On this day in 1967

[John Arton]

On this day the Torrey Canyon ran aground off the Isles of Scilly.
100000 tons of crude oil were spilt and as a result many of the pollution prevention regulations came into being along with improvements to steering systems.
was the largest ship ever to be wrecked at the time and despite the best efforts of the RAF in spreading oil dispersements around and bombing the vessel in order to set it alight and so burn off the cargo, thousands of tons of oil contaminated the beaches of Cornwall, killing thousands of sea birds.
It led to new methods of soaking up spilt oil with the French using chalk to mop up after the Amoco Cadiz disaster
rgds
JA

[j.sabourn]

Re. Dispersants... Contrary to popular belief up until 1991 on leaving the UK was on ships that carried such for oil spills. To use as such was all sorts of Red Tape as had to ask for permission to use from the Government department concerned which getting approval for would of been too late for any hoped for affectedness. It caused as much damage as the oil in a lot of cases. The other method was on oil recovery vessels where booms were laid around the spill and was sucked up back into special tanks. This was only any good in small quantities and depended on weather conditions etc. breaking up of small amounts was better accomplished by churning up with the ships propeller. After Saddan Hussein turned the oil taps open in the Persian Gulf, the world thought that was a disaster. When doing an oil dispersant course in Fremantle , the instructor was one of the experts called in to try and clean up. His remarks were let nature do it, within a couple of years most of the Gulf was back to the pristine condition if it ever was, once again, assisted by Mother Nature. There is more natural emissions from the sea bed all over the world on a daily basis than has ever been made by man. JS