English Channel is one of the busiest sea
route in the modern world. Thousands of people cross it every day. Many companies
run ships(Ferry) across the route to transport people and their vehicles across
this ocean's stretch. When a disaster struck such an ill-fated ferry this led
to the worst maritime disaster in world history since the Titanic.
Belgian port of zeebrugge hustles with
people throughout the year. It is a major destination for ferries crossing the English
Channel routed towards this country. This port is built on shallow water and maintains
a lot of traffic throughout the year.
“Townsend Thorensen” owned “MS Herald of
Free enterprise” was en route from zeebrugge to Dover in England. It was to
carry 80 crew members, 459 passengers, 3 busses, 81 cars and 47 trucks. At 5pm
the lower deck started filling up with vehicles. After the lower deck was
filled, in order to accommodate more, captain let some water into the lower
hull in order to lower the ship's level and to let vehicles pass onto the upper
deck.
The deck filling was completed in haste in
order to cope with the departure time. A crew member named Stanley received a
break and went to his chamber for a nap. However he had to perform a final part
of his duty. He had to close the bow doors at the front of the ship which led
the vehicles in. The ship started sail at 6:05 pm instead of 6pm with Stanley
still sleeping in his cabin. Although it had its bow door open, with a hude
opening at the front, it could have made it all the way to Dover safely. As you can see from the picture below.
The real twist lays here.
The captain and crew members feel a lot of
pressure from company owners for the perspective of punctuality. In order to
recover the lost time after around 12 minutes after the ship set sail, captain
increased the speed up to 18 knots(maximum possible speed). And minutes later
the ship was already sinking. Investigations show that within a speed of 12-13
knots the waves produced at front of ship(bow waves) always remained beneath
the bow doors. But in shallow water of zeebrugge with speed of 18 knots created
waves which reached up to the three-fourth height of the bow gates. As ship was
already a meter lower, it let more and more water inside. With vehicles inside
the ship inclined an angle of 30 degrees and due to buoyancy it returned back
to initial position completing one oscillation. But due to inertia of motion,
it inclined further more (point of no return) and capsized sideways onto an
elevated terrain in the sea. Captain tried for a may-day call, but before he
could do this, he got hit and got unconscious. This incident claimed lives of
193 people including crew. It turned out that the elevated ground beneath the
sea actually acted as a Saviour by not letting the ship sink with people
trapped within. This provided opportunity for rescuers to save people.
Zeebrugge suffered an ill fate. British government has made sure that such thing never happens again.
Always Be Prepared!!
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