Accidents and the lessons learned
Oil on the beaches: Torrey Canyon, 1964
On the morning of Saturday 18th March 1964, a 61,000 gross ton
tanker was approaching the Scilly Isles on a voyage from Kuwait to
Milford Haven, Wales, when the master took a short cut. He wanted
to catch that evening`s tide, otherwise his deeply-laden tanker
would have to wait another five days to reach her berth [definition]. She never
reached her destination: just after 9.00 am the Torrey
Canyon piled onto the Seven Stones Reef at 17 knots. Crude
petroleum poured out of her broken tanks, beginning one of the
biggest environmental disasters a ship had ever caused. Thousands
of tons of oil coated the beaches of Devon and Cornwall just before
the holiday season, killing thousands of seabirds and marine
creatures. Pollution from sinking tankers continues to be a major concern.
New tankers are `double hulled` - built with two skins of metal.
The hope is that if the outer skin is pierced, the inner skin will
prevent the cargo spilling. It will take many years before the
older, single-hulled tankers are phased out, however. There is no
guarantee that even a double hull will save a tanker wrecked in a
violent storm, involved in a serious collision or - like
the Torrey Canyon - driven full speed on to
rocks.
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