YP Comment: Zeebrugge's safety rules legacy
Within just 20 minutes the ship had turned on its side, becoming the worst British peacetime maritime disaster in living memory with the loss of 193 lives.
A subsequent investigation heavily criticised the ferry operator Townsend Thoresen and concluded that the bow doors had been left open, causing the roll-on, roll-off ferry rapidly to capsize.
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Hide AdThirty years on and the name Zeebrugge has become synonymous with the catastrophe that unfolded that evening.
And while it did usher in tighter, far-reaching international ferry safety regulations, this is of little comfort to the relatives of those who perished in a tragedy that should never have happened.