Memorial service in Dover for 33rd anniversary of capsize of Herald of Free Enterprise at Zeebrugge
10:36, 28 February 2020
updated: 11:22, 28 February 2020
Victims of the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster will be honoured on the exact 33rd anniversary.
The annual memorial service takes place from 10am on Friday, March 6, at St Mary the Virgin Church, Cannon Street, Dover.
It is organised by the The Sailors' Society and leading the tributes will be Sandra Welch, the group's chief operating office.
Those attending will be invited to place wreaths at Dover seafront at noon.
The capsize of the ferry, which killed 193 passengers and crew, was one of the worst British peacetime maritime disasters.
TheDover-registered roll-on roll-off ferry went down minutes after it left the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, on March 6, 1987.
The bow doors of the eight-deck ship ad not been closed and water immediately flooded the car deck.
The ferry rapidly destabilised and it swayed violently until it crashed onto its port side on the sandbank of the shallow Zeebrugge harbour.
The ship, laden with 543 mainly British passengers and 145 vehicles weighed about 1,100 tonnes.
It was busier than usual as about 100 passengers had taken advantage of the Sun newspaper's £1 crossing offer.
The immediate cause of the sinking was found to be negligence by the assistant boatswain who was asleep in his cabin when he should have been closing the bow doors.
However, the official inquiry placed more blame on his supervisors and a general culture of poor communication in the company that owned the ferry, Townsend Thoresen.
