SALVAGE CODE RED

Torrey Canyon

March 1967: The Torrey Canyon supertanker crashes near Land’s End, Cornwall

In March 1967, the Torrey Canyon supertanker struck Pollard’s Rock and spilt 31 million gallons of oil into the Cornish sea. Desperate rescuers, in a bid to minimise the oil slick and the environmental impact, used napalm and petrol to try and burn off the oil on the sea’s surface. The ship’s entire cargo, approximately 860,000 barrels, either ended up in the sea or were burnt off over the next twelve days.

Salvage crews worked hard to save the vessel, but several attempts to float the ship off the rock failed; one member of the Dutch salvage team involved was killed in the process. In the end, to try and stop as much oil as possible from leaking into the ocean, the RAF bombed the vessel so that the ship would sink and the remaining oil would burn. It is believed that as much as 190 miles of Cornish coast and 80 kilometres of the French coast were contaminated by the spill, killing more than 15,000 sea birds and marine animals. A later inquiry into the cause of the crash, held in Liberia, where the ship was registered, pinned the blame on the captain of the ship who had been hoping to take a ‘short cut’ en route to Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire, West Wales.