SS Atlantic Empress
The Atlantic Empress was a Greek oil tanker that was involved in two large oil spills. The spills together are the fifth largest oil spill on record[1] and the largest ship-based spill[2].
On 19 July 1979, during a tropical rainstorm, the ship collided with the Aegean Captain, off Trinidad and Tobago, spilling 287,000 metric tonnes of oil consigned to Mobil. The damage incurred from the collision was never completely remedied, and while being towed on 2 August, the Atlantic Empress continued to spill an additional 41 million gallons (all together being 276,000 tonnes of crude oil) off Barbados. The Aegean Captain also spilled a large quantity of oil from her No. 1 tank. The Atlantic Empress sank on 3 August in deep water and her remaining cargo solidified. The spill from the two ships never came ashore.
By comparison, the infamous Exxon Valdez spill ten years later only saw 37,000 metric tonnes of oil released.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Oil Spills and Disasters
- Largest Oil Spill Table
- Modern Marvels, Engineering Disasters 14 (2004)
- ITOPF statistics
[edit] External links
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