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This weekend marks the 51st anniversary of the Torrey Canyon Disaster, which left a notorious cultural and environmental legacy across the globe, especially in Cornwall.

The SS Torrey Canyon, a super-tanker with the capacity for 120,000 tons of crude oil, was shipwrecked and spilt its load off the western coast of Cornwall on March 18, 1967, sparking outrage and sorrow across the world.

At the time the she was believed to be the largest vessel of her kind to be wrecked and was owned by the Barracuda Tanker Corporation, a subsidiary of the Union Oil Company of California, and registered in Liberia.

On her final voyage, the ship had a full cargo of crude oil and reached the Canary Islands on March 14. From there the crew planned their route to Milford Haven in Wales.

However the Torrey Canyon struck Pollard's Rock on Seven Stones Reef between the Cornish mainland and the Isles of Scilly, became grounded and a few days later started to break up.

The area is a dangerous stretch where many vessels have come to grief over the years.

The British Government decided to set the wreck on fire in an effort to reduce the size of the oil spill by means of air strikes from the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA). A total of 161 bombs, 44,500 litres of kerosene and 1,500 tons of napalm were used.

Those dealing with the incident made unsuccessful attempts to contain the oil using foam-filled containment devices because of the high seas.

(Image: Getty Images)

Environmental disaster:

The Torrey Canyon was the world's first major marine oil pollution incident.

The six-mile slick of oil and the extremely toxic detergents used in the desperate attempt to clean it up had severe ramifications for Cornwall and its wildlife. More than 30,000 birds were killed and tens of thousands more were reported injured. Dead and dying birds washed up on the coastlines of Cornwall, Guernsey in the Channel Islands and Brittany in France.

The late Olga Penrose, of Mousehole Bird Hospital, said at the time: "Once the oil really hit the shore everyone was bringing them in. We would wash as many as we could. After 8,000 birds there was no point putting the details in the book. It was awful - gulls were coming in with their feet burnt off. The hospital transferred as many birds as possible to Truro's RSPB."

(Image: Getty Images)

Of course the number of seabirds affected by marine pollution incidents depends on factors including location and time of year. At the time of the Torrey Canyon disaster many seabirds were moving through the area on their way to their breeding sites.

Guillemots, razorbills, puffins, shags, great northern divers, red throated divers, gannets, black-necked grebe, great skua and gulls were just some of the species affected. Most of the affected birds died.

In addition to those killed from the effects of oil pollution, reports from post-mortem examination results from some birds described lungs choked with detergent froth.

Other affected marine life particularly included fauna and flora of the intertidal zone such as limpets, sea anemones, sandhoppers, razorshells, mussels, cockles, crabs and seaweed.

(Image: Getty Images)

It was concluded that, had the oil been left to natural processes and no clean-up attempt made, rocky shores would have recovered within three years, while the use of high volumes of undiluted and highly-toxic detergents meant environmental recovery took a decade.

"The tragedy was a watershed moment for the public and government," said Tony Whitehead, for the RSPB in the South West.

"It highlighted the risk that oil pollution and inappropriate response action poses to the marine environment and its wildlife, the most obvious victims being seabirds.

"It also revealed shortcomings in tanker design and shipping practices and the lack of effective response plans. It was the catalyst for regulation to reduce the risk of such incidents reoccurring and focused public interest on the value and vulnerability of the marine environment and seabirds in particular."

(Image: Getty Images)

The RSPB had been campaigning since the 1920s for legislation to reduce devastating scenes similar to those caused by the Torrey Canyon, as well as frequent pollution from tankers and other ships routinely and illegally discharging crude and fuel oil waste directly into the sea.

Who was to blame?

A later inquiry in Liberia concluded that the shipmaster, Pastrengo Rugiati, was to blame. The inquiry heard that he decided to take a shortcut in an effort to get to Milford Haven, with plenty of time to spare, after initially "lying in" and missing a left turn before the Isles of Scilly.

A design fault also meant that the helmsman was unaware that the steering selector switch had been accidentally left on autopilot, meaning he was unable to carry out a timely turn to go through the shipping channel.

(Image: Getty Images)

Another question asked was why a junior officer was in charge of navigation duties, but as Penlee Lifeboat's visits officer Martin Brockman said in a recent lecture: "He had to start his duties at some point."

To this day the wreck lies at a depth of 98ft.

Because of Torrey Canyon the UK Government and other countries acted with greater urgency to improve policies and practices for preventing and responding to oil spills.

One outcome was MARPOL (marine pollution), the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973, one of the most important international marine environmental conventions.

Mr Whitehead added: "While legislative and other changes over the decades since, sadly often prompted by other marine pollution incidents involving shipping, resulted in various improvements to tanker design. Double-hull requirements, for example.

(Image: Getty Images)

"[It also led to] greater control over shipping routes, for example, the identification of some Marine Environmental High Risk Areas for shipping to avoid, the risk of marine pollution can never be eliminated."

What was it like to be there?

Rodney Terry was a crew member of the St Mary's lifeboat Guy and Clare Hunter, which recorded a staggering unbroken 32.5 hours standing by the wreck. Last year Rodney, who almost didn't make the shout due to his job, recently dredged up recollections of the unprecedented maritime drama that gripped the world's attention.

He told Cornwall Live that the first thing that shocked him was the sheer size of the tanker.

"The disaster had been seen coming," he said. "Up at St Mary's airport Charlie Tresize saw her going by close in and remarked, 'if she keeps on this track she'll end up on the Stones'. The reason for the disaster - or one of them - was the automatic pilot, which was new in those days. There was a lever to disengage the automatic steering to manual. The captain had done that and gone back into the chart room.

"The next thing, the man at the wheel was yelling his head off that there was no response from the wheel. It was still on automatic, hadn't been disconnected and he couldn't alter the course."

Rodney added that "amazingly" the Exxon Valdez – a more recent notoriously disastrous wreck off the west coast of North America – had the same system.

The lifeboat deck's non-slip flooring started to curl up at the edges where the oil had melted it, with the paintwork going the same way. The boat would later undergo a total refit.

"The oil was spilling in a massive slick," said Rodney. "The sea was like a bowl of mulligatawny or oxtail soup and the smell, like opening a tube of glue. Oil, brown and thick. The crew and the lifeboat were plastered in it. After the splashing of the sea the oiled water was strangely quiet."

Rodney also spoke of the drama when approximately 14 of the Italian crew were being transferred from the tanker.

"One man was hesitant, as there was a massive rise and fall in the waves," he said. "One minute the lifeboat was level, the next 10ft down. To jump from a big ship into a small one is not the easiest thing to do. We said 'jump' when the lifeboat rose but he jumped as she went down. He went straight down into the drink between the lifeboat and the ship."

There was a real fear the man was going to be crushed but he "got away with it" as someone grabbed him with a boat hook and got him aboard.

Two incidents in particular stand out in Rodney's memory - the movement of the tanker's deck and onion soup.

"Two or three of us got aboard the tanker whose deck at the time was difficult to describe," he said. "It was undulating with the swell. We couldn't believe it. The soup memory came via welcome food delivery from the Utretch tug.

"Frankly we were bored with hanging around and cold as there was no heating aboard. All we had aboard the lifeboat was emergency stuff – cracker biscuits and tinned bully beef. .

After the lifeboat returned to port following its marathon stint Rodney felt more like going to work than staying home as he couldn't get to sleep.

Rodney was also about to accompany the local doctor, who doubled up as the lifeboat branch secretary, en route to the scene of an explosion on the tanker but they were stood down as the casualty, who later died, had to be evacuated by helicopter.

The lifeboat-man gave 26 years of service and went on to become the boat's coxswain for six years before retiring aged 55.

How do we remember it today?

The incident led to international legislation to protect the marine environment from shipping-related pollution but, as the RSPB said, the risk still remains and the damage would be on a much larger scale today.

Divers who have inspected the wreck say it is hard to tell what is rock and what is Torrey Canyon as it is shrouded in seaweed because of the oil. Bombs have also been found.

At a lecture about the disaster in 2017 by Martin Brockman at Morrab Library, Penzance, about 40 people turned up to share their memories.

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One man said he remembered seeing the smoke from the bombing as far away as Probus, near Truro. The whole room was in agreement that the smell was the main thing that they remembered.

"The oil on the beach was so thick you could pick it up with a fork," said another. "I remember for years after you would come home from the beach with black feet."

One woman from Marazion added: "I remember seeing boys playing in the beautiful milk chocolate sauce with my friend and we just started shedding tears. I thought at that moment that we would never see the beach as we knew it again."

Another man said he was only alive today because of the Torrey Canyon - as that was where his parents met.

A piece of Torrey Canyon history was also brought to the lecture by a man who said a family member had found a chunk of wood inscribed 'Torrey Canyon' and it had been passed onto him.

Cornwall Councillor Tim Dwelly also recounted having to wash his feet for oil after visits to the beach.

One woman said: "I remember scores of men and children pouring all this detergent everywhere to wash the oil off.

"We had never seen Chapel Rock looking so clean after. Little did we know then the damage that was being caused by the detergent. They say it was so strong it ate through the drums."

Mr Brockman added that if this was to happen today, with a modern tanker, the damage would be three and a half times the size.

"Incidents such as the Torrey Canyon remind us of the vulnerability of seabirds to pollution," said Mr Whitehead.

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"It also reminds us of the responsibility of all countries to minimise the risks through measures such as strong international legislation. Prevention really is the only cure when it comes to oil pollution."

The disaster inspired French singer Serge Gainsbourg, famous for Je T'aime, the steamy duet with Jane Berkin, to write the song Le Torrey Canyon.

The seascape took about 15 years to return to normal and we are now seeing rare breeds wiped out by the Torrey Canyon disaster, such as the hermit 'St Piran' crabs, returning to our shores.

Some parts of Cornwall's coastline still remains blackened by this severe spill, even 51 years on.