The wreck of the Torrey Canyon supertanker and devastation of sandy beaches on England's southwest peninsula are part of the folklore in a region where the holiday industry is vital to economic survival.
The Torrey Canyon oil spill gave the world its first sight of the unacceptable face of the supertanker era and demonstrated the need for plans to keep spilled crude from reaching the shore and cleaning up the mess if it does.
THE LATEST ACCIDENT
More than 20 years-and many oil spills-later, part of Southwest England is again plastered with thick Middle East crude, leaving residents wondering what has been learned about handling crude spills in the intervening years.
The current spill of a little more than 1,000 tons of oil is the worst the region has seen since 1967, but it's not in the league of the Torrey Canyon in terms of oil spilled or damage to the shoreline.
The oil leaked from the 274,531 dwt Rosebay tanker, loaded with Iranian crude for Sweden, after a collision with a trawler in the English Channel. At first, favorable winds corralled the oil at sea. That allowed aircraft to disperse about half the slick with chemicals. Then the wind changed, pushing the oil onto the holiday beaches east of Plymouth and into a marine conservation area.
The big cleanup has started and so has the bickering about the efficiency of the region's contingency planning. With British television turning its attention to the ecological aftermath of the Exxon Valdez and the cleanup program, it seems only a matter of time before the oil industry's battered reputation on oil transportation is again questioned.
Apart from the size and seriousness of the spill, there is one significant difference between the Exxon Valdez and the Rosebay accidents. A preliminary investigation by the U.K. government's Marine Accident Investigation Branch showed that neither the tanker owner nor the crew appear to be responsible for the collision.
Patrick McLoughlin, British shipping minister, said the watchkeeper on the trawler failed to see the supertanker. The fishing vessel made no attempt to change course, leaving the Rosebay to try to maneuver clear of danger.
Not for the first time it appears that poor seamanship, this time on the part of the trawler crew, is to blame for another accident.
ADVICE FROM LLOYDS LIST
Legislators who are pushing hard for fundamental changes in tanker design might well heed the words of an editorial in Lloyds List, the London shipping newspaper, published immediately after the Rosebay spill, which analyzed the Exxon Valdez aftermath.
Lloyds List said the Exxon Valdez saga is completely out of hand, resulting in the tanker industry being stampeded by politics rather than reason into half-understood technical changes as a gesture to the voters.
The industry should be arguing over double captains, not double bottoms, Lloyds List said. And pilot reform is more relevant to the problem than massive structural changes to the fleet.
The prime areas for investigation should be navigation techniques and adequate manning, it said.
Copyright 1990 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.