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Ceremonies in Belgium mark 3 decades since ferry sinking

Ceremonies in Belgium mark 3 decades since ferry sinking | iNFOnews.ca
FILE - In this March 8, 1987 file photo, the salvage tug Sea Lion passes by the bow of capsized cross-channel ferry, Herald of Free Enterprise, off the Belgian coast near Zeebrugge. On March 6, 2017, thirty years will have passed since the ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized with the loss of 193 lives shortly after setting out to Dover from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. (AP Photo/Heinz Ducklau, File) A

ZEEBRUGGE, Belgium – Three decades after the capsizing of the British ferry Herald of Free Enterprise, victims’ families are sailing out to the scene of the disaster to remember the 193 who died.

Under overcast skies and with a strong wind blowing, the tribute at sea Monday will be followed by a memorial service near the St. Donaas church in this busy North Sea port.

The Herald of Free Enterprise was on its way from Zeebrugge to Dover, England, on March 6, 1987, when water rushed in through bow doors that had been left open. In minutes, it tipped over and sank. It was the worst peacetime British maritime disaster since the Titanic sank in 1912.

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Abbey Westbury

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