Zeebrugge disaster BBC news reports

[shaolinfingajab]

My brother had tickets to go with an offer from The Sun newspaper... Some of his friends from work died :(

[mattsgp]

@shaolinfingajab sorry to hear that :[

[Time71Team]

@shaolinfingajab I remember very clearly those tokens that were offered in the Sun. We had no way of getting to the ferry terminus so we didn`t go but i know the ship was packed with those who took up the offer.

[jivemaster99]

Newflashes like this were a far better way of telling you what they knew at that moment in time and then you waited until the next news bulletin to hear what they'd gleaned rather than the modern method of suspending all programmes and watching as they drip feed you facts.

[LaurelVentura]

@2:03 He says it was sailing from Holland. Thought it was from Belgium?

[bus140808]

Today is the anniversary 06/03/11. I've nit forgotton. Rip xxx

[ThePedro2007]

i can remember watching this my dad was a continental truck driver and was about an hour away from getting on this but my dads mate was booked on it but they said 2 him it was over booked and could he wait 4 the next one he wasnt happy at all so they offered him a free meal and a couple of pints at the bar if he waited so he said ok he was at the front of the q when it came over the tanoy that it had capsized he looked up and said thank u

[zeonbub]

Tragedy aside, this demonstrates how awful the programming the BBC pumped out in the 1980s was.

[07909578]

i was ment to be on this as i was coming back to england to see my family for my 7th b-day,,,,,my mum put her foot down on the motorway and we got the one before it,,,i still remember my nans face when we walked through the door as we didnt know anything about it till we got there

[Scooby71Doo]

I remember watching the tv when this newsflash came on. What made the death toll even higher was the fact that many of the day trippers on the ferry were taking advantage of the £1 tickets offered in the sun newspaper which was why the ferry was so packed. My father who was a ships engineer recalls as how these ferries had a phrase attached to them, "roll on, roll off, roll over".

[Henkeboj90]

590 passenger and some 60 crew

[brhodes0]

How come it announces the Colbys, then cuts to a ginea pig noshing some milk out of a syringe while a big dog looks on, puzzled?

[duffduffbeerbeer]

@brhodes0 - dont you remember that program it was called ' the guinea pig who loved milk but hated dogs ' - it was an absolute classic in the 80's

[LaurelVentura]

@brhodes0 The Colbys was pretty crap in its last years.

[paulhunter123]

why did they break the ship if it was all down to human error?

[LESLEYANN82]

Nobody wanted it

[paulhunter123]

i wander where they got libary pictures that quickly before the internet

[paulhunter123]

how can they say the boat turned over after hitting the wall a mile and a half out to sea? why not just say boat turned over not yet known what caused it

[Visonu]

In the end, the ship left Zeebrugge at 6.05pm

[oringetoe]

what happened to the squirrel?

[iamthestig1]

what programme was that off?

[marksims68]

The first programme at the beginning I'm guessing is Blankety Blank, I'm old enough to remember that programme.......

[godsbrotherinlaw]

this type of video capturing important events in history are fascinating. Just think if we had them for other events like the black death, the civil war etc...i hope they are being collected because they will be such an amazing historical source in the future

[iamthestig1]

yeh. I agree. people in the future will probably look at all these videos, and get a better insight in to important events, as well as the more boring parts of our lives..

[exploder76]

I'm so proud that the Royal Navy of Great Britain had rescued some of them from the sinking of "Herald of Free Enterprise". Other people had been drowned in the sea and never make it. A sad tradegy!

[fowlera7]

they were actually members of the special boat service who were doing trials near by and went to the rescue

[exploder76]

I agree with you there.

[fowlera7]

my brother was one of them

[TigerWalrus26980]

I'm so sorry for you, mate.

[fowlera7]

sorry i think you missunderstood my comment, my brother at that time was a serving member of the special boat service and assisted in the rescue. but it was an awfull tradgedy for those that lost relatives and loved ones

[TigerWalrus26980]

I do apologise - I thought you meant he was one of the victims. Still, you're right about how big a tragedy it was.

[Visonu]

The bow doors were left open and the ship was too low

[spanishrudolf]

I was 7 when this happened. My dad was a deck officer on Townsend and had only left the Herald a couple of months before this for another ship. He was at home when this happened, I vivedly remember us getting a phone call from a friend down the road, who was an engineer on the ferries, telling us that one had sunk, and then another saying it had capsized. My grandparents lived opposite a guy who got a medal for bravery for getting people to safety during the disaster. I'll never forget this.

[po0u90d0]

I've still got a model Townsend Thoresen Ferry from the mid 80's, used to do the dover-calais trip twice a year. It's quite possible I went on this ship as it also did the dover-calais run.

[jw1701]

goodness the 9oclock news titles were completely cocked up

[oiefees]

And what is Martyn doing at 1:41?

[Fasters2]

he was putting down his water

[oiefees]

Who's that woman next to Andrew?

[nighthawk006]

nice edit! *****

[ianchard]

I went on tour with my school orchestra two days after this disaster. Our ferry was the Spirit of Free Enterprise!

[NickPatrick2]

Quell'allegra voce da prete di Martyn Lewis...

[stafford69]

Wrong ! It went to Taiwan but was never broken up, they wanted to let it all die down & recommision it at a later date but the story broke causing uproar & then it was broke up years later

[TheSlapdown]

@stafford69 I was working for the brokers that sold the wreck to the breakers yard, P&O scrapped this ship immediately!

[Time71Team]

@TheSlapdown They sold it after initially having the ridiculous idea of salvaging it and relaunching it. I would love to know what idiot thought of saving it after all those people had died on it.

[TheSlapdown]

@Time71Team They never planned to relaunch her. She was in a terrible condition. Yes she was sold, to a scrap dealer who sold it to a scrap yard.

[Time71Team]

@TheSlapdown P and O were under the assumption that she could be repaired and could carry on sailing but when no buyer was found she was sold for scrap. Only an idiot could think that a boat on which nearly 200 people died could be repaired and people would want to travel on it.

[TheSlapdown]

@Time71Team You're mistaken. I was one of the dealers who sold her. P&O planned to sell her for repair, but this ship was unique in appearance, everyone would recognise her. So it was sold for scrap. P&O never planned to repair her and return her to service for themselves.

[KevCityboy]

Someone I know lost her parents in this. I was only two then and the girl was only about 17 and was suddenly orphaned.

[thetoplads]

always wanted the cheque book and pen

[advent45143]

you've won a blankety blank cheque book and pen

[Wolverhampton1]

Peroper BBC titles in those days!

[NickPatrick2]

Has anyone noticed that the "disaster map" was similar to the one later used by ITN?

[Scottmachin]

"NEWS REPORT" always meant something really bad had happened...Scary biccies!

[robinoi]

'about to enter the humourous world of Rory Bremner and company' - bloody Chalmondely-Warner or what?

[Notsodrunk87]

What happend to the ship after it was salvaged? did they scrap it or put it back into service? I was born on the day it happend

[bommmmmmmm]

The ship was refloated and towed to Taiwan where it was broken up. As a matter of interest on the 12th of oct 87 on its way to be broken up it got caught up in the 'great storm' of 87, the tow line broke and the silent dark hulk was left for hours drifting about in the Bay of Biscay.

[grundie]

For the journey to be broken up it was renamed 'Flushing Range'.

[kaneo2k8]

Ye lol.

[translift608]

lol blankety blank

[benlu123]

Notice the early speculation about hiting the harbour wall. No one could have even made up the real reason ie she sailed off with her bow doors wide open.

[Mellywelly29]

I rememeber this.I was scared of water anyway and this made me ever more scared and I never got on a boat for a few years.

[kaly13]

I love the music from this "era". If anyone has it WITHOUT the announcer, please send me a message....

[zaohad1]

This gave me nightmares for weeks always the same dream.

It was very vivid.

I was crawling up a ventilation shaft or something with water pouring in below trying to get up away from it and I was blocked by a big steel mesh thing. I hammered it with bare hands and it wouldnt give and the water got higher and higher.

Literally at point of drowning I'd wake up.

[zaohad1]

This ventilation shaft was initially at a fairly easy slope but then turned and went more or less straight up, I was a bit disorientated but knew which way was up from water below.

I got up by pressing my body against the walls and moving feet up only to discover a grille blocking the way. I thought great, I'll drown then and really tried to remove it but coudn't.

The water came up and up and then I'd wake up.

[halifaxdom]

i was 7 when that happened and it scared the shit out of me cos we were going on a ferry later that year.

[tweetycurry]

A chilling reminder. I was on that ferry with my oldest son just a couple of weeks before it capsized.

[HildaMinogue]

I remember this, I was on a school trip when this happened. Wasn't there a lot of mass disasters in the late 1980s

[maviscrow]

I remember I had a stamp from that ship in a Junior Sailor's Passport or whatever the ferry companies gave out to keep kids quiet. Wish I'd kept it - I realised at the time I had a lucky escape obviously though we always went Dover-Calais - it might be worth something now :(.

[Jordan366]

I love these sort of things from the past!

[Maryonpark]

I have a very well written book on the Zeebrugge disaster by Stephen Homewood called 'A Hero's Story' He was an Assistant Purser onboard the Herald that night. Well worth a read if you get hold of a copy

[Iain1107]

Cant believe that was 20 years go

[malsun74]

Thank you and everyone for posting these gems from the past.