Torrey Canyon – March 18, 1967: The Mother of the Black Tides
On February 19, 1967, the Torrey Canyon left the oil refinery of Al Ahmadi in Kuwait. The supertanker was heading for Milford Haven, Wales, United Kingdom after circumventing South Africa. She was transporting 120,000 tons of crude oil. Built in 1959 in the United States by Newport News Shipbuilding, she was jumboized in 1965, and lengthened from 247 to 297 meters; her initial capacity of 60,000 tons was doubled. She was the pride of oil shipping companies.
On March 18, 1967, the Torrey Canyon, due to a faulty navigation, was impaled on the reefs between the Isles of Scilly and Cornwall.
Two months later, the aftermath of the shipwreck was taking a heavy toll – 150 kilometers of polluted shores in Southeast United Kingdom. Thousands of birds covered in oil came across the English Channel and were washed up dead or dying up from Calais to the Ile d’Yeu, France. The coastline was in mourning from the peninsula of La Hague to the tip of Brittany. The Channel Islands were wearing black.
For the first time, the expression “Black Tide” was on the front page of the news.
Maersk keeps on getting rid of its garbage off Brittany
After having abandoned 517 containers fallen overboard the Svendborg Maersk on February 14, 2014 off Brest, the Danish shipping company Maersk is reoffending today with the wrecks of the Maersk Searcher and Maersk Shipper while they were sailing in a convoy from Denmark towards the demolition yards of Aliaga, Turkey. The 2 offshore supply tugs were towed by the Maersk Battler which was, according to informations collected by Robin des Bois, also doomed to be demolished in Turkey.
