Just over 20 years ago, on March 6th 1987; just before 7pm GMT, the ro-ro ferry (roll on, roll off) the Herald of Free Enterprise, belonging to the Townsend Thorensen company and sailing from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Dover, with 650 people on board turned on it's side.
The resulting disaster caused the deaths of 193 people. It left port in calm weather, but with it's bow doors open. Over the next few minutes, water flooded the car deck, resulting in what was later termed the 'free water effect'. As water flooded the car deck, it affected the stability of the ship, resulting in the ship, as mentioned, turning on it's side.
The ferry had no internal bulkheads to prevent the spread of water. Bulkheads, would have reduced the amount of cars and lorries the ferry could carry. It would also have the result of reducing the money made from each trip. Not only this but with bulkheads in place, the 'turnaround time' would also been reduced. All of which are primary concerns within Capitalism.
As was stated at the time, these ferries were, "constructed with large unrestricted car decks for maximum capacity and to allow them to load and unload quickly". What stands out with stark clarity is capitalism's concern with cost. In every sphere of Capitalism, whether it be shipping, air travel, or as been brought to the forefront in recent years via the environment, capitalism and the corporations that infest it's environs, cost is of paramount concern.
Measures to safeguard travel, whether by air, sea or land, or measures to decrease pollution etc. are expensive. In the competitive global economy that is capitalism, it is often the case that the cost imperative (reduced profit and competitiveness) will supersede considerations of safety, whether to individuals or the planet. Capitalism cannot work any other way.
The only solution, is a world where the primacy is not "the profit margin", or indeed profit at all - which in any case only benefits the tiny minority, "the capitalist class", who own the world, the ability to produce the things we need to live and the natural resources from which many of these 'things' are produced.
The alternative is the continuance of present day society, Capitalism, in which the Herald of Free Enterprise, is really, "The Herald of Free Enterprise", with everything that goes with it.
SC
I think about these things every time I fly on an American commercial aircraft and I remember that the airlines have built in the costs of dead passengers in crashes into their operating costs/insurance payments.
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