YP Comment: Zeebrugge's safety rules legacy
It only took a few moments for what should have been a routine ferry crossing on March 6, 1987, to turn into tragedy. The Herald of Free Enterprise left Zeebrugge harbour in Belgium bound for Dover with more than 450 passengers and 80 crew on board.
Within just 20 minutes the ship had turned on its side, becoming the worst British peacetime maritime disaster in living memory with the loss of 193 lives.
A subsequent investigation heavily criticised the ferry operator Townsend Thoresen and concluded that the bow doors had been left open, causing the roll-on, roll-off ferry rapidly to capsize.
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Hide AdThirty years on and the name Zeebrugge has become synonymous with the catastrophe that unfolded that evening.
And while it did usher in tighter, far-reaching international ferry safety regulations, this is of little comfort to the relatives of those who perished in a tragedy that should never have happened.