British Disasters, Torrey Canyon

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Saturday March 18th or Sunday March 19th 1967 that the Torrey Canyon grounded on the Seven Stones Reef between Lands End and the Scilly Isles. She was sailing for Milford Haven with 120,000 tons of crude oil from Kuwait.

The immediate response was to try and salvage her. Thirty thousand gallons of oil had escaped from the tanker and was moving steadily towards the Cornish coast by the prevailing wind and current.

Detergent was used by Royal Navy vessels to try and disperse the oil. The Torrey Canyon had started to break up and Harold Wilson and his cabinet held a mini cabinet meeting at Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose and decided to order the setting fire to the remaining oil, to try and avoid the oil disaster getting worse.

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