Torrey Canyon
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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Torrey Canyon oil spill. (Discuss) Proposed since January 2012. |
| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Torrey Canyon |
| Owner: | Barracuda Tanker Corporation |
| Operator: | British Petroleum |
| Port of registry: |  Liberia |
| Laid down: | 1959 |
| Fate: | Sank after running aground, 18 March 1967 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Supertanker |
| Length: | 974.4 ft (297.0 m) |
| Beam: | 125.4 ft (38.2 m) |
| Draught: | 68.7 ft (20.9 m) |
| Capacity: | 120,000 tons crude oil |
The Torrey Canyon was a supertanker capable of carrying a cargo of 120,000 tons of crude oil, which was shipwrecked off the western coast of Cornwall, England in March 1967 causing an environmental disaster. At that time, the tanker was the largest vessel ever to be wrecked.
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[edit] Design and history
When laid down in the United States in 1959, it had a capacity of 60,000 tons but the ship was enlarged in Japan to 120,000 tons capacity. At the time of the accident it was registered in Liberia[1] and owned by Barracuda Tanker Corporation, a subsidiary of Union Oil Company of California but chartered to British Petroleum. It was 974.4 feet (297.0 m) long, 125.4 feet (38.2 m) beam and 68.7 feet (20.9 m) draught.
[edit] Accident and oil spill
The ship left the Kuwait National Petroleum Company refinery at Mina al-Ahmadi on its final voyage on 19 February 1967 with full cargo of crude oil, reaching the Canary Islands by 14 March. From there the planned route was to Milford Haven.
On 18 March 1967, owing to a navigational error, the Torrey Canyon struck Pollard's Rock on Seven Stones reef between the Cornish mainland and the Scilly Isles. An inquiry in Liberia, where the ship was registered, found Shipmaster Pastrengo Rugiati was to blame, because he took a shortcut to save time in getting to Milford Haven.
(Please Edit to make format look better) Later, the government pumped micro-organisms into the water, these micro-organisms were naturally occurring, and would break down all of the oil by the following year... one year later, and the predictions were a little off, while about two-thirds of the oil had been cleared up, there were still occasional patches, but no birds, pigeons, nor marine life were now suffocating in the oil...
[edit] References in Popular Culture
Serge Gainsbourg composed and recorded a song about the incident called Torrey Canyon.[2]
