Marchioness disaster
The Marchioness disaster was a collision between two vessels on the River Thames in London in the early hours of 20 August 1989, which resulted in the deaths of 51 people.
Douglas Henderson, the captain of Bowbelle, was charged with failing to have an effective lookout on the vessel, but two cases against him ended with a hung jury.
The new upper saloon obstructed the vision from the wheelhouse,[2][3] and there was, the later inquiry established, a lack of easily accessible emergency exits, particularly from the lower decks.
By February 1988 he had completed courses at the Port of London Authority for chartwork and seamanship, and obtained his apprentice licence in May 1988; he joined Marchioness as a crew member around the same time.
The ship's captain, Douglas Henderson, aged 31,[19] undertook a Deep Sea apprenticeship until 1978 and joined ECA in November 1987, when he became second mate on Bowsprite.
[23] At the time of the collision with Marchioness, Bowbelle was carrying aggregate and was trimmed down at the stern;[b] this, along with the dredging equipment, limited the forward vision from the bridge.
[17] On 19 August 1989 Henderson visited several public houses over a period of three and a half hours and drank six pints (3.4 L; 120 imp fl oz) of lager.
It was organised by Jonathan Phang, a photographic agent, to celebrate the 26th birthday of Antonio de Vasconcellos, who worked in a merchant bank.
[32] It was a spring tide, recorded as one of the highest of the year and the river was at half-tide at the time of the collision; it was running upriver at a rate of three knots.
The second impact was 33 feet (10 m) from the stern, and caused the pleasure boat to pivot round the bow of Bowbelle, and turn it on its side, probably to an angle of 120°.
[30][46] McGowan had been thrown from the boat into the water, but climbed back on board to tie open the port side door, which led to the dance floor, to allow several people to escape.
The vessel then dropped all passengers and 28 survivors at the nearby Waterloo Police Pier (now Tower Lifeboat Station) before it took members of the emergency services back out to the collision site.
[67] A Port of London (PLA) hydrographic surveyor located the wreckage of Marchioness and, during the late afternoon of 20 August, work began on lifting the vessel.
[69] While the lifting operation was progressing, police arrested and interviewed Henderson and Kenneth Noble, Bowbelle's second mate who was at the wheel for the collision.
As part of their approach, Knapman decided that: With those bodies which were not recovered from the Marchioness and which would be likely to surface only when putrification and bloating meant that they would float, the following would apply: a.
[85] A week later a report was compiled for Allan Green, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), which recommended that criminal charges should not be brought against Henderson.
[96][97] Two weeks later the Transport Secretary, Malcolm Rifkind, took the decision to publish the MAIB Report, repeating that because an appropriate body had undertaken an investigation, there was no requirement to have a public inquiry.
18.4 The principal contributory factors were that: both vessels were using the middle part of the fairway and the centre arches of the bridges across the river; The families of the victims criticised the MAIB report.
Toft provided a critique of the MAIB's work and concluded that: The inconsistencies, contradictions, confusions, conjecture, erroneous conclusions, missing and inappropriate recommendations as well as epistemological, ontological and methodological problems, created by the then current maritime safety culture ... raises serious doubts as to the objectivity of the investigation, the validity of the findings, the judgement of the Department of Transport in holding an inquiry of this type, and as a result whether or not all the appropriate lessons were uncovered during the MAIB's inquiry into this tragedy.
", was published;[l] when Knapman met the two journalists to deny the accusation of a cover-up, he advised them not to base reports on what Margaret Lockwood-Croft, the mother of one of the victims, said: he described her as "unhinged".
The families tried to apply for a judicial review on the basis that "the use of the word 'unhinged' and reference to a number of 'mentally unwell' relatives betrayed an attitude of hostility, however unconscious, towards ... members of the Marchioness Action Group".
[112] Following the 1997 election, which brought the Labour Party to power, the MAG petitioned John Prescott, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions and Deputy Prime Minister, to open an inquest.
[114]Prescott accepted the recommendation and the public inquest took place in October and November 2000, with Clarke chairing proceedings; the report was published in March 2001.
[118] The captain was also criticised for his actions after the collision, when he did not broadcast a mayday call and did not deploy either the lifebuoys or life raft, in contravention of section 422 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894.
[123] English law provides no compensation for fatal accidents, other than for funeral expenses, unless financial dependency at the time of death can be proved.
Louise Christian, the human rights solicitor who acted for the families of the victims, wrote that "When young unmarried people die in circumstances of gross negligence as here, death comes cheap and the boat owners and their insurance companies suffer little in the way of financial penalties".
[125] According to Irwin Mitchell, the solicitors who represented the families, the amounts were "modest" because many of those killed were young, without dependants and had no established careers.
[127] The saxophonist Josephine Wells, who had toured with Tears for Fears and the Communards, who was aboard the Marchioness and had a cousin die in the disaster, subsequently suffered a nervous breakdown and was unable to work.
[128] After recommendations made in the Clarke report relating to the improvement of river safety, the government asked the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), the PLA and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) to work together to set up a dedicated search and rescue service for the Thames.
[131] In 2001 the Royal Humane Society made nineteen bravery awards to people involved in rescuing the victims of the collision, many of whom were passengers on Hurlingham.
