Robb Johnson 1987
193 passengers & crew (a third of those on board) died in 1987 when the cross-Channel ship went down. Many of those on board had taken advantage of a promotion in The Sun newspaper offering cheap trips to the continent. The ship left harbour with her bow door open, and the sea immediately flooded the vehicle deck; within minutes, she was lying on her side in shallow water. The immediate cause of the capsizing was found to be negligence by the assistant boatswain, who was asleep in his cabin when he should have been closing the bow door. The official inquiry, however, placed more blame on his supervisors and a company culture of poor communication.
Nancy Kerr & James Fagan: https://kerrfagan.bandcamp.com/track/the-herald-of-free-enterprise
The sun goes down now ‘cross the sea
We’re homeward bound now, and on the duty-free
The harbour’s quiet and the kids asleep
Tired out from Europe on the cheap
Chorus (x2)
The ship we sail, and the flag she flies
It is the Herald of Free Enterprise
There are no poor now, we all have cars
They’re parked down below now, we took off the stars
On television, if not the sky
The ocean moves us, we don’t ask why
We feel the ship slip out from the land
We’re pleased our trip went just like we planned
We see the lights along the shore
Not the overworked crew, not the open door
And in the cruel dark sea our lives go down
In Zeebrugge Harbour all night we drown
Now the owners grow old while we all die young
With the blue murder stuck in our lungs
And they can salvage our ship up from the bottom of the sea
Recycle pop stars to sing Let it be
Sell lorries for scrap, whitewash the company
But they can make no more money out of me
And each life lost, much loved, much missed
And all of our lives’re on some passenger list
It’s too late for ‘Mayday’, you sink too fast
When profits come first and people’s losses come lastÂ