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The British car ferry M/S Herald of Free Enterprise departs the port of Zeebrugge in Belgium. The crew accidentally left the bow doors open and water enters the car deck, causing the ferry to capsize, taking the lives of 193 passengers and crew.
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00:01The English Channel, the world's busiest shipping lane.
00:06Every day, tens of thousands cross it by ferry.
00:09It's a safe, routine trip.
00:12Until one ship capsizes just over a kilometer outside port.
00:18Within 90 seconds, hundreds of people are fighting for their lives in the icy water.
00:24193 died in Britain's worst maritime accident since the Titanic.
00:30Now, with advanced computer simulations, we reveal exactly what went wrong on the Herald of Free Enterprise.
00:38Disasters don't just happen, they're a chain of critical events.
00:43Unravel the decisions that triggered those final seconds from disaster.
00:57Europe, Belgium, Seebrugge.
01:08Ferries from England and Germany sail in and out of this bustling North Sea port every day.
01:18March 6th, 1987. A chilly winter's day.
01:25The Herald of Free Enterprise, an 8,000-ton car and passenger ferry owned by the European shipping company Townsend
01:31Toroson, arrives from Dover.
01:33She's made the four and a half hour journey across the English Channel safely thousands of times.
01:43The Herald is on a tight schedule. She must complete four crossings every day.
01:50And between each trip, her crew must offload passengers and vehicles, clean the ship and then reload for the next
01:56trip.
01:56All in the space of 90 minutes.
01:59Today, the Herald is just barely staying on schedule.
02:064 p.m.
02:12Assistant bosun Mark Stanley finishes up cleaning the car deck, ready for the return trip to England.
02:19He's been on duty for more than five hours, but will get an hour-long break before the ship sails
02:24for home.
02:27While the Herald's crew works hard, her passengers savor the last hours ashore, enjoying the shops, restaurants and cheap alcohol
02:34of continental Europe.
02:37Most are British tourists, like 19-year-old bartender Simon Osborne. He's on a day trip to Belgium with a
02:43group of friends.
02:46We spent the afternoon on a pub crawl, you know, from bar to bar around Last End.
02:51It was a really good day, a good lads day out.
02:55They order one last round of drinks. Soon, they'll be leaving to sail home on the Herald.
03:084.30 p.m.
03:12Assistant bosun Mark Stanley completes his duties and heads to a crew cabin for his break.
03:17He won't be needed on the car deck again until just before the ship sails at 6 p.m.
03:25On the bridge, the Herald's captain, David Lurie, who has ten years' experience commanding ships.
03:32He double-checks his route home across the channel. It'll be his second crossing of the day.
03:39By 5 p.m., cars and trucks are starting to roll onto the Herald's lower car deck through her giant
03:45bow doors.
03:48A cut-price ticket deal means the ship will be at capacity tonight, and the crew have just one hour
03:53to complete loading.
03:58Once the lower deck is full, the crew must load the upper car deck.
04:07But there's a problem. The loading ramp at Seebrugge doesn't reach the upper car deck.
04:13To reduce the gap, the captain must lower the ship in the water.
04:16He does this by pumping sea water into her ballast tanks.
04:21After 30 minutes, the ship sits one meter lower in the water.
04:25Only now can loading of the upper deck begin.
04:36The cheap ticket deal means the ship is packed with passengers, too.
04:40Tonight, there are 459 on board.
04:455.30 p.m.
04:46Michael and Maureen Bennett, their 20-year-old daughter Teresa and her boyfriend, make their way home after a day
04:52out by the seaside.
04:55Teresa arranged the outing to mark a special family occasion for her mother and father.
05:01It was our wedding anniversary on the 1st of April, and Teresa thought it'd be nice to take us out.
05:07We walked along Ostend Harbour, all around the lovely shops there.
05:12We really had a smashing time over there.
05:205.45 p.m.
05:2215 minutes to departure.
05:25The crew struggles to load the upper car deck in time.
05:30First Officer Leslie Sable is in charge of loading, and he's feeling the heat.
05:36Turnarounds are so tight that even a short hold-up here could throw out the Herald schedule for subsequent crossings.
05:43Crew member Lee Cornelius is hard at work.
05:46There's always a bit of a rush at the end.
05:48Cars turn up just before he's sailing and fill the ship up.
05:585.57 p.m.
06:02The crew finally finishes loading, but they're too late. The Herald will not depart on schedule tonight.
06:10Lee Cornelius places the safety chain across the bow doors.
06:18First Officer Sable tells Captain Lurie that loading is complete.
06:22OK, loading complete. Copy that.
06:25Then he heads for his position on the bridge.
06:27Stations or stations.
06:29They're all the free enterprise to back to leave the harbour. Proceeding.
06:33The announcement, harbour stations calls crew members to their posts for departure.
06:39Lee Cornelius leaves the car deck to report to his station.
06:486.05 p.m.
06:52Captain Lurie starts up the ship's three 9,000 horsepower engines.
06:58They're five minutes late.
07:01But weather reports say the channel is calm with only a light wind.
07:05He might be able to make up the time on the crossing.
07:11Michael and Maureen Bennett go to the restaurant on Seadeck to grab a bite to eat.
07:18Spirits are high among the homeward bound passengers.
07:21It was a happy atmosphere on board. It was, you know, everybody had enjoyed themselves.
07:27Their daughter Teresa and her boyfriend are also on Seadeck, relaxing in the lounge area.
07:35We got a drink. We just sat talking about the crossing back.
07:41I don't really like travelling on boats, though. It's quite a big thing for me to travel out there anyway.
07:47The Herald steams out of Zebrugge Harbour.
07:49She's now heading out into the icy waters of the North Sea.
07:5619-year-old Simon Osborne leaves his friends in the cafeteria.
08:00He goes to the perfume counter on Seadeck to buy a gift for his girlfriend.
08:076.24 p.m.
08:10As the ship approaches the outer harbour, Captain Lurie accelerates up to 18 knots, the maximum speed permitted.
08:19There's a party atmosphere among the homeward bound passengers.
08:24Then, out of the blue.
08:29The ship lurches violently, throwing Simon Osborne off balance.
08:34Very suddenly there was a jolt, and the woman turned round and kind of stared at me and started screaming.
08:45In the cafeteria, people think nothing of it.
08:50Government worker Michael Reynolds recalls the scene.
08:53You heard the old person say cheers, you know, with a typical British sense of humour.
08:59The ship stabilises, and everything returns to normal.
09:04The passengers go back to having fun.
09:09But down below, on the ship's car deck, something is terribly wrong.
09:18Just over a kilometre outside Zebrugger Harbour, something is desperately wrong on the Townsend Toroson ship, the Herald of Free
09:25Enterprise.
09:28The Herald starts to veer off course.
09:31Captain Lurie wrestles with the controls.
09:34But she's not responding.
09:39Then, on E-deck, the lower car deck, a crew member alerts one of the assistant purses.
09:45There's a big problem.
09:48Water.
09:49Vast amounts of it pour down the stairs from the upper car deck.
09:55The purser races up the stairs to C-deck, where there's a radio.
10:00He desperately tries to call the bridge.
10:03But there's no response.
10:136.28pm.
10:17Now, a massive jolt.
10:20This time the ship tilts a full 30 degrees to the left.
10:26Before Captain Lurie can issue a mayday call, the tilting ship throws him to the floor.
10:31The fall knocks him unconscious.
10:35As the ship tilts, English couple Michael and Maureen Bennett struggle to hold onto their table in the cafeteria.
10:41The sensation you get is like somebody's pulling a rug from underneath you.
10:45You can't get any got hold, you can't hold onto anything.
10:50The 8,000-ton ship now starts to roll over.
10:5719-year-old Simon Osborne loses his footing.
11:00I was sliding down.
11:02It was as if, literally, the world had been turned upside down.
11:05The only thing that was stopping me from going over, because the tables were strapped to the floor.
11:09If the tables had shifted, I would have gone.
11:12As the Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes, there's a terrible grinding noise.
11:19Now the seawater breaks through the ship's portholes.
11:25I was standing there, rooted, staring at this wall of white water coming towards me.
11:30And I thought then, you're gonna die.
11:33The ship's sinking, and you're gonna die.
11:40Thousands of tons of water gush into the ship under huge pressure.
11:46It's just like having a fire hose field on you, really.
11:48It just pushed you back up the boat.
12:01Michael Bennett's wife, Maureen, can't swim.
12:04He's desperately trying to keep her head above water.
12:07But the rushing torrent makes it harder and harder for Michael to keep his grip.
12:13I really, really panicked.
12:15I just panicked.
12:16I knew I was gonna die.
12:17I had Maureen, my hand on her bra and her clothes, holding on tight to her.
12:24And that's the only way I could keep hold of her until that water had settled down.
12:27Otherwise, she would have been gone.
12:33The ferry's entire left side sinks into the North Sea,
12:38leaving only its right flank visible above the water.
12:42In a stroke of luck, the ship comes to rest on a sandbank.
12:48The sandbank stops it from sinking further.
12:51At least, for now.
13:00At the edge of the harbour, the Belgian vessel Sandaris dredges the shipping channel.
13:05She's about one kilometre from the Herald.
13:09Her crew sees the bright lights of the Herald flicker and then go out.
13:22They radios a brugger port controller Guido Derudere.
13:29Derudere immediately issues a mayday, requesting all nearby boats to rush to the aid of the stripping ship.
13:38Andre Pat is the skipper of the tugboat Seahorse.
13:41As soon as he receives the port controller's call, he and his crew rush to the ferry.
13:55Inside the flooded Herald, more than 500 passengers and crew fight for survival.
14:04A dazed Michael Bennett struggles to keep his wife Maureen afloat in the freezing water.
14:14The Bennett's daughter, Theresa, finds herself alone in another part of the ship.
14:20Her leather coat fills with air and acts like a makeshift lightjack.
14:30But now, people struggling in the water below her try to grab her to stay afloat.
14:36You could feel people holding onto your coat, holding onto your trousers...
14:40...and literally trying to climb over you.
14:45One of the worst things is you've got someone holding onto you and then all of a sudden it's gone.
14:59Passengers who've managed to survive now face another deadly enemy, hypothermia.
15:04You start to think, are you gonna get out? Are we gonna die?
15:10The North Sea water is just a few degrees above freezing.
15:14At these temperatures, most people will lose consciousness in just 20 minutes.
15:19Mayday relay, mayday relay. Ostend, ostend, ostend radio.
15:25Playday message number one.
15:27A glass partition traps government employee Michael Reynolds.
15:33To keep his head above water, he stands on the side of a chair fixed to the floor.
15:39Water inside the ship continues to rise rapidly.
15:43There was no more than 18 inches of air.
15:47And I remember thinking, if we go any deeper, then, you know, that is it.
15:596.40pm. 12 minutes since the Herald keeled over.
16:07The rescue tugboat seahorse nears the 8,000-ton ship.
16:13The tugboat crew break windows to get to the panicking passengers trapped below.
16:226.43pm. 15 minutes since the capsize.
16:29The water levels finally stabilize.
16:35Teresa Bennett has no idea where her parents and boyfriend are.
16:40She shivers. The water is just 3 degrees Celsius.
16:45The water was very, very cold indeed. Your body just shuts down.
16:52If Teresa isn't rescued in the next five minutes, she risks losing consciousness.
16:57Drowning would then be inevitable.
17:05Towards the stern of the ship, Teresa's parents also struggle against the cold.
17:1335 minutes after the Herald capsizes, Coast Guard helicopters help pick up survivors.
17:18Rescue ships continue to arrive.
17:22Local divers turn up to offer help.
17:25It's extremely dangerous to dive inside an unstable ship,
17:28but they know they are the survivors' only chance.
17:34Belgian Piet Lagaste is a diver from a local salvage company.
17:37He makes his way through floating bodies and debris, calling out to people in the darkened ship.
17:42Is anyone alive? Hello?
17:47With the lights, we saw that the people in the water were moving.
17:51We also saw people in the water who were motionless, who had probably died,
17:55but we went for the people who were moving, who put out their arms or called,
17:59because you know these people are still alive.
18:02They are still alive.
18:05Further along sea deck, Simon Osborne is all alone.
18:09His friends are nowhere to be seen.
18:13All around him, silence has fallen.
18:19There were these people shouting, screaming, and as time went on, it became less and less.
18:27A diver reaches an exhausted and frozen Michael and Maureen Bennett.
18:34Rescuers throw a rope down to them.
18:37They are just in time.
18:40As they pull Maureen up to safety, she loses consciousness.
18:51Michael Reynolds is trapped behind a glass partition.
18:54He hears rescuers in the distance, but they can't see him.
18:59And then, a glimmer of hope.
19:02A rescuer appears on the other side of the glass.
19:06And he threw himself on the glass a few times, and eventually, the glass shatters.
19:17Now, an exhausted Simon Osborne hears glass breaking.
19:21Realising rescuers may be close, he swims towards the noise.
19:28Then, one of the divers spots him.
19:34It was on being pulled out of the ferry that I kind of let go.
19:38It was a dreadful, dreadful, dreadful state shock.
19:41You know, I was in deep, deep shock.
19:499pm.
19:50It's two and a half hours since the Herald capsized.
19:54Divers are still finding survivors.
19:58But dead bodies are starting to outnumber the living.
20:0511.30.
20:09Diver Pete Lagarde has now been on the Herald of Free Enterprise for four and a half hours.
20:17He's losing all hope of finding any more survivors.
20:21On shore, 35 ambulances rush the wounded to nearby hospitals.
20:28Just hours earlier, Maureen and Michael Bennett were celebrating their ninth wedding anniversary.
20:35They now lie side by side in a hospital ward with serious injuries.
20:41Maureen is frantic with worry about her missing 20-year-old daughter, Teresa.
20:47I still was worrying where the heaven of Teresa was.
20:49I just couldn't get that out of my mind.
20:52Where was she? Where was she?
20:592.45am, more than eight hours since the capsize.
21:05Now the tide starts to rise rapidly.
21:08It creates dangerous currents inside the ship.
21:13Rescuers must suspend diving until dawn and the ebb tide.
21:17Any hope of finding any more survivors disappears.
21:23Many friends and families separated during the capsize learned their loved ones did not survive.
21:33Others face an agonizing wait for news.
21:38It's been eight hours since the capsize and Maureen has no idea if her missing daughter, Teresa, has survived.
21:48She repeatedly asks hospital staff and reporters if there's any word.
21:55Then the hospital Chapin arrives with news.
21:59I have good news. I've just heard that she's alive. She's well.
22:04Oh, she's alive. She's alive.
22:07Teresa, it's Teresa.
22:08Thank God.
22:12Oh, I was so pleased. I cried. And we were so, so pleased.
22:18Against all the odds, Teresa survived for an hour in the freezing water.
22:23She has serious injuries but makes a full recovery.
22:27Her boyfriend, Mark, was also rescued in time.
22:33News of the disaster flashes around the globe.
22:36Drama at sea. A massive rescue effort is underway tonight off the coast of Belgium
22:40as hundreds of passengers aboard a capsized ferry boat are missing in frigid waters of the English Channel.
22:48The scale of the disaster shocks the world.
22:55Early reports put the death toll at 150, making it the worst peacetime British maritime accident
23:02since the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.
23:10As dawn breaks, stories emerge of miraculous survival and heroic actions by passengers and crew.
23:18One man acts as a human bridge so that others can escape.
23:27A truck driver rescues a five-year-old girl whose whole family are lost.
23:40The disaster is unimaginable.
23:44How could a modern 8,000-ton vessel, sailing in perfect conditions, capsize in only 90 seconds, just over a
23:51kilometer out of port?
23:54As the Herald is a British vessel, the UK Government's Department of Transport hires the investigators.
24:03Ian Dann, one of Britain's leading naval architects, has been investigating marine accidents for 32 years.
24:12The scale of this tragedy shocks him.
24:15I think this was one of the worst disasters that I've ever had anything to deal with because there were
24:20people who had walked on board that ferry
24:22and within 20 minutes of the ferry leaving port they were fighting for their lives.
24:27Dan must find out exactly what happened on the night of March 6th to ensure that such a catastrophe never
24:33happens again.
24:38Now, by rewinding the events of that fateful night and by going deep into the investigation,
24:43we can reveal what really caused the Herald of Free Enterprise to capsize.
24:50Advanced computer simulation will take us where no camera can go, into the heart of the disaster zone.
25:00The day after the tragedy, investigators take a boat out of the capsized Herald.
25:05It's a shocking sight.
25:08The ship appears to be intact.
25:11On the ship's visible side, they see no immediate sign of collision or damage.
25:16But what they see at the Herald's bow astounds them.
25:22The huge bow doors that allow vehicles on and off the ferry are wide open.
25:29It's clear to the investigators that water must have poured through these gaping doors.
25:36The media dub the open bow doors, the doors of death.
25:43Ian Dand's team need to find out why the doors are open.
25:49We thought at the time that perhaps she might have hit something, which would have caused the capsized.
25:55Or she could possibly have got very close to one bank or other of the approach channel to Zebrugge.
26:00The team know that the Herald came to rest on a sandbar about one kilometer from the harbor entrance.
26:08There are several of these underwater obstructions just outside Zebrugge.
26:13To avoid them, ships follow a marked channel 900 meters wide that port authorities keep clear by constant dredging.
26:23So did the Herald collide with the sandbar causing fatal damage to her bow doors?
26:31Investigators discover that the Zebrugge port authority routinely tracks all ferries by radar up to about three kilometers from the
26:38harbor.
26:41It shows the Herald going off course in her final moments.
26:45But the radar data reveals that she doesn't hit the sandbar.
26:51In fact, as she capsizes, she settles onto it.
26:55The ship veers off course because she was already in trouble.
27:05The sandbar is not a nemesis, but a savior.
27:08It stops the ship turning turtle, saving many lives.
27:17Investigators realize the theory that the bow doors were damaged by a collision is a dead end.
27:24Herald of free enterprise.
27:25Herald of free enterprise.
27:27They interview port authority personnel on duty the night of the disaster.
27:32It gives them a new lead.
27:35Port controller Guido de Ruder relates a strange report he received from the captain of the dredge Sanderos 20 minutes
27:41after the Herald left port.
27:44They told me that he could see lights and he thought that the bow doors were still open, that he
27:50could see cars and trucks through the bow doors.
27:54It's staggering news.
27:58It appears to investigators that the Herald actually left port and set out to sea without closing her bow doors.
28:09How could this happen?
28:11To find out, they questioned surviving crew members who worked on the car deck that night.
28:21They learned that it's the job of First Officer Leslie Sable to supervise the loading of vehicles.
28:28It's also his responsibility to get the Herald loaded swiftly so that it can depart on time.
28:35If he fails, he could be reprimanded by his bosses.
28:40It was such a difficult market to make a lot of money in and of course one got commercial success
28:47by turning the vessels around very quickly.
28:51Thirty minutes to disaster.
28:53The team discover that tonight Sable is under pressure.
28:58The cheap ticket deal means the car deck will be full.
29:10As the last car rolls onto the ship, the call is announced for harbour stations.
29:22This is the signal for crew to go to their positions for departure.
29:26Lee Cornelius' final duty on the car deck is to put a safety chain across the bow doors.
29:35First Officer Leslie Sable hurries to the bridge.
29:39First Officer Leslie Sable hurries to the bridge.
29:39They're now five minutes behind schedule.
29:42He is the last to leave the lower deck.
29:49Harbour stations is also the signal to close the bow doors using a hydraulic control lever on the car deck.
29:59Investigators discover the responsibility for this crucial job falls to assistant bosun Mark Stanley.
30:09But when they question Mark Stanley about his actions that night, they're in for a shock.
30:16When he should be on the car deck closing the bow doors, Mark Stanley is still asleep in his cabin.
30:23He took a nap after the ship docked in Zeebrugge, but slept through the call for harbour stations.
30:29The Enterprise, back to the harbour, proceed.
30:38But the investigators are puzzled.
30:41Why does no other crew member notice that the bow doors are wide open and raise the alarm?
30:47They learn that who closes the doors and when is a hit-and-miss affair, as crew member Lee Cornelius
30:53recalls.
30:55Sometimes, when we left and completed loading, one of the guys on the main deck would shut the bow doors.
31:02But that night, we didn't. We just left them open and expected Mark to come and shut them when we'd
31:09finished.
31:10The bow doors are left open because the assistant bosun is asleep.
31:14And on this night, no one else does the job for him.
31:22The investigators find that there is no fail-safe system for closing the bow doors.
31:27Although it's Mark Stanley's job to shut them, it should be double-checked by First Officer Leslie Sable.
31:35But in the race to stay on schedule, it was normal practice for the First Officer to leave the car
31:40deck before the doors were closed.
31:46The officer who wants to have done this checking had to also, at that time, be on the bridge.
31:51So he had to be in two places at once, which, of course, was impossible.
31:55Dan and his team discover another major flaw in the system.
32:00The captain cannot easily see the bow doors from the bridge.
32:05So unless a crew member tells him otherwise, he automatically assumes they are closed.
32:1723 minutes to disaster.
32:21Captain Lurie backs out of berth 12.
32:25He's totally unaware that no one has closed the five-meter bow doors on the car deck.
32:36It's clear to investigators that a combination of human error and poor systems causes the Herald to sail with her
32:42bow doors open.
32:46But this shocking discovery still doesn't solve the mystery of the Herald's capsize.
32:53One of the big puzzles was how so much water could get onto the vehicle deck when it was 10,
32:5811 feet above the calm sea level.
33:08It would take thousands of tons of water to capsize a ship the size of the Herald.
33:13But the bow doors to her car deck are sited nearly three and a half meters above the water line.
33:21Investigators suspect that in calm seas, they should be well beyond the reach of any waves.
33:29Then they discover that four years before, the Herald's sister ship set sail from Dover with her bow doors open.
33:39And yet she survived without incident.
33:46It confirms their suspicions.
33:49Even with her doors open, the Herald should have made it safely across the channel.
33:54So why didn't she?
34:05Investigator Ian Dand starts to explore what could reduce the clearance between bow doors and water line.
34:15He discovers that the short loading ramp at Zebrugge causes a problem.
34:23It's not long enough to reach the Herald's upper car deck.
34:29So Captain Lurie must fill a ballast tank in the bow with seawater to lower the Herald to the right
34:34level.
34:39This makes the ship sit one meter lower in the water at the bow.
34:44The operation reduces the clearance between bow doors and water line to 2.5 meters.
34:54Zebrugge Harbor is relatively shallow, just 15.5 meters deep.
35:02Dand has a hunch that this plays a role.
35:09As the ship sails, her movement creates low pressure under the hull that sucks the bow down.
35:16In deep water, the effect is small.
35:19But when Dan runs tests, he discovers the effect is much greater in shallow water.
35:24As the water is forced through the narrow gap between ship and seabed, it rushes out from under the hull
35:30faster.
35:31This surge of water creates an area of low pressure under the ship, dragging it down even further.
35:37As the Herald sails on March 6th, the clearance between her open bow doors and the water line is just
35:431.5 meters.
35:46Sailing in this condition would be risky, but investigators are not convinced it would be enough to cause the capsize.
35:57So how did so much water get onto the Herald's car deck?
36:01There's only one way for them to find out.
36:06Birth 12, Zebrugge Harbor, May 10th, 1987.
36:11Nine weeks after the loss of the Herald, Ian Dand begins a crucial experiment aboard her sister ship, the Pride
36:17of Free Enterprise.
36:20He is set to restage the Herald's final, fateful journey.
36:26The Pride is identical to the Herald.
36:30She's weighted with the same amount of ballast.
36:33The weather and tidal conditions are the same.
36:37The Pride maneuvers through Zebrugge Harbor at a normal departure speed of 10 to 15 knots.
36:44Her bow doors stand 1.5 meters clear of the water line, just like the Herald.
36:52As she sails, she creates a wave at the bow, but it breaks well below the bow doors.
37:00Next, Dan wants to see how high the bow wave gets as the ship accelerates.
37:06A bank of video cameras capture the wave from every angle.
37:15At 16.9 knots, the wave crests safely below the bow doors, rolling away from the ship.
37:25Then, Dan instructs the skipper to increase the speed.
37:31The ship is now sailing at 17.4 knots.
37:36The acceleration has an immediate effect.
37:43Not only does the bow wave increase, but it also changes direction.
37:48Instead of rolling forwards, the wave splashes back, up, towards the bow doors.
37:55Compelling, but not conclusive.
37:57The wave is only 2.5 meters, still not big enough to flood the car deck.
38:02Dan believes the Herald was sailing faster when she left port.
38:05He ups the speed half a knot to 18 knots, the maximum permitted speed.
38:17Suddenly, the wave balloons wildly.
38:20It is now almost 4 meters high, big enough to engulf the bow doors.
38:30On the Herald, water would be cascading straight onto the car deck.
38:35I was horrified to see the amount of water that came over the bow of the Herald and the full
38:40-scale trial.
38:42Dan is an experienced naval architect, but he has never seen a bow wave behave in this way.
38:48He turns to computer and physical models to try to explain the phenomenon.
38:53And he finds that once again, the shallow waters of Zeebrugge's harbour hold the key.
38:59Like all ships, the Herald throws up a bigger bow wave in shallow water than she does in deep water.
39:08It's called shallow water effect.
39:11The effect gradually becomes greater as the ship increases her speed.
39:17But the models confirm that when the Herald reaches 18 knots, it triggers a step change.
39:24There is a huge leap in the size of the bow wave.
39:33Just half a knot of extra speed, combined with Zeebrugge's shallow harbour, makes the critical difference.
39:39Of course, one of the big tragedies of the Herald is, had it not been in that comparatively shallow water
39:45coming out of Zeebrugge,
39:46it might have got away with having the bow doors open for quite a long period of time,
39:51and people might have spotted that they were open and closed them.
39:54Instead, the bow wave of almost four metres surges straight through the open doors.
40:04Dand calculates that 2,000 tonnes of water flood under the Herald's car deck in about 30 seconds.
40:10Even this much water shouldn't sink such a large ship.
40:13What is the fatal weakness in the Herald's design that makes her capsize in just 90 seconds?
40:24Investigator Ian Dand has proved that 2,000 tonnes of water flooded onto the Herald's car deck.
40:30He knows that even this much water shouldn't be enough to sink a large ship.
40:37That's because traditionally, ships are divided into watertight compartments below the waterline.
40:45But the Herald's design is different.
40:48She has a huge open car deck with no dividing walls, so vehicles can easily drive on and off.
40:55It allows quick turnarounds at port in what is a highly competitive market.
40:59But the Herald's greatest commercial strength ends up being her downfall.
41:10Investigators calculate that with 2,000 tonnes of water rushing around her car deck, the Herald would become unstable very
41:17quickly.
41:23As the Herald sails, she naturally rocks from side to side.
41:27The water surges to the lowest point, making the ship tilt.
41:30At first, the ship's huge buoyancy allows her to recover.
41:35Water is rather an unstable entity and would rush to one side or the other of the vehicle deck, acting
41:43like a sort of pendulum, if you like.
41:45With each swing, the water surges more violently, causing the ship to tilt more steeply.
41:52Eventually, the ship reaches a point where she's unable to recover.
42:04Rian Dand and his team, it's the final, crucial piece of evidence.
42:10Now they can piece together the precise chain of events that left the passengers and crew of the Herald of
42:14Free Enterprise seconds from disaster.
42:19Four minutes to disaster.
42:21Unaware that the bow doors are wide open, Captain Lurie ups the Herald's speed half a knot to 18 knots.
42:29In the shallow water of Seybrugge's harbour, this makes the bow wave dramatically bigger.
42:35Ninety seconds to disaster.
42:37Two thousand tons of water flood the ship's open car deck.
42:43Sixty seconds to disaster.
42:46As the water surges across the car deck, passengers feel a violent lurch.
42:52Now the wave starts to carry cars and trucks with it.
42:59Thirty seconds to disaster.
43:01The ship tilts thirty degrees to the left.
43:05It's the point of no return.
43:11The ship turns on her side to lie half submerged in the icy waters of the North Sea.
43:21Seven weeks after the tragedy, salvage tugs tow the Herald to port.
43:28The final death toll is 193, including 38 crew members.
43:35The investigator's final report finds that the Herald's loss is largely down to human error.
43:43Captain David Lurie is suspended for a year.
43:46First officer Leslie Sable for two years.
43:49And the man who failed to close the bow doors, assistant bosun Mark Stanley,
43:54is found seriously negligent, but escapes further punishment.
43:59The report finds that ultimately, poor management by the Herald's owner, Townsend Torreson, is to blame.
44:06The British Department of Transport hits the company with a £400,000 fine.
44:15For survivors like Simon Osborne, the night on the Herald of Free Enterprise still casts a long shadow.
44:22The worst aspect of the whole thing was losing my two friends.
44:27You don't expect to lose two close friends at that age.
44:31We had to meet their parents and talk to them about the day that we'd had, you know.
44:34We had to go to their funerals and memorial service.
44:37They were just emotionally draining experiences for an 18, 19-year-old guy.
44:47Survivors Michael and Maureen Bennett find the disaster has transformed their outlook on life.
44:52If we want to go down the beach, we go today. We don't go tomorrow because tomorrow never comes.
44:58It nearly never came for us on that ferry.
45:01So we do things when we want to do them, now.
45:04Their daughter Theresa, too, knows how close the family came to tragedy.
45:09There wasn't many families where all of them went and all of them came back,
45:14so we are really lucky to be alive.
45:19The disaster led to a major rethink of safety measures on British car ferries.
45:25Closed-circuit TV cameras now allow captains to see the bow doors from the bridge.
45:32And indicators also tell them when the doors are closed.
45:37Shipping companies must modify their vessels to improve stability with features such as dividing bulkheads.
45:42It means that if a ship takes on water, it must be able to survive for at least 30 minutes
45:48without capsizing.
45:50The Herald of Free Enterprise Disaster was a wake-up call to the maritime industry.
45:55The safety regulations it prompted have set a new high standard for the world to follow.
46:02The Herald of Freerecked.
46:02The Herald of the World.
46:03The Herald of the World.
46:05The Herald of the World.
46:08The Premium.
46:09The Herald of the World.
46:14The Piscuitary.
46:16The Herald of the World.
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