Torrey Canyon

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The Torrey Canyon was the first of the big supertankers, capable of carrying a cargo of 120,000 tons of crude oil, and was wrecked off the western coast of Cornwall in 1967 causing an environmental disaster.

She was built in the United States in 1959 and originally had a capacity of 60,000 tons but she was enlarged in Japan to 120,000 tons capacity. At the time of the accident she was owned by Barracuda Tanker Corporation, a subsidiary of Union Oil Company of California but chartered to British Petroleum. She was 974 feet 5 inches long, 125 feet 5 inches beam and 68 feet 8 inches draught.

She left Mena al-Ahmadi in Kuwait on her final voyage on 19 February 1967 with full cargo of crude oil, and reached the Canary Islands on 14 March. From there she was routed to Milford Haven.

On March 18, 1967, owing to a navigational error, the Torrey Canyon struck Pollard's Rock in the Seven Stones reef between the Isles of Scilly and Land's End, Cornwall, causing major environmental damage on the Cornish and French coasts.

This was the first major oil spill and no plans had been prepared beforehand to deal with it. Unsuccessful attempts were made to float the ship off the reef, and one member of the Dutch salvage team was killed. The ship broke apart after being stranded on the reef for several days. Attempts to use foam booms to contain the oil were also of limited success due to their fragility in high seas.

The Fleet Air Arm bombed the wreck in an effort to sink it, burn off the slick and reduce the oil spilling from it. Although the operation was declared a success, the Navy came in for some criticism as around a quarter of the 42 bombs dropped on the stationary target failed to hit it. The bombing was followed by Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm aircraft dropping petrol and napalm to try to burn the oil.

Around 120 miles of Cornish coast and 80 kilometres of France was contaminated and around 15,000 sea birds killed along with huge numbers of marine organisms before the 270 square mile slick dispersed. Further damage was caused by the heavy use of detergents to break up the slick. Some 42 vessels sprayed over 10,000 tons of detergents onto the floating oil to emulsify and disperse it - but as these substances were extremely toxic to many marine organisms they caused even further damage.

The disaster led to many changes in international regulations, for example the Civil Liability Convention (CLC) of 1969, which imposed strict liability on ship owners without the need to prove negligence, and the 1973 International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships.

The Torrey Canyon disaster was the subject of a satirical song by Serge Gainsbourg on the album Comic Strip.