Torrey Canyon Oil Spill (1967): Britain's Supertanker Disaster

The Torrey Canyon oil spill began on 18 March 1967, when the supertanker Torrey Canyon ran aground on the Seven Stones reef between Land’s End and the Isles of Scilly. Carrying about 119,000 tonnes of crude oil, it caused the world’s largest oil spill up to that time, polluting the coasts of Cornwall and Brittany. The British government’s decision to bomb the wreck made headlines worldwide, and the disaster reshaped international law on marine pollution.

Background: the age of the supertanker

In the 1950s and 1960s oil tankers grew rapidly in size as Europe’s demand for Middle Eastern oil increased. The Torrey Canyon was built in the United States in 1959 and enlarged in Japan in the mid-1960s, making it one of the largest ships in the world, at about 300 metres long. It was owned by a subsidiary of the Union Oil Company of California, registered in Liberia, crewed by Italians and chartered to British Petroleum (BP).

In March 1967 it was carrying crude oil loaded in Kuwait to the BP refinery at Milford Haven in Wales.

The grounding

The ship was commanded by Captain Pastrengo Rugiati. Anxious to reach Milford Haven in time for a high tide, he chose a short route between the Isles of Scilly and the Cornish mainland instead of passing outside the islands. A series of navigation errors and a delay in changing course led the ship onto Pollard’s Rock, part of the Seven Stones reef, at full speed on the morning of Saturday 18 March 1967.

Several cargo tanks were ripped open and oil began spilling into the sea. Salvage experts tried to refloat the ship, but bad weather and the damage made this impossible. A member of the Dutch salvage team was killed in an explosion on board. Over the following days the hull broke into pieces and more oil escaped.

The response

The government of Prime Minister Harold Wilson had no plan for a disaster of this size. The main method used was to spray detergent-based dispersants, around 10,000 tonnes in total, both at sea and on the beaches. Scientists from the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth later found that these chemicals had killed more shore life, such as limpets and barnacles, than the oil itself.

On 28 March 1967, with the wreck breaking up and huge amounts of oil still on board, the government ordered it to be destroyed. Royal Navy Buccaneer aircraft and Royal Air Force Hunters dropped bombs on the wreck, while aviation fuel and napalm were used to set the oil alight. Not all bombs hit their target, and the fires were repeatedly put out by the sea, but by 30 March much of the remaining oil had been burned and the wreck sank.

Damage to the coast and wildlife

Thick oil came ashore along about 190 kilometres of Cornish coastline, coating beaches and harbours, including popular holiday areas around St Ives and the Lizard. Soldiers, sailors and volunteers worked to clean the shores. In April the slick drifted across the English Channel and polluted beaches in Brittany, where French authorities relied more on mechanical removal and on sinking the oil with chalk. Guernsey was also affected.

Seabirds suffered badly. Estimates suggest that around 15,000 or more birds, especially guillemots and razorbills, were killed, and only a small proportion of oiled birds that were rescued survived.

Legal and political consequences

The disaster revealed that international law gave coastal states no clear right to act against a foreign-registered ship outside their territorial waters, and that victims had little means of claiming compensation. In 1969 Britain and France reached a settlement with the owners of 3 million pounds.

Under the International Maritime Consultative Organization (now the International Maritime Organization), governments agreed two conventions in 1969: one allowing coastal states to intervene on the high seas when a ship threatened serious pollution, and the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage. A convention creating an international compensation fund followed in 1971, and the MARPOL convention on preventing pollution from ships was adopted in 1973. Oil companies also set up voluntary compensation schemes.

Timeline

• 1967, 18 March: The Torrey Canyon strikes Pollard’s Rock on the Seven Stones reef.
• 1967, 21 March: A salvage worker is killed in an explosion on board.
• 1967, 26–27 March: The ship breaks up in heavy seas.
• 1967, 28–30 March: Navy and RAF aircraft bomb the wreck to burn the oil.
• 1967, April: Oil reaches the coast of Brittany and Guernsey.
• 1969: Brussels conventions on intervention and civil liability are adopted.
• 1971: The international oil pollution compensation fund convention is adopted.
• 1973: The MARPOL convention is adopted.

Legacy

The Torrey Canyon was the first major supertanker disaster and the first spill to make oil pollution a mass public concern in Europe. Its lessons were tested in later disasters such as the Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969 in California and the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989 in Alaska. Research on the effects of dispersants in Cornwall also influenced how later spills were cleaned up.

Why it matters

The Torrey Canyon showed how much damage a single ship could do and how unprepared governments were to respond. It led directly to the international rules on liability, compensation and pollution prevention that still govern shipping today.