Ferry Disaster Is Still a Mystery, Officials Say

ZEEBRUGGE, Belgium — Government and shipping officials declared Sunday that they still have no idea what caused the ferry, the Herald of Free Enterprise, to capsize Friday night, leaving 135 dead or missing and presumed dead.

But Peter Ford, chairman of the operating company, Townsend Thoresen, said that similar ships will continue to sail despite the puzzling nature of the maritime disaster.

Asked at a news conference Sunday if he would take similar ferries run by the company out of service, he said, “I don’t think that is necessary.”

However, Belgian officials privately said they might ask for “changes in procedures” in the way the ferries are prepared for sea after loading their cargoes of passengers and vehicles.

82 Still Missing

This was thought to be a reference to making sure that the bow doors were properly secured before the vessels departed the harbor for the open sea.

Ford has said he believes that the bow had begun taking water, flooding the car deck. Pictures of the vessel lying on its side showed the bow doors open, leading to speculation that this might have been the cause of the accident.

Eighty-two of the 543 people who boarded the ferry here were still missing late Sunday. Ford said of the possibility of finding anybody still alive, “The chances are so small that it would be wrong to hold out any hope.”

A total of 408 people were rescued, including 41 members of the crew of 80. The bodies of two more victims were recovered Sunday, bringing the total to 53.

Among those rescued was the vessel’s captain, David Lewry, 46, whom Ford visited in the hospital Sunday afternoon but who was reported still to be in a state of physical shock and suffering from a punctured lung.

Ford gave no details about what the captain may have told him about the disaster, the worst in the peacetime history of modern maritime commerce between the Continent and Britain.

Meanwhile, a Dutch salvage firm has been hired and is busy completing plans to right the ferry, now lying on its side half a mile off this busy Belgian port on the North Sea.

The salvage firm said it intends to fasten cables to the exposed starboard side and then have derricks winch the vessel upright so that it rests on a sand bar.

Only then are the last of the bodies expected to be recovered--a process that may take several weeks, according to Ford.

And perhaps only then, said experts here, would the actual cause of the sinking be ascertained.

The disaster has shocked operators of ferries plying the busy sea lanes between Britain and the Continent as well as the thousands of passengers accustomed to using the ferries, which make an estimated 200 crossings a day.

The planned method of uprighting the overturned ferry was used in salvaging the European Gateway, another Townsend Thoresen vessel, after it sank following a collision with another vessel off the English port of Felixstowe in December, 1982.

Chairman Ford has said that “a massive amount of water came into the front of the ship” before it capsized Friday.

This has led maritime experts to speculate that the sudden capsizing--the ferry flopped over and sank within about two minutes--may have been due to improperly secured bow doors.

Inner and Outer Doors

Ferries of this class have a double set of doors in the front end of the vessel--the inner one watertight, and the outer door closed to give a streamlining affect to the ship.

The outer doors were open when the ship was first examined at daybreak Saturday.

However, a spokesman for Townsend Thoresen said that while the outer doors were open, he did not know the condition of the inner doors on the ship.

Port officials said that ferry doors are often left open as the vessel leaves the dock and maneuvers inside the harbor. This allows time to clear the ferry’s truck and car spaces of engine fumes.

But these officials said that the doors would normally be closed before the ship left the harbor and entered the open waters of the North Sea.

The doors are located about five feet above the waterline and even when open would not necessarily prove a hazard to the ship.

However, if they remained open and unexpected giant waves came crashing through the opening, this sudden deluge could affect the stability of the ferry, experts said. But the night of the accident was clear with a calm sea, and ordinarily this would preclude any such danger.

A second line of speculation--not unrelated to the first--suggests that something went wrong with the ship’s ballast.

Ferries of this class carry large tanks under the hull that can be filled with water to trim the ship, or balance it, if the cargo tends to weight it in one direction or the other. Such ships can be tilted fore or aft or from side to side with the use of these ballast tanks.

Some marine specialists said that the bow may have been trimmed by means of the ballast tanks into a downward angle and that upon leaving the harbor, the bow may have somehow shipped water in through the open doors.

The combination of a dip in the bow and open doors could cause flooding, one maritime specialist said, and once the waters began sloshing around the vehicle decks, the ship could tip. Once tipped, if additional water entered open bow doors, the vessel could then capsize.

The bow doors are closed by hydraulic rams that are operated by push-buttons--but it is not known whether the crew members responsible for closing the doors did, in fact, do so.

‘May Day’ Sent Out

The ballasting is also done by a mechanical procedure by the captain on the bridge, but, again, it is not known if the captain or another crew member moved water into any of the ballast tanks.

It was learned Sunday that the ferry sent out a call for help, known at sea as a “May Day,” which was heard by a passing vessel.

This suggests that the captain knew the vessel was in trouble, but it was not known if the skipper would be able to pinpoint what happened to his ship or why.

Because of the abruptness with which the ship capsized, the crew had no time to cut loose lifeboats or life rafts, and the passengers, according to their own descriptions of the ordeal, had almost no warning.

Divers who had been exploring the insides of the overturned ship have now been put on a reduced schedule, officials here said, because there is no longer any hope of finding anyone alive inside the vessel.

The work was extremely hazardous for the divers, according to authorities here, because they had to move around in the cold, dark waters without proper diagrams of the ship’s interior as they searched various compartments and spaces looking for survivors and for bodies of victims.

Townsend Thoresen chairman Ford refused to speculate on the possible causes of the disaster and declared that it would probably be left for a board of inquiry to determine--a process that could take weeks.

Asked if it might not be appropriate to stop sailing the two sister ships of the stricken vessel, the Spirit of Free Enterprise and the Pride of Free Enterprise, which run between the French port of Calais and Dover, England, Ford declared that he saw no reason to berth the ships.

About 17 barrels of chemicals, which had been carried on the sunken vessel as freight, were retrieved Sunday by tugs from the waters around the capsized hull.

A Belgian official said that one of the drums contained a toxic chemical, a form of cyanide, but that the barrel had not ruptured and that there was no danger from it.

Meanwhile, relatives and friends of the victims began the grim task of identifying bodies in a special building set up as a morgue, and some attended a Mass in memory of the victims in the cathedral at Brugge, capital of West Flanders province.