When the Torrey Canyon oil supertanker ran aground in Cornish waters on Saturday 18 March 1967, it sparked a series of events that would have a disastrous impact on the local landscape. The reactions of rescue services and government officials to the accident led to serious criticism, both at the time and in the years that have followed. The decision of what to do with the grounded tanker was not made rashly or lightly. Stranded between the coasts of the Isles of Scilly and Cornwall, it was initially believed that re-flotation of the vessel might be possible. That is, until it began to split and leak its cargo of nearly 31 million gallons – over 119,000 tons – of crude oil into the English Channel. Even now, the disaster continues to impact on wildlife in Guernsey, where the oil slick spread through winds and currents.
Despite receiving repeated warnings to divert from the Sevenstones lightvessel, the Torrey Canyon ran aground in shallow water after colliding with Pollard’s Rock on the Seven Stones reef. The ship had been attempting to take a shortcut on its way from the Canary Islands to Milford Haven in Wales.
Attempts to re-float were unsuccessful and resulted in the only casualty of the disaster; the death of Captain H B Stal, a Dutch salvage engineer, who was killed in an explosion when a falling piece of wreckage caused a spark which ignited fumes from the engine room. The ship began to break up and split in two, crushing any remaining hopes of salvaging the tanker and sending crude oil into the channel at a more rapid rate.
As the situation worsened, opinions differed as to how to stem the rapid flow of oil from the ship. The Torrey Canyon became the source of the largest ever oil spillage of the time. The clean-up effort, referred to as ‘Operation Mop Up,’ involved using emulsifying detergents to break down and sink the oil, though other methods included building ‘fences’ using floating booms to prevent the spread of the slick and scooping up thick areas of oil using special nets. The latter two techniques were preferred by oyster fishermen who were worried about the negative effects the oil sunk by the detergent would have on oysters on the bed of the river Fal. These methods were largely ineffective, however, and it was later realised that the toxic chemicals in the emulsifiers had a far greater adverse effect on the environment and marine life than the oil itself.
Desperate to deal with what was now a national crisis, the decision was eventually made by Prime Minister Harold Wilson and his cabinet that the best way to clear the oil would be to destroy the wrecked ship and burn off what remained of its leaking cargo. Eight Royal Navy Buccaneer jets flew all the way from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland to the Cornish coast, dropping 42 bombs on the remains of the Torrey Canyon. Further RAF jets dropped aviation fuel and napalm onto the oil to set it alight, a spectacle many flocked to the coast to watch. The smoke from this could be seen for miles, as depicted in the final photo of this series.
This was not to be the end of the matter, however, as the RAF and Royal Navy faced criticism from the media for the fact that a quarter of their bombs failed to hit the 300 metre long stationary target. The so-called ‘bomb failures’ (despite the fact that 75% of the bombs were on target and the overall aim of the mission was achieved) received a lot of media attention and even caused arguments amongst government and military officials, who were already facing criticism for the delay in dealing with the matter in the first place.
Official enquiries were carried out to find out why the success rate was not 100%, though even the publishing of the report was repeatedly delayed and caused yet more friction amongst government officials, as during the height of the Cold War many feared looking weak or ineffective militarily. When the report was finally published by the Ministry of Defence, it blamed faulty release circuits and aiming systems, implying that a quarter of the bombs sent out did not hit the target because many were never released in the first place, despite eyewitnesses describing seeing many bombs simply landing in the sea. In a statement summing up the incident, the Secretary of State reflected what was increasingly becoming a shared sentiment across Britain regarding the affair: “the real problem is that we obviously do not give reliability an adequate priority.”
This photograph is one of a small series in the Museum’s Torrey Canyon archive, which also includes a scrapbook containing other photographs and newspaper clippings and an album containing details of the event. The collection is not currently on display but can be viewed by appointment.
This month’s Curator’s Choice has been guest curated by James Duff, a student of Exeter University (at the Tremough Campus).
Please note, as our exhibitions change regularly, the boats, objects and pictures featured in this section may not now be on display in the museum. Please contact us on 01326 313388 for further information.
- See more at: http://www.nmmc.co.uk/index.php?/collections/featured_pictures/remembering_the_torrey_canyon_disaster#sthash.6VeI1Rxw.dpuf