The story of the Herald of Free Enterprise tragedy is on the History channel if anyone wants to brush up on their RDC chat 
Starts at 22:50.
Sent from my mobile.
Thanks for that Tacho…might have to go to the back channels…but worth a watch.
Let the stories commrnce!..
RIP my good friend Barry Sopp and all the others who perished in that avoidable tragedy.
tachograph:
The story of the Herald of Free Enterprise tragedy is on the History channel if anyone wants to brush up on their RDC chatStarts at 22:50.
Sent from my mobile.
…
eric the judge:
RIP my good friend Barry Sopp and all the others who perished in that avoidable tragedy.
I made a lame joke so I’ve edited it out as didn’t seem very clever with your post above. Sorry to hear you lost a mate in that.
I remember doing a topic on this at school I was only 6…
A lad who was in my class tells everyone that he was on it,or sometimes he just missed it.
I think when Idiots like this lie about been involved it is disrespectful to those who died or did have to go through the awful experience…
I remember being at sea, working on the flight deck of HMS Ark Royal in 1987 & seeing The Herald Of Free Enterprise being towed past us after the tragedy. It left me cold.
just watched it today 1 4 18,unbelievable that they turned down the idea of lights being fitted to show if the doors were closed or open,yet after the disaster they done just that at a cost of £500 per ship,nothing to them yet they waited until over 190 passengers died before fitting these lights,so what were their lives worth,nothing.
Can you let me know what the program is called ? I will have to do a search over here because the channels are different and they might not show it.
I will never forget the night she sent over, a mate of mine was sleeping in his cab and died.
Pat Hasler:
Can you let me know what the program is called ? I will have to do a search over here because the channels are different and they might not show it.
I will never forget the night she sent over, a mate of mine was sleeping in his cab and died.
james nesbitt disasters that changed britain, don’t know the rest. next one is pipa alfa
truckman020:
just watched it today 1 4 18,unbelievable that they turned down the idea of lights being fitted to show if the doors were closed or open,yet after the disaster they done just that at a cost of £500 per ship,nothing to them yet they waited until over 190 passengers died before fitting these lights,so what were their lives worth,nothing.
Something seemed wrong with the explanation in that an officer was also supposed to be in attendance over see the securing of the doors.But he supposedly also had to be on the bridge before leaving the dock.They then tried to say that if the boat was running late that didn’t leave him enough time which is obviously bs.Because no matter how late the boat left the dock the time period between securing of the doors and the officer then going up to the bridge would have remained the same in all cases and the boat couldn’t possibly have left any sooner.
The obvious logical suggestion then seeming to be that the captain and the officer in question actually knew that they were compromising the securing of the ship for sea to make up time.By expecting the officer in question to forego his door over seeing duties and they both then shifted the blame solely onto Stanley when that idea went pear shaped when Stanley didn’t turn up for duty with no officer there to over see his duties.It’s very surprising that all three of them didn’t face charges of manslaughter.Also bearing in mind that it would still be bleedin suicidal practice for the captain to just rely on warning lights to determine that the ship has been secured for sea.
As opposed to the bow doors becoming insecure during transit.In which case warning lights aren’t exactly going to help in that case when it’s then a still existing design flaw in having bow doors at all,as in the case of the Estonia.
Pat Hasler:
Can you let me know what the program is called ? I will have to do a search over here because the channels are different and they might not show it.
I will never forget the night she sent over, a mate of mine was sleeping in his cab and died.
James Nesbitt: Disasters That Changed Britain
“Zeebrugge Ferry Disaster”
It was shocking that so many people died to save so little cost.
Sent from my mobile.
I watched that vprog this morning, it was one of many i had seen, but still some interesting facts were there. The bow doors were supposed to be operated by one of the crew…who having been on duty for 24 hours, decide to have a lie down, he subsequently fell asleep…but got va lot of stick from the press after the inquiry. Many captains, including the one from the Herald had complained to head office, that they couldnt tell if the doors were open or closed ( previously they could as the bow doors used to open outwards ) after modern new ones were fitted, they opened inwards, however T/T said it was too expensive to fit a red and green light in the dashboard…now turns out the cost would have been £500 per ship. It also showed that because the ship had been diverted from its Dover - Calais route, was switched to Zeebrugge, where the upper deck was too high for the loading ramp to reach…so en route, they took on ballast ( sea water ) to overcome this by lowering the stern…this also made the ship unstable…and although the captain asked for a fast pump to attend to pump out the ballast…they were refused yet again, due to cost…and then the inevitable happened…r.i.p. to those who lost their lives, and condolences to their loved ones…i might add that this was an accident waiting to happen on every sailing, the bow doors were always left open to clear the decks of vehicle exhaust fumes…but was accepted by us drivers who sailed these waters every week, as it was deemed normal…T/T was fined over £350 thousand quid at the end of the day. These ships and crew were under great pressure to not only maintain their timetables, but to keep passengers, for in 1987 there was competition from the Hovercraft companies who offered a 30 minute service Dov - Cal…and speed was of of the essence…and the Herald was also running late at the time, and increased speed once clear of the belgian port.
Hi, as a point of interest, when the herald was new in 1970, I was onboard with 19 ton of chilled sides of pork for Switzerland and as we left Dover we hit a wave and the ship rolled well over. I was called to attend my vehicle which had snapped the securing chains on one side and was laying on it’s side. When we arrived at Calais the crew had to transfer the load and they looked pretty smart in their white uniforms covered in blood. The artic was then righted and returned to Dover and I drove it back to Poplar, on looking at it the next day the chassis was bent and a complete write off.
I watched it yesterday, can not believe it was 30 yrs ago 
, I remember it like it was last week, and it made a big impression on me at that time.
I didn’t know any of the drivers that were on it that night, but it did make me think, especially during times shipping out myself long after it all happened.
Did not realise that the ballast of water was only increased to reach the ramp height at Zeeby, it could quite easily have been avoided,… and it makes it even more tragic that it only happened because TT did not think it viable to spend 500 bloody quid on a warning light system, costs before lives as usual eh?.. 
A lot of people killed, and other’s lives ruined needlessly.
cartageman:
Hi, as a point of interest, when the herald was new in 1970, I was onboard with 19 ton of chilled sides of pork for Switzerland and as we left Dover we hit a wave and the ship rolled well over.
The type was put into service in the 80’s not 70’s.As for stability they certainly looked wrong in terms of their top heavy design and they felt like it with a lot of roll movement even on a calm sea.After a some crossings on them I changed my bookings to Sealink using the St Christopher and St Anselm which were much nicer boats all round.But in all cases the roll through idea is a dodgy design flaw as opposed to rear load/unload only.