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The investigation revealed that due to negligence, nobody closed the bow doors before sailing.
20 years after the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster
193 lives lost to the disease of sloppiness
20 years have past since the fatal accident of the ro-ro passenger ship The Herald of Free Enterprise. In the evening of March 6, 1987, she capsized shortly after leaving Zeebrugge for Dover. 193 people, passengers and crew, lost their lives.
The investigation revealed that due to negligence, nobody closed the bow doors before sailing. Less than two minutes after leaving the harbour, large quantities of water began to enter the car deck. The open car deck had no dividers, thus allowing vehicles to drive in and out easily. However, as she turned, it meant all water flooded to one side.
Within seconds, the ship began to list 30 degrees to port and lost main and emergency power. She capsized in less than a minute and ended on the side, half-submerged in shallow water on a sandbank 90 meters from the shore.
In July 1987, a report from the public inquiry on the sinking concluded that negligence at every level of the company’s hierarchy was what led to the disaster and that the failure of the shore management to give proper and clear directions was a contributory cause of the disaster. In the report, the wreck commissioner wrote: “From top to bottom the body corporate was infected with the disease of sloppiness.”
On schedule at all cost
Apparently, the assistant bosun was responsible for shutting the bow doors. He was still asleep after his break and since it was his job, no one else closed them. The First Officer should have stayed on the car deck to make sure the doors were closed, but the urge to keep the schedule made him leave the car deck and go to the bridge. The investigation found that this was normal procedure.
The operations manager in Zeebrugge had sent a memo in August 1986 that read: “Put pressure on the first officer if you don’t think he is moving fast enough … Let’s put the record straight, sailing late out of Zeebrugge isn’t on.”
Finally, there was the captain who was not able to see the bow doors from the bridge. He just assumed that they were closed.
Other causes
Since one of the Herald’s sister ships without incident once sailed from Dover to Zeebrugge with the bow doors open, it is believed that the open doors alone did not cause the capsize. But the Herald was also ballasted down to fit the loading ramp at Zeebrugge, which was too low at high tide, and this together with the squat effect in the shallow water caused her to take in water.
Many of IMOs most important initiatives have been prompted by disasters, and the shocks of the Herald of Free Enterprise without doubt helped improve the ro-ro safety.
In 1988 came amendments regarding the integrity of the hull and superstructure, damage prevention and control. It is worth noting that the changes entered into force only 18 months after adoption. A year later, in 1989, came the resolution adopting the first guidelines for a safety management system. The purpose was to ensure safety and prevent maritime casualties and pollution of the sea and this was the forerunner to the ISM code that is mandatory since 1998.
One of the most important amendments is the SOLAS 90 that deals with the stability of passenger ships in damaged condition. It was actually initiated after the capsizing of the European Gateway in 1982, but the work was no doubt put in higher gear after the Herald disaster. Britain wanted to make SOLAS 90 mandatory also on existing ships, but although the IMO member states agreed that an improvement was needed, the majority felt that the standard was too high and a modified, less costly alternative was agreed upon. After the Estonia sank in 1994, further measures were introduced and this time the SOLAS 90 standard was accepted.
The Herald of Free Enterprise was later lifted and renamed the Flushing Range. She embarked on her final voyage to a scrap yard in India in 1988, thus ending a sad chapter in maritime history.
//Cecilia Österman
Latest update 19-03-2007 16:26
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