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More than 400 people attended a service in Dover on Sunday (4 March) to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise.

They included survivors, people who lost members of their family or friends, and those involved in the immediate aftermath.

In all, 193 of the 542 passengers and crew on board the roll on, roll off ferry died when it capsized just outside the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on 6 March 1987, a few minutes after setting off for Dover.

The service at St Mary's Church in Dover was organised largely to give thanks to those who helped in the rescue operation and to recognise their courage.

The Rev Nicholas Stacey, a former Director of Social Services at Kent County Council, who gave the address at the service, said: "No group of people suffered more acutely than the 42 members of the 80-strong crew who survived.

"In the blame game that followed [the disaster], the outstanding selfless work of the crew was never fully acknowledged. I want to put the record straight.

"Many of the 313 passengers who were rescued owe their lives to the crew. They were heroes."

The Rev Stacey said: "It is absolutely right that the mayor and vicar of Dover have called for this service to give us an opportunity to remember and lift up to God in our prayers and in our hearts, those who died, the bereaved, and all who have suffered and are still suffering from this disaster.

"May the message of this service go out to them, hopefully through the media, 'you have not been forgotten, you are in our thoughts, in our hearts, in our love, in our prayers, may our loving God be with you'."

Kent social workers went to Zeebrugge to support relatives who came from all over the country to wait for the bodies of their loved ones to be retrieved from the hull of the ferry.

The Rev Stacey said: "The stress on the counsellors, who went on counselling for many months not just the survivors and the bereaved but those involved in the rescue operation, was particularly great.

"One of the many lessons learnt from this tragedy was the need for the Coroner and the counsellors to be given support.

"The counsellors learnt from their experience about a condition that has come to be called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder."

He added that as a 17-year-old midshipman in the Royal Navy he visited Hiroshima a few weeks after the atomic bomb had been dropped. The effect on him was to lead him eventually to the priesthood.

"I thought and felt then, as I still feel and think 62 years on, that the heart of the Christian faith does help to explain the riddle of our human existence and meets our deepest needs and yearnings," he said.

"Our life on earth is not the beginning and the end, it is the end of the beginning. Death is not the slamming of a door, it is the opening of a gate where we are welcomed by a Loving Father.

"I do not pretend it is easy to believe but it is the belief that has given meaning and hope to the millions who have believed and whose lives have been transformed by it."

Anyone who is still experiencing emotional difficulty following the tragedy and feels they would like to talk to someone in confidence can ring the Dover Counselling Centre on 01304 204123.