Herald of Free Enterprise
Herald of Free Enterprise 1984 in Dover
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The Herald of Free Enterprise ( German herald of free enterprise ) was a RoRo ferry of the shipping company Townsend Thoresen (today Dubai Ports World ) and normally used in the Calais - Dover liner service .
On the evening of March 6, 1987 , the ship capsized while leaving the port of Zeebrugge . Of the 623 people on board, 193 were killed.
history
The ferry, built in 1980 at the Schichau Unterweser shipyard in Bremerhaven, had flaps on the bow and stern just above the waterline, which enabled the ship to be loaded and unloaded quickly in the port.
Downfall
When the ship left the port of Bruges-Zeebrugge in the direction of Dover on March 6, 1987 at around 7 p.m. with 543 passengers and 80 crew members on board, the 2nd bosun, who was responsible for checking the bow doors, was sleeping in his cabin. After leaving the port, the ship was accelerated. When the sea was rough, a large amount of water quickly seeped into the ship through the open bow hatches. Due to the amount of water and the sliding cargo, the ship leaned to port until the Herald of Free Enterprise capsized within two minutes.
Luckily in misfortune was the fact that the Herald of Free Enterprise did not go under completely, but ran aground on a sandbank at a depth of about nine meters and remained lying on the port side (position 51 ° 22 ′ 28.5 ″ N , 3 ° 11 ′ 26 ″ O ). With the help of the rescue teams that arrived quickly - the first rescue helicopter was over the ship within 19 minutes, the first ship arrived at the scene of the accident only a little later, thanks to a prudent crew and a few passengers - more than 400 people were rescued from the ship become. For 193 people - different sources indicate slightly different numbers of victims to this day - any help came too late.
For his prudent and courageous performance, Wolfgang Schröder , the captain of the first ship to arrive at the scene of the accident, received a letter of thanks from Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and was honored with an order of heroes by the Belgian king.
examination
According to the latest results of the investigation, the ship overturned due to a tragic combination of several factors.
In order to minimize downtimes in the port and thus costs, it was common practice to close the bow hatches only after they were cast down on the way to the port exit. Since the bow flaps could not be seen from the bridge and there were also no control lights that could have confirmed the closure of the flaps to those responsible on the bridge, it was the boatswain's job to check this. However, according to the regulations, the boatswain also had to stay on the bridge while sailing, which is why he entrusted control of the bow flaps to an assistant.
The open bow door alone would not have capsized the ship even at full speed, since the bow wave did not reach the lower edge of the car deck. In the past, the shipping company's ships operated with open bow doors without this leading to accidents. In order to be able to load the upper ro-ro deck of the ferry in the port of Zeebrugge, however, the ship had flooded the ballast tanks, as otherwise the port's loading ramp would not have been able to reach the deck. This means that the ship already had a greater draft when it left the port. The shallow water near the port also created a suction effect ( shallow water effect ) during the voyage , which also pulled the ship downwards and thus only enabled water to enter the car deck .
scrapping
In October 1987 the ship was to be towed to Taiwan for scrapping. In a storm in the Bay of Biscay , north of A Coruña , the steel cables with which the Herald of Free Enterprise and another ferry that was to be scrapped were attached to a tugboat broke. As a result, the accident ferry floated driverless in the sea, which led to the impairment of shipping in the area. On March 23, 1988, the demolition of the ship finally began in Kaohsiung .
Reception of the event
- After the accident, a group of British musicians recorded a new version of the Beatles hit Let It Be under the name Ferry Aid , and the proceeds went to benefit the relatives of the victims.
- The Belgian musician Milow wrote a song about the accident that appeared on the albums “Coming of Age” and “Milow” (2009 / Homerun Records).
- The fifth episode of the second season from Seconds Before the Calamity , entitled "The Fall of the Herald of Free Enterprise " deals with the calamity.
- Images of the Herald of Free Enterprise lying on its side are shown in Krzysztof Kieślowski's film Three Colors: Red (1994).
literature
- Joachim Hahne: Ferry accident in front of Zeebrugge. In: Rolf Schönknecht (ed.): Trans-Magazin Schiffahrt , transpress VEB Verlag for Transport, Berlin 1989, pp. 52–59
Web links
- MV Herald of Free Enterprise - Report of Court No. 8074. Formal Investigation, Marine Accident Investigation Branch, Department of Transport, 1987, ISBN 0-11-550828-7
Footnotes
- ↑ Chick Gedney: Zim Mexico III accident in Mobile, AL - Captain held at fault for Mechanical Failure Due to Design Flaw ( Memento of September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Sidelights, Volume 36, No. 4, Winter 2006, The Council of American Master Mariners, Inc., pp. 10-11 (PDF file, 809 kB). Quote: "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. "