51 Bodies Recovered From Ferry : 84 Still Missing, Believed Dead; Search Halted

The casualty toll reached 135 dead and missing late Saturday in the worst peacetime ship disaster in the busy maritime zone between the Continent and Britain. All were victims of the capsizing of a British passenger and vehicle ferry off this North Sea port Friday evening.

Belgian officials held out little hope that any more survivors would be found in the partly submerged hulk of the ferry, Herald of Free Enterprise, which overturned and sank outside the harbor here as it was en route to Dover, England, with 463 passengers and 80 crew.

Belgian authorities said that 408 people had been rescued, that 51 bodies had been found, and that 84 people were still missing and probably dead.

Late Saturday night, divers were called off their search of the capsized vessel because of treacherous currents, cold water (about 40 degrees) and poor visibility.

Specific Cause Unknown

Officials Saturday offered no specific reason for the sinking of the modern, 8,000-ton vessel which capsized within 2 1/2 minutes, less than a mile from its dock in the busy harbor here.

Peter Ford, chairman of Townsend Thoresen Lines, the ferry’s operator, said he believes that somehow the bow of the ferry had begun shipping water, flooding the car deck and causing the accident.

Pictures of the vessel lying on its port side showed its bow doors open, allowing water to rush in, but there was no explanation of how this might have happened.

Similar ferries have plied the routes between England, France, Belgium and the Netherlands for many years. Their bow doors, like those at their sterns, allow easy entry and exit of cars and trucks that board them at either end of their runs.

Belgian state radio said it is customary to leave a ferry’s vehicle-loading doors open “up to the last moment” to clear exhaust fumes.

Helicopters Remove Bodies

Throughout the day Saturday, helicopters flew over the exposed red-and-white painted starboard side of the ship as it lay on a mud flat on its port or left side, removing bodies and landing divers engaged in the search for survivors.

Most of the passengers were British--although about a dozen other nationalities were also represented aboard. Many were returning from short vacations to the Continent.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher flew here Saturday afternoon and said at a news conference that it had been “a night of anguish for everyone but a night of great courage and professionalism.”

Thatcher paid tribute to the Belgian authorities in charge of the rescue operations, who were aided by ships and personnel from the British, Belgian, Dutch and French navies.

Queen Elizabeth II and Pope John Paul II expressed their shock and sadness at the disaster.

Dispatched by the queen, Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah--the Duke and Duchess of York--came to Belgium to express their sorrow in the name of the British Royal Family and to compliment the rescue workers.

Many of the rescued remained in the hospital in various communities near Zeebrugge, including the ferry’s captain, David Lewry, 46, who was in an intensive care ward. He was reported to have a punctured lung and was treated for shock.

After announcing the latest accounting of dead and missing, Olivier Vannestte, governor of West Flanders province, was asked if there was any hope of finding any one else alive.

“If there is any,” he replied, “it is very small.”

The governor said that the helicopters and divers had not found anyone alive during the daylight hours of Saturday. They had, however, picked up 15 more bodies that had floated to the surface, he said.

The governor made it clear that the search for bodies was over. Divers would go back into the water, he said, only if they were needed in salvage operations.

10 Severely Injured

Vannestte said that only 10 of the 408 survivors were “severely injured” and none, “to our knowledge” is in danger of death.

One local report said that Capt. Lewry had heard a “crash” shortly before the capsizing, but none of the authorities investigating the accident could confirm the report.

Survivors described the horror of being upended in the dark in near-freezing water without any warning.

They spoke of families being split up because fathers and sons or mothers and daughters or husbands and wives had decided to go to different parts of the vessel to eat or drink as soon as it cleared Zeebrugge harbor, bound for Dover.

From a hospital bed, Maureen Bennet told how she had sent her daughter and the daughter’s boyfriend up to the bar shortly before the disaster occurred.

“We tried to find things to hold onto when the ship began tipping,” she said.

‘It Was So Cold’

“We all fell into the water; we were there for about a half-hour. It was so cold. We were all sure we would not get out. . . . My daughter was upstairs with her boyfriend because we wanted them to have dinner first. We didn’t know where anyone was.

“This was a single-day trip we had taken to Belgium, paid for by my daughter for our wedding anniversary.”

At that moment, as she was being interviewed on television in the hospital, an orderly said that her daughter was alive.

“She’s alive!” Bennet said to her husband in an adjoining bed. “She’s alive!”

“What about her boyfriend?” Maureen Bennet then asked the orderly, but there was no reply. She broke into sobs.

Another Briton, Terry Mead, said, “I was with my girlfriend. We just had cleared the port, and the vessel dipped slightly to the left.

“Then, things began falling off the tables. A lady waiting in the restaurant flew across the room. I looked out to see the room at a 30- or 40-degree angle. Then I saw the windows submerged.

‘People Flying About’

“All of a sudden the water came in. It only took three or four minutes. The ship flipped on its side in an instant and the windows were now at the ceiling.

“People were flying about in the restaurant.

“I kicked in the glass with my feet overhead to get out.

“I lost touch of my girl.

“I floated out and heard a lot of screaming.

“The crew tried to smash out the windows, and we eventually got out on the side of the ship and tugs helped us aboard with ropes.

“I don’t know where my girlfriend is.”

Many survivors were especially distraught because families had been split up in the melee.

Others spoke of children being separated from their parents, of a man seen holding a baby, trying to keep it afloat by holding its clothing in his teeth and of a young girl who wailed, “We’re going to die, and I’ve been such a good girl all my life.”

Ferry Design Questioned

The disaster prompted questions by experts about the design of modern vehicular ferries.

The Herald of Free Enterprise, like many similar ships, is a “roll-on, roll-off”--known also in the trade as a “ro-ro.”

Trucks and cars can drive into the vessel by the bow or stern directly onto two lower decks, and upon reaching their port of destination, can roll off through the big doors at the opposite end.

This system allows speedy loading and unloading, but it also means that the two lower decks, above the machinery spaces, are wide open--without bulkheads forming separate watertight compartments--from bow to stern and from port to starboard.

Similarly, passenger areas above the vehicle decks are relatively open spaces.

Generally, the more tightly compartmented a vessel is, the more secure it is in dangerous conditions at sea.

As one naval designer here put it, “These new ferries are very stable when they are sailing across the channel under ordinary circumstances. But once the hull’s security is threatened, they become very vulnerable. This is because there is no hindrance to incoming water flowing throughout the ship.”

Water Free to Slosh

Water entering the lower decks in such cases creates what is known to naval architects as the “free surface effect.” That is, large amounts of water sloshing from side to side can intensify the rolling action of a ship and lead to a dangerous tipping, or listing, of the hull.

Belgian authorities said that a full investigation will be made and that decisions will be made today about how to attempt to salvage the ship.

Times staff writer Tyler Marshall reported from London that about 190 British survivors of the disaster returned by air to Gatwick Airport late Saturday for emotional reunions with family and friends.

Many, still dazed and wrapped in blankets, were taken to a restricted area of the airport where they were able to meet loved ones in private before facing waiting reporters.

With the ship’s owner, the Townsend Thoresen firm, still struggling to compile an accurate passenger list, many people went to meet the plane in hopes of finding missing relatives.

Most left the airport without talking with journalists.

Thatcher, visibly shaken from a day’s tour of the disaster area and hospitals caring for the survivors, also returned to London late Saturday.

“Right now the worst problems are the parents without children and the children without parents, because there were a lot of children on that ship,” she said.

“They’re all heartbroken,” she added. Then, pausing for a moment, added, “Heartbroken isn’t a strong enough word. They’re desolate.”