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HERALD OF FREE ENTERPRISE (1980)
Service dates: 1987-1987
Official number: 379260
Shipping lines: TOWNSEND CAR FERRIES; P&O FERRIES
Ship type:
Roll on/Roll off Passenger Ferry.
Career
- 12.12.1979
- Launched.
- 05.1980
- Delivered as Herald of Free Enterprise for Townsend Car Ferries Ltd, Dover. She was put on the Dover/Zeebrugge service although she was designed for the Dover/Calais service.
- 19.01.1987
- The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company acquired European Ferries Group Plc including Townsend Car Ferries Ltd.
- 06.03.1987
- Heeled over shortly after leaving Zeebrugge for Dover and capsized on to her side at 1846hrs in shallow water in position 51°22’48”N-03°11’26”E. 193 passengers and crew were lost.
- 07.04.1987
- Smit Tak International were employed to salvage the vessel were able to right the vessel.
- 24.04.1987
- Refloated and towed into Zeebrugge. Subsequently towed to the yard of BV Koninklijke Maats ‘De Schelde’ at Vlissingen where she was declared a constructive total loss.
- 15.05.1987
- Offered for sale ‘as lies’.
- 30.09.1987
- Sold to Ino Compania Naviera SA (Hanchart BV), The Netherlands and renamed Flushing Range. Registered at Kingstown, Saint Vincent. Immediately resold to Taiwanese shipbreakers.
- 05.10.1987
- Left Vlissingen in company with Gaelic Ferry in tow of the tug Markusturm.
- 15.10.1987
- Broke tow during hurricane-force winds when off Cape Finisterre.
- 19.10.1987
- Reconnected tow.
- 27.12.1987
- Again broke adrift when in position 34°46’S-24°39’E off the South African coast.
- 31.12.1987
- Taken in tow to Port Elizabeth to await repairs to the tug. The tow was subsequently resumed with the replacement tug Sirocco.
- 22.03.1988
- Arrived at Kaohsiung, Taiwan for breaking up.