Liverpool - The City of Remembrance

When you look throughout history there are many tragic incidents, accidents and disasters that occur in every city in the world, but one that has many memorials to such periods is that of the western English city of Liverpool, home of the Beatles and two Premier League football clubs.

I have visited Liverpool on several occasions in the last 20 years, each time finding new things to see and it is my intention to head back at some point to see other historical pieces that have since been erected in memory of people from long ago. But we shall start with the maritime history of this great city and its connections to two of the most famous lost liners in the world.

Back in the early 1900s the two shipping rivals Cunard and White Star were in the process of designing and building their most inspiring ships, for Cunard it would be the Lusitania and Mauritania and for White Star it would be the three sisters Olympic, Titanic and Britannic. Lusitania was launched in 1907 and was a regular here at the docks, but the Titanic never came here despite the fact that the name Liverpool was emblazoned on her stern as her port of registry.

Both of these ships sank in tragic circumstances – Titanic was lost on 15^th April 1912 after striking an iceberg killing 1512, Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat off Ireland on 7^th May 1915 killing 1197. The Merseyside Maritime Museum features these ships heavily and tells the story of how so many local merchant mariners put to sea in these ships and how many lost their lives. Two monuments adorn this area by the docks, the first one is in the grounds of the museum and that is the propeller of the Lusitania, salvaged from her wreck, the second is a memorial to the Titanic unveiled a few years after the sinking.

Just over the main roads from here are the old White Star Line offices, the headquarters of a company that ended up merging with Cunard and eventually phased out after the Second World War. The building itself has a plaque but mentions nothing about the company’s most famous ships.

Over in Birkenhead is the U-boat Story, a museum dedicated to the wreck of the German submarine U-534 (featured in a previous blog story). Sunk in the last days of the war in 1945 she was salvaged in August 1993 in a hunt for lost gold. A few years later she was brought here where she went on display and this is where I first went around the wreck in 2000. Several years later she was sold once again, cut up and made into an incredible museum that she sits in today with all her artefacts, a fascinating piece of history and one that we can commend those that have put all their time and effort into the preservation of the wreck and the things that this submarine can teach us about the Second World War.

The final memorial to talk about is one that is much closer to home and one that actually didn’t happen anywhere near here. On 15^th April 1989 a football match at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield ended with thousands of Liverpool FC fans being crushed in a stand that was overcrowded and badly managed. By the end of the day there were dozens dead, the final toll being 96. While the city of Sheffield was in shock, it was Liverpool where all the victims came from and because of this a memorial at the Liverpool FC ground at Anfield pays tribute to the people who did not come home that day.

While there was controversy for many years over the blame for this terrible incident, the city did not forget their people and a second memorial was unveiled in the city in 2013. This memorial is one that I have not yet had the chance to visit but one day I will make the journey and seek it out for myself.

My trips here have shown me that the city of Liverpool, heavily bombed during the Second World War and the scene of several headline-hitting murders over the years, will continue to remember their people no matter where they are. It is a city that acts more like a family than a neighbourhood, one that will make sure that no one from Liverpool is ever forgotten.

A Massacre in Norway

Whenever you think of terrorism, very rarely does any part of Scandinavia come up in conversation. But all that changed ten years ago when the world knew the name of Anders Behring Breivik, a white supremacist hell bent on infecting vulnerable people with his poisonous ideology.

But he was a nobody, he needed to make the world stand up and take notice of him and the only way to do this was to light the fire that would cause the revolution that he dreamed of. He would have to cause absolute chaos, to do this he decided he would orchestrate a massacre.

Born in 1979, Breivik spent his life in his home in Norway living with his mother and playing vast amounts of video games online. His unhealthy interest in attacking the governmental system and migrant issues his only friend, but one that he would go over in his mind again and again.

On 22^nd July 2011 he drove a van to the government buildings in the capital Oslo which included the office of the Prime Minister, setting the fuse. With no warning the explosives stored in the back exploded with devastating consequences, the shockwave sending ripples across every building in the vicinity and leaving a trail of casualties. This bombing killed 8 and left over 200 injured.

Emergency services were on their way while Breivik was already outbound, heading to his next attack. This time it was a children's political summer camping trip on the island of Utoya. Dressed as a police officer he managed to trick the ferry operators to take him over to the island saying that he was protecting the people camped there following the terrorist attack that was already making the news.

But without any inkling of what was about to happen, Breivik pulled out his weapons and opened fire, shooting everybody he could see. He began a murderous rampage across Utoya, cutting down any human being that moved, round after round ripping across the trees and outbuildings. The terrified campers hid as best they could but he did not stop. Word got out that gunfire was heard on the island and the police sped to the scene.

Armed response teams found Breivik and ordered him to lay down his weapons, he did as he was told and surrendered without a fight. By now he had killed 69 people on the island and injured 110. He was taken away and locked up, charged with terrorism which he freely admitted….yet he pleaded not guilty as he “did not recognise the court” that he was to be tried in.

After a trial lasting several months, he was found sane by a court of law and sentenced to 21 years detention, the maximum time a court can give a killer in Norway. This does not mean he will be released when his time is up, this can be extended if he is considered a threat.

In 2018 I made a visit to Oslo and went to check out the place where the bombing took place. There is a small museum which unfortunately wasn’t open at the time and a damaged bus stop was relocated from its original position a street away to outside the PM’s old office, glass still damaged and with the newspaper from the day of the bombing behind the glass for the commuters to read while waiting.

What got me was that the building looked fine, although by now it had been over 7 years since the attack, but this thought was soon dashed when I realised that the front of the building seemed to move with the wind. It took a while to see but the entire front of this tall office block was a canvas photograph designed to look like the building is still standing, behind this would be a damaged façade and no doubt empty rooms. It seems that after so many years the damage is still there and the legacy of Anders Breivik is still there to see.

The Crash of TWA Flight 800

25 years ago a disaster hit the aviation industry that sent shockwaves around the world. The loss of Trans World Airlines flight 800 was one of those air crashes that baffled the investigators and led to a host of conspiracy theories before the eventual investigation report concluded that it was something much simpler.

On 17th July 1996 the TWA Boeing 747 sat on the runway at JFK Airport in New York waiting to take off, with 230 people on board heading for Paris. As the aircraft sped down the runway a chain reaction of events was already under way. 12 minutes after take off it exploded in flames, crashing into the Atlantic Ocean. When rescuers reached the site, they were greeting with burning wreckage floating on the sea in the dark. There were no survivors.

What happened next was unprecedented, for after the mourning period came the questions. What had caused the aircraft to explode in mid-air so suddenly? Rumours of a terrorist bombing were rife but no group had claimed responsibility. Then suddenly a photograph was released to the press that set tongues wagging and conspiracies booming.

On Long Island a party was in full swing as the aircraft was heading out to sea and photographs were being taken of the people enjoying drinks and chatter without realising what was going on in the background. In one photograph, high in the sky, is what looked like a missile streaking across the night. The US Navy ships were doing exercises in the area and immediately came under suspicion.

Accusations were thrown around as the wreckage of the aircraft was still being recovered, the investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board hard at work trying to sift through the clues as to what really went on. The missile strike was soon discredited due to the fact that any military exercises did not come close to the aircraft and there were no objects in the sky being tracked on RADAR before the crash.

The wreckage of TWA 800 was reovered piece by piece, a painstakingly slow process and a massive jigsaw puzzle now started to take shape in a hangar, but before long the investigators were getting more of an idea of what had happened. It turned out that the fuel tanks were not full to capacity and that the residual space within the fuel tanks were creating a space for vapours to congregate and therefore leaving potential dangers within the aircraft. 

With this confirmed, all it took was one spark from a short circuit to blow the aircraft up, which was the conclusion of the NTSB four years after the disaster. An animation was set up to show the world what went on and it was nothing short of horrific. The front of the aircraft had been blown completely off in the initial explosion, but the aircraft continued flying for another 34 seconds without a cockpit. The Boeing 747 then descended rapidly and crashed into the sea.

Although 25  years has passed the pain of this tragedy has not gone away. Having to wait four years for an answer as well as the conspiracies only heightened the pain and not-knowing. The wreckage of the aircraft was reconstructed in a hangar and used for training, recently this has been announced that after a quarter of a century, this huge piece of aviation history will now be decommissioned from use and put to scrap.

Memorials to the disaster were installed in New York by the families group, where the relatives will gather on 17th July like they have done every year for over two decades. With the cause of the crash now known, the only thing that could be done was to take away the lessons learned and prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again.

Disasters in Paris

It was the Easter period of 2018 that I ventured to the French capital for a hunt around the city looking for memorials to some of the major disasters that have struck Paris since the mid 1800s and incredibly they are more common than expected. I am going to start with a visit to a street near the River Seine called Rue Jean-Goujon. It is here that a church is around halfway up on the right hand side, the Notre-Dame-de-Consolation and this church itself is a memorial to what happened here. On 4^th May 1897 a large warehouse containing a mock up medieval street known as the Bazar de la Charite was constructed with hundreds of people attending the event lasting several days. But a huge fire left 126 dead and over 200 injured, the entire site becoming a raging inferno that sent France into mourning. The outside of the church today (above) has very little evidence of something this big happening, but knowing the history of this place makes this place of worship as haunting as it gets.

Just around the corner is the Pont de l’Alma, a bridge going across the river Seine within sight of the Eiffel Tower. But it is not the bridge itself that has the attention of the world, it is the road underpass that runs directly below this that made this site infamous. On 31^st August 1997 three people were killed when a Mercedes crashed into a pillar while being followed by paparazzi photographers, there was one survivor. The reason this crash became world headlines was the identity of its victims – Diana Princess of Wales, Dodi Fayed (son of Harrods owner Mohammed Al Fayed) and their driver Henri Paul. The sole survivor was bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones. Above this underpass is an unofficial memorial to Diana which was a replica of the flames coming out of the torch up the Statue of Liberty in New York. Now it is adorned with images of the Princess and has been since that day the worlds press descended on here. With conspiracies rife and talk of assassination, cover ups and murder there was one thing that was clear above all else – Diana and Dodi did not wear seat belts, their bodyguard did. The cause of the crash was later blamed on the driver being drunk and losing control in the car chase.

Moving on to the train station at Gare de Lyon, you have to go deep underground for this next memorial. It is between Platforms 1 and 2 that a yellow monument stretches the length of the platform almost, right in the centre surrounded by a chain barrier. On here are the 56 names of the people who were killed at this spot when an out of control inbound train slammed into another one that was waiting to depart. 60 others were injured, the blame being laid on the train crew for their operating of the brakes after an emergency cord was pulled earlier in the journey.

Back on a journey across Paris I head to another railway disaster site. This time it was at Couronnes station, where a fire here led to 84 deaths on a line that was not even a year old. On 10^th August 1903 smoke was seen coming out of the engine of the front car of a train but it was decided to evacuate, clear the smoke and carry on the service. The fire soon returned and the train soon became an inferno, consuming the station with smoke and killing dozens. All that remains now is a small information board near the entrance to the station.

But it is not just fires and crashes that have struck Paris railways, two terrorist bombs at Saint Michel station in 1995 and Port Royal in 1996 left a combined total of 12 dead, memorial plaques honouring those who died. Another terrorist attack at a small restaurant, the Chez Jo Goldenberg, by the Abu Nidal Organisation left six dead and 22 injured when the attackers threw grenades into the dining area and opened fire with guns. The restaurant was no longer there when I visited but the building was still the same. Again it is hard to imagine things like this happening in such quiet streets. Although these days France has become renown for suffering terrorist attacks in more recent years and for the next incident I had to visit several locations.

On the night of 13^th November 2015 a cell from the Islamic State terrorist group launched a wave of major attacks across the city in six different locations – The Stade de France, Bataclan theatre and four small café’s packed with people. Suicide bombings, gunfire and hostage taking left 130 dead and over 400 injured. Of the 9 terrorists involved, only two got away alive. It was a long trek across the city to visit all of the memorials, the only one I missed was the stadium as it was too far away to do in one day. The largest of the monuments is in a park opposite the Bataclan where 90 died, all the names appearing on a block of stone surrounded by tributes. A further memorial in the Place de la Republique pays tribute to all six sites. It really was a terrible night for Paris, and one that continued with further attacks later on in Nice, Lyon and Marseille.

Finishing my tour of Paris, I had to board a train at the very busy Montparnasse, a major station that is probably the city’s version of Kings Cross or Waterloo. The structure has changed a lot but I knew that there was a famous photograph of this station, taken in 1895 when a train over-ran the platform and smashed through the walls. Continuing through the wall the engine and several carriages (still connected up) ended up in the street below, killing a pedestrian. Despite the amount of comedy posters that this photograph has been seen in, it is still a railway disaster and perhaps the sellers of such trivia need to remember that. To this date there is no memorial to this. 

Capsizing of the European Gateway

On 19th December 1982 the Townsend Thoresen car ferry European Gateway was departing the port of Felixstowe outbound with 34 passengers and 36 crew on board and a cargo of vehicles. She had been built in 1975 as the European Express in Germany but renamed before the year was out. At 386 feet long she was over 4000 gross tons and could carry over 300 passengers and 400 cars on a typical journey (Photo right shows her in August 1979 - image by Wolfgang Fricke).

In the meantime the Speedlink Vanguard was inbound to the nearby port of Harwich. Launched in 1973, she was operated by Stena Cargo Line and was at this moment in time carrying 28 crew and a full cargo. Built in Sweden, she was 466 feet long and just over 3,500 gross tons and had the ability to carry around three dozen passengers. 

The two ships sailed closer towards each other in the dark until at 2250 hours the two vessels collided and the Speedlink Vanguard’s bow slammed into the side of the European Gateway, tearing a huge gash down her starboard side. Water immediately flowed in and entered the car deck creating a phenomenon known as the Free Surface Effect, where liquid as the free space to move around thereby creating instability on the platform – in this case the ferry itself. 

The European Gateway came to rest on its side on a nearby sandbank, only good fortune preventing her from completely going over. A  huge rescue operation was launched and helicopters began winching survivors out of the upturned ship, search lights trying to find those that were now missing, the operation would continue into the night. 

By the following morning it was clear that the ship was in a bad way, six people were confirmed dead, the rest taken off by a nearby ferry, lifeboats and the helicopters. The Speedlink Vanguard was alongside Harwich with the front of her bow smashed in but very little other damage compared to what the other ship had suffered. 

An investigation blamed both vessels for the tragedy, an inquest recording an open verdict. The Speedlink Vanguard was repaired and back at sea pretty much straight away. For the European Gateway, she was successfully salvaged the following year and incredibly she too was repaired and put back into service. 

Speedlink Vanguard would go on to have seven further name changes and be chartered by other companies all over the world before she was scrapped in 2013 as the Boa Vista. 

European Gateway would change names a further six times and spend most of her career in the Mediterranean, few people knowing her tragic past as they took this ferry around the Greek islands. With her final name as Penelope, she was scrapped in Piraeus in 2013. 

On the 31st anniversary of the disaster a memorial plaque was unveiled overlooking the place where this disaster happened, attended by many people who were there and who can never shake the memories of that terrible night from their minds. 

NOTE – At some point I would very much like to write a book about this disaster and tell the story of what happened. Everybody remembers the sinking of the other ferry owned by the same company five years later, the Herald of Free Enterprise, but few remember the European Gateway. If you have anything you think may be useful or were there at the time then please get in touch at shipwreckdata@yahoo.co.uk or via my Facebook page.  

Famous people who have had a lucky escape from air disasters

My last blog looked at the tragic deaths of many major stars that were well loved and talented. But there are several people who have escaped death in such disasters too. Here are some headline-hitting cases of near disasters by some of the world’s most famous people.

Leeds United Football Club (left) – On 30th March 1998 the team were returning home following a 3-0 defeat at West Ham when an engine exploded on their British Aerospace 748 Turboprop owned by Emerald Airlines. Their pilot, Captain John Hackett, guided the aircraft down to Stansted Airport where the aircraft scraped across the runway nose-down, the engine by now ablaze. All 40 passengers and four crew got off safely with just two injuries. The pilot was hailed a hero and saved Leeds United from certain death not long after the 40th anniversary of the Munich commemorations.

Ozzy Osborne – Rock star Ozzy and his family have become household names in the last 50 years or so, but on 19th March 1982 the Osborne’s were to escape death in a very public way. The ex-Black Sabbath singer was touring with his friend and guitarist Randy Rhodes but while Ozzy was taking the bus, Randy was flying with a hairdresser and pilot when it narrowly missed the bus and crashed in flames killing all three on board. Just a few feet lower and the occupants of the bus would have been wiped out.

Yassir Arafat (left) – The Palestinian leader was in a private plane over the Libyan desert on 9th April 1992 when a sandstorm brought down the aircraft. Of 13 people on board, three were killed and the plane was not found for 12 hours. By then he was located battered and bruised but otherwise OK. The treacherous Sahara Desert and the impact of the crash making this survival story a quite remarkable one giving the odds.

Harrison Ford (below right) – The actor famous for portraying adventurer Indiana Jones has had his fair share of dramas himself, not least him being accident prone. On 6th March 2015 he was piloting his single engine light aircraft when it got into difficultly over Los Angeles. He remained calm and carefully brought it down low over a golf course before crash landing, the aircraft being a complete mess but incredibly the 72 year old survived with just cuts and bruises. He had previously been in two other aircraft emergencies.

Travis Barker/ DJ AM – On 19th September 2008 a Learjet carrying six people was taking off from Colombia Metropolitan Airport in South Carolina when it overshot the runway and crashed killing four people. The two survivors were musician Travis Barker from the band Blink 182 and DJ Adam Goldsteain, also known as DJ AM. Although their injuries were serious burns both survived the crash, although DJ AM was found dead less than a year later due to drugs.

John Lyndon (left) – On 21st December 1988 the lead singer of the punk band The Sex Pistols, “Johnny Rotten” was booked onto Pan Am flight 103 for the transatlantic flight but his wife was taking too long to pack. They ended up missing their flight and had to arrange a later one instead, but at 1902 hours the flight was ripped apart by a terrorist bomb and killed all 259 on board the plane and 11 on the ground when it hit the town of Lockerbie in Scotland.

Seth Macfarlane – Famous for his animated series’ such as Family Guy and American Dad, Seth was booked onto American Airlines flight 11 bound for Los Angeles on the morning of 11th September 2001. A mix up with the itinerary had him miss the flight and get the times for takeoff wrong. The plane was hijacked and flown into the North Tower of New York’s World Trade Center in what became known as the 9/11 attacks. Others who should have been either on the planes or in the buildings at the time of the attacks were names such as singer Michael Jackson, Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson and actor Mark Wahlberg.

Famous people who have died in air disasters

Celebrities are constantly in our newspapers and magazines for doing the most random of things, the press need to get hold of every bit of gossip to keep them on their front pages. They are, after all, what sells the media in the first place. But when tragedy happens the world is suddenly shocked that someone so famous could be cut down in the prime of their life. Questions like “how could this happen?” and “whey them” are often thrown around. But the truth is they are just human beings who are exactly the same as the rest of them.

When a famous death occurs the media once again go into a hype over them, but this time they have a new scope to work on, completely forgetting that in 90% of cases they haven’t died alone. So here is the start of a few blog entries where celebrities have died in tragic circumstances, today is those who were lost in air crashes throughout the years. This is by no means an exhaustive list.

Kobe Bryant – (right) An American basketball player that became world renown for his skills during his 20 years with the Los Angeles Lakers. On 26^th January 2020 a helicopter with Kobe and 8 others on board crashed in Southern California killing all on board. The cause of the crash was put down to pilots decision to fly in thick cloud which caused him to lose control of the aircraft. Kobe was travelling with his 13 year old daughter Gianna.

Manchester United – (Top photo) After going from strength to strength with the football team and finally heading into Europe, manager Matt Busby had high hopes for the star players of this world-renowned club, that is until their aircraft attempted to take off from Munich Airport on 6^th February 1958 and crashed. 23 people died with 21 others injured. Among those dead were 8 footballers, three of their staff and two journalists as well as several passengers and the co-pilot. Memorials at Old Trafford, the Manchester United stadium honours their memory.

Jim Reeves – A singer-songwriter, Jim was popular from the 1940s until the 1960s with various country and popular hits throughout his career. On 31^st July 1964 he boarded a light aircraft with his business partner Dean Manuel with the singer at the controls ready to secure a business deal with some real estate. The aircraft took off from Arkansas and never reached its destination, the wreckage of the aircraft and the bodies of Jim and Dean not being found for two days.

Patsy Cline – (Left) Country and Western singer most famous for her hit “Crazy” in 1961. On 5^th March 1963 she boarded a small aircraft for a journey home across the states after performing at a concert, stopping to refuel in Tennessee. Soon after takeoff the aircraft crashed in bad weather in the town of Camden, killing all four on board (three singers and the pilot).

Steve Fossett – Record breaking daredevil Steve was an American businessman who challenged himself to do things that nobody else had done, setting over 100 records in his lifetime including sailing, ballooning and flying. On 3^rd September 2007 he took off in his light aircraft for a solo flight over the Great Basin Desert between Nevada and California and never arrived at his destination. It would be a year before his crashed aircraft and his body was found by a hiker.

JFK Jr – American businessman and son of the late John F Kennedy, he was mostly remembered for his photographs of him as a child saluting the coffin of his father after his very public assassination. Photographers loved JFK Jr and so did the public, but on 16^th July 1999 he took off from New Jersey with his wife and sister-in-law on board to attend a wedding. The aircraft failed to arrive and a huge search was launched out into the Atlantic near where the plane was last tracked. Several days later the bodies were found along with wreckage of the aircraft.

Aaliyah – (Left) Full name Aaliyah Dana Haughton, this singer and actress had appeared in films such as Romeo Must Die and Queen of the Damned. At just 22 years old she was returning to the USA from the Caribbean with friends on 25th August 2001 when the aircraft that she was travelling in crashed in the Bahamas killing all 9 people on board.

Others that have died in air crashes that you may be familiar with include Glen Miller (1944), The Chapecoense football team (2016), John Denver (1997), Payne Stewart (1999), Buddy Holly (1959). The list goes on……

Remembering the Chapecoense football team