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RIP all those that perished in Zeebrugge 30 years today.

sadiejane1981sadiejane1981
in Not Sports Related
Today marks the 30th anniversary of one of the most tragic and avoidable disasters in our history. I know that a few members of my family on here are still scarred from losing relatives on that boat my thoughts and prayers are with the 200 that perished, their friends and families and especially the children some left behind who are close to my heart. RIP GOD BLESS xxxxx

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/06/zeebrugge-ferry-disaster-services-remember-victims-herald-free/

Comments

  • SwisdomSwisdom
    I went on the same route, with Townsend Thoreson a week or two after it on a school trip to Holland. We went past the Herald of Free Enterprise and saw it there. Can't believe it was 30 years ago and has no idea there were that many who perished.

    RIP
  • Johnnysummers5Johnnysummers5
    RIP
  • CafcWestCafcWest
    edited March 2017
    RIP. Remember it clearly. Still, to this day, cannot believe the ferry could start moving away from the dock with the front doors still open.
  • Brendan_O_ConnellBrendan_O_Connell
    RIP
  • soapy_jonessoapy_jones
    edited March 2017
    RIP. These sort of tragedies are marker points in a life. 30 years ago, blimey.
  • MrOneLungMrOneLung
    Swisdom said:

    I went on the same route, with Townsend Thoreson a week or two after it on a school trip to Holland. We went past the Herald of Free Enterprise and saw it there. Can't believe it was 30 years ago and has no idea there were that many who perished.

    RIP

    Exactly the same went with school.
    1 week later - on Friday the13th

    RIP all.
  • TunwellsaddickTunwellsaddick
    edited March 2017
    Can't believe it was 30 years ago. RIP.
  • Tom_HoviTom_Hovi
    I remember this so well as I was working for P&O (a different division of the company to that which had recently purchased Townsend Thoreson.) It was a Friday evening and I was on weekend phone duty. All of us who worked in Fleet Operations had to take a turn on the rota and it just happened to be my turn. I clearly remember one of our Ship's Masters phoning me to tell me what had happened - his tanker had just sailed from Antwerp (from memory) and was receiving all of the various distress calls. He was almost in tears when he phoned me as he was powerless to help due to the shallow waters in which the Herald had capsized and yet he knew people were dying almost within sight of him.

    P&O had only completed the purchase of TT about a fortnight before this incident - it turned out that their H&S procedures were extremely slack; to sail a ferry with the bow doors still open almost beggars belief.
  • UboatUboat
    Heard a report on the radio this morning, including interviews with survivors, and it really made my blood run cold. One thing I hadn't realised was that the first thing that happened was all the lights went out and they were plunged into total darkness in many parts of the boat. I couldn't stop thinking about trying to get my family together and find a way out. It's just the stuff of nightmares.
    RIP
  • Plumstead_MickyPlumstead_Micky
    Yes, RIP to them; unbelievable as said, about how they used to sail out of the harbour with the doors open. They did this to clear the fumes from the car decks apparently, but someone forgot to close them and as the boat gathered speed and the waves got higher and started to pour in.
    I remember first hearing this news on the radio and the next day when I saw the ferry on it's side and saw it's name above the doors I realised that I had been on that boat a few years previously on a school journey.
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  • Alex WrightAlex Wright
    MrOneLung said:

    Swisdom said:

    I went on the same route, with Townsend Thoreson a week or two after it on a school trip to Holland. We went past the Herald of Free Enterprise and saw it there. Can't believe it was 30 years ago and has no idea there were that many who perished.

    RIP

    Exactly the same went with school.
    1 week later - on Friday the13th

    RIP all.
    Me too. Day trip booked months before. We went on deck to see the stricken ferry as we passed and it was a very chilling sight.
    RIP to all who lost their lives and thought are with those who lost friends and family in the tragedy.
  • SwisdomSwisdom
    MrOneLung said:

    Swisdom said:

    I went on the same route, with Townsend Thoreson a week or two after it on a school trip to Holland. We went past the Herald of Free Enterprise and saw it there. Can't believe it was 30 years ago and has no idea there were that many who perished.

    RIP

    Exactly the same went with school.
    1 week later - on Friday the13th

    RIP all.
    You weren't at Wentworth school were you @MrOneLung ? That would be even freakier
  • sralansralan
    Good school mate of mine died that day. Can't believe it's 30 years ago. RIP all of the lost ones.
  • LincsaddickLincsaddick
    R I P
  • MrOneLungMrOneLung
    Swisdom said:

    MrOneLung said:

    Swisdom said:

    I went on the same route, with Townsend Thoreson a week or two after it on a school trip to Holland. We went past the Herald of Free Enterprise and saw it there. Can't believe it was 30 years ago and has no idea there were that many who perished.

    RIP

    Exactly the same went with school.
    1 week later - on Friday the13th

    RIP all.
    You weren't at Wentworth school were you @MrOneLung ? That would be even freakier
    Bit older - Dartford Grammar.
  • TrampTramp
    Regular across the Channel in those days, 4 or 5 times a year. Ferries working to such a tight timetable doors were invariably open as they entered Calais harbour and sometimes still open as they cast off. Townsend Thorenson, P&O, Sealink, and French SNCF all as bad, P&O, who had just bought TT to supplement their clapped out old wrecks, should have been done for corporate manslaughter.

    Crossed to Calais on booze cruise six days later, normally full bars and duty free shop empty, crowds around the Muster Stations, all deadly quiet. The other two "Free Enterprise" ferries taken out of service, so we were all crammed on smaller P&O craft - a memorable journey for all the wrong reasons.

  • Cardinal SinCardinal Sin
    My Old Man was booked on that but overslept and missed his sailing out so didn't go.....
  • alan dugdalealan dugdale
    Remember it well and also cannot believe thirty years have passed.

    RIP
  • i_b_b_o_r_gi_b_b_o_r_g
    RIP
  • uie2uie2
    Remember it all to well! Horrible tragedy! RIP all the victims
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  • DealAddickDealAddick
    My dad was due to work on the Herald that evening but got transferred to another ship at the last minute, he lost so many friends that night and he has never spoke of the incident to me as it all still seems so raw to him, if he was on board that night i probably wouldn't be here today.

    RIP to all who perished.
  • sadiejane1981sadiejane1981
    Cardinal Sin said:

    My Old Man was booked on that but overslept and missed his sailing out so didn't go.....

    DealAddick said:

    My dad was due to work on the Herald that evening but got transferred to another ship at the last minute, he lost so many friends that night and he has never spoke of the incident to me as it all still seems so raw to him, if he was on board that night i probably wouldn't be here today.

    RIP to all who perished.

    Talk about lucky dads! It's scary to think how close we come sometimes.
  • i_b_b_o_r_gi_b_b_o_r_g
    I'm sure a girl I went Thorntree School with had very close relatives on board. Maybe someone on here may know more, first name Kelly?

    As above, RIP
  • sadiejane1981sadiejane1981
    i_b_b_o_r_g said:

    I'm sure a girl I went Thorntree School with had very close relatives on board. Maybe someone on here may know more, first name Kelly?

    As above, RIP

    How old are you? I know a Kelly, her parents died on the ship and she had 2 sisters and a brother too but she's only a few years older than me.
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