A detailed design profile of the Spirit of Free Enterprise, a sister ship of the ‘Herald of Free Enterprise’, which capsized a few minutes out of Zeebrugge on the night of March 6, 1987’
IT WAS 30 years go, this month, that the infamous Zeebrugge ferry disaster occurred.
In many ways it’s hard to comprehend that three decades have passed since the tragic events of March 6, 1987.
At the time people all over the world were captivated by TV scenes depicting the Herald of Free Enterprise lying on its side near the port of Zeebrugge, in Belgium.
People watched in horror at the events unfolding before their eyes, however, for one local man here in County Wexford the memories of that day will remain with him for the rest of his life.
Nowadays, Cllr. Larry O’Brien is well known as a member of Wexford County Council and a stalwart of the Fine Gael party.
However, in 1987, his life-long passion for lorries saw him working as a full-time continental truck driver.
It was that role that led to him not just being involved in one of the worst passenger ferry catastrophes of modern times but also being commended for an amazing feat of bravery.
The Herald of Free Enterprise was operated by the Townsend Thoresen shipping company. On the evening of March 6, 1987, it set out from the port of Zeebrugge with over 533 people on board – around a third of whom would never return home alive.
Within minutes of leaving the dock the boat capsized and 193 people lost their lives.
Speaking about that tragic night Cllr. O’Brien said it’s something that is never far from his mind.
“I’ll never forget it – it’s in the back of your mind all the time I suppose,” he said.
The ironic thing was that Cllr. O’Brien wasn’t event meant to be on the boat that night. He had just finished a continental trip that had taken him away from home for over a month and had decided to take a fortnight off as his wife, Cindy, was expecting the couple’s second son, Conor.
However, when he arrived back in Ireland from his latest stint he got a call from his employers telling him a load was stuck in Holland and he was asked would he help to get it home.
Initially he refused but with the company persevering he relented and travelled from Rosslare the following morning.
He arrived in Holland on the morning of March 6 and having secured the load received another call from the company which delayed him by three hours as he waited for a replacement panel of a truck that was involved in an accident in the UK.
That delay, along with one other spur-of-the-moment decision led to Cllr. Larry O’Brien boarding the Herald of Free Enterprise in Zeebrugge.
“I had a voucher to travel on a ship from Zeebrugge or Ostend,” he said.
“As you travel along down the coast Zeebrugge is the first turn-off and Ostend is the second,” he added.
“It’s down the road a bit and there were two different ferry companies that I could have travelled with that night. I thought I’d only just make the 7 p.m. boat in Zeebrugge and at first thought I wouldn’t go that route but then I decided to go for it.”
He arrived in Zeebrugge with “seconds to spare”, however, because he was transit traffic his truck was allowed straight on the ferry.
His was the last vehicle to board the ship.
Fate intervened to put him on board the vessel that night but the Gods were on his side when onboard because he broke with routine.
“Normally, when I got on board a ship I would get into a bunk to get some sleep but this time I decided to go upstairs and get something to eat,” he said.
“The young one’s birthday was coming up so I thought I’d go up and get something for her – I always brought her home something,” he added.
There was an unusually large number of people on board that night because of a scheme run in the Sun newspaper which gave people the opportunity to go for a day-trip to Belgium from the UK for £1.
“Normally there would be around 100 freight drivers on board but that night there were around 410 people travelling,” he said.
Some of the drivers on board had family members with them but in his case he was travelling alone and that’s something he believes made a big difference to his situation.
“I only had myself to worry about,” he said.
Having got his present for home he went to the restaurant and ordered some food, however, within minutes the ship swayed heavily to the left.
“It was no more than 15 minutes out and it felt more severe than any normal sway,” he said.
“It came back and went the other way – every bit as bad. You could hear the delf breaking in the kitchen and bar, which was something I had never heard before even in severe bad weather.”
That noise was one of the last things Cllr. O’Brien heard before the boat righted a final time and then fully capsized.
There was no warning of what was about to happen he said it all took place in seconds.
What happened next is something that he admitted will be with him forever.
“The kids screaming– that’s something which will probably never go out of my mind,” he said.
(For the full extensive interview see this week’s print edition of the Echo Newspaper)
