By Stephen Homewood
Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (2 Mar 1989)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0747503850
On 6th March 1987, the car and passenger ferry Herald of Free Enterprise, capsized shortly after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. Almost 200 people died in the disaster, which happened because the bow doors were not closed as they should have been.
Stephen Homewood was Assistant Pursur on the ferry, and helped to save the lives of many people on board. (He was subsequently awarded the Queens Gallantry Medal for his efforts in the rescue mission.)
This book is his story of the events of that tragic night, and the psychological effect it had on him and other survivors. It is openly critical of Townsend Thoresen (which were taken over by P&O in the same year), and their slipshod attitudes towards safety. Indeed, the subsequent enquiry into the disaster said that the company had been riddled with the disease of sloppiness from top to bottom.
The story is certainly a tragic one – I remember the disaster happening well, but was not so aware of the attitude taken by the ferry company after the disaster. Unfortunately, it appears that the survivors were treated with disrespect afterwards, and it was as if the compay just wished to brush the matter under the carpet and let people forget about it. Stephen Homewood is understandably angry at this (it’s worth remembering that the book was written just the following year after the tragedy), and lays out his case clearly and consisely.
The author comes across as a thoroughly decent and honest man. I was concerned that there would be a lot of technical talk about the inner workings of the ferry, but this was not the case, and everything was explained very clearly.
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