirm if the bow doors had been left open in error. Ships and helicopters from Belgian and Dutch ports arrived quickly to save those passengers who had escaped death. Survivors told horrific tales of being hurled across the lounges as the ship suddenly turned turtle.
The immediate cause of the sinking was found to be negligence by the assistant boatswain, who was asleep in his cabin when he should have been closing the bow-door. However, the official inquiry placed more blame on his supervisors and a general culture of poor communication in Townsend Thoresen.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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