Zeebrugge disaster documentary.

[paulchapo]

On channel five tonight at 9pm, Why ships sink. I remember it happening vividly, I was on the shipping federation waiting for a ship, living at my parents. It was a Friday evening and they were out. I remember the newsflash coming on the TV and I spent all night following any news I could get. A good Blue from Wythenshawe, Geoff Haney, a chef, died onboard. Tragic and bizarely a few weeks later I was offered a job with the same company, Townsend Thoreson, after being out of work for eight months. I was one of the replacements for the crew that died that night. The company charted a ship called the Vortigan to replace the Herald temporarily before their new superferry the Pride of Dover came in and we all transferred onto that.

One thing that wound me up no end was the amount of passengers who thought it was fucking hilarious to say, "Have you shut the doors?" If I heard that once I heard it a thousand times. Considering every single crew member on on all the ships knew at least one person who'd died on the Herald I was astounded by their insensitivity.

 

[Two Gun Bob]

My sympathy lies wholly with the 193 passengers and crew that died through the negligence of the Heralds crew members whose responsibility it was to close those bow doors. IE 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. Gross misconduct of the highest calibre. Wasnt he asleep?

 

[MillionMilesAway]

I was on a ferry that night, from about 40 miles up the coast at Vlissingen to Kent leaving about 30 minutes apart from the Herald.
Seeing the newspaper headlines when arriving in Kent was pretty grim, with a coach to Manchester to follow before mobile phones.

 

[paulchapo]

My sympathy lies wholly with the 193 passengers and crew that died through the negligence of the Heralds crew members whose responsibility it was to close those bow doors. IE 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. Gross misconduct of the highest calibre. Wasnt he asleep?

I'd worked on one of the sister ships the Pride of Free Enterprise for a summer season in 1984. Everybody drank onboard from the captain down, it was allowed back then. The thing was the same people had been doing the job for years and nothing ever went wrong. So for X amount of years Mark Stanley had closed the bow doors before departure. The mate finished loading and went off deck presuming Mark was closing the doors. Sadly he'd fallen asleep on his bunk and nobody had double checked he'd done it. The captain set sail with them open and the rest is history. The company and procedures rightly got hammered in the enquiry. I worked on there feeling totally safe, little knowing just how lax procedures actually were. We all had a "There but for the grace of God go I " moment I can tell you.

 

[Two Gun Bob]

I'd worked on one of the sister ships the Pride of Free Enterprise for a summer season in 1984. Everybody drank onboard from the captain down, it was allowed back then. The thing was the same people had been doing the job for years and nothing ever went wrong. So for X amount of years Mark Stanley had closed the bow doors before departure. The mate finished loading and went off deck presuming Mark was closing the doors. Sadly he'd fallen asleep on his bunk and nobody had double checked he'd done it. The captain set sail with them open and the rest is history. The company and procedures rightly got hammered in the enquiry. I worked on there feeling totally safe, little knowing just how lax procedures actually were. We all had a "There but for the grace of God go I " moment I can tell you.

The sea as you know is a dangerous place, taking no prisoners when thing go wrong. Maybe some of those follow on passengers were rightly anxious about the bow doors being in the closed postion as their ferry set sail. Maybe some were being facetious, but I'd wager many others were as nervous as fook, as it's not an end of life experiance I'd care to partake.

 

[Scaley]

I was meant to be on that ferry but my Sergeant Major put my leave back a week. I went from calling him every name under the sun (not to his face) to buying him a pint. What struck me when I left Zeebrugge a week later was just how close to port the HOFE actually was when it capsized. I can’t begin to imagine what the crew/passengers went through especially on what thousands of people saw as a routine trip.

 

[bluethrunthru]

Over the years I have heard some tools say that the Estonia sinking was similar which is just wrong. The Estonia foundered because of the failure of a bow shield in heavy weather. Ultimately the problem with the Herald was the quick turnaround required, the lack of visibility on the bow door and lax practises that allowed it to embed itself in usual practise - had it not been this vessel it would have likely been another one another time......... the installation of camera's and monitors on the bridge to cover the bow doors is what always comes to mind when anyone says Red Tape. Red Tape is there for a reason - it saves lives

 

[knuckles]

I was meant to be on that ferry but my Sergeant Major put my leave back a week. I went from calling him every name under the sun (not to his face) to buying him a pint. What struck me when I left Zeebrugge a week later was just how close to port the HOFE actually was when it capsized. I can’t begin to imagine what the crew/passengers went through especially on what thousands of people saw as a routine trip.

I was on it the week before going home on leave, I'd sailed on it a good few times over the years, the weird thing was the car deck was really soaking when we docked that last time, like it had been flooded, strange when I look back, RIP to all those poor souls.

 

[paulchapo]

The sea as you know is a dangerous place, taking no prisoners when thing go wrong. Maybe some of those follow on passengers were rightly anxious about the bow doors being in the closed postion as their ferry set sail. Maybe some were being facetious, but I'd wager many others were as nervous as fook, as it's not an end of life experiance I'd care to partake.

I know I worked on it for 42 years. Sorry but every single person who said it thought they were the first to say it and laughed loud as they did. It was actually one of the safest times to travel as after the disaster safety was paramount as you'd imagine. Crew were working 24 hours on at that time so it was no surprise occasionally one would fall asleep on a break. Unfortunately on that night it was the man who's job it was to close the bow doors. The coroner rightly panned the company's procedures and the profit before people policy. Fast forward 35 years and the same company has just done the same thing again, sacked all the long established experienced crew and replaced them with cheap foreign labour, working Ng long hours with no rights.

 

[paulchapo]

I was on it the week before going home on leave, I'd sailed on it a good few times over the years, the weird thing was the car deck was really soaking when we docked that last time, like it had been flooded, strange when I look back, RIP to all those poor souls.

The car decks were often wet as the deck crew washed them down with hosepipes on a regular basis.