SS Torrey Canyon
SS Torrey Canyon was an LR2 Suezmax Class oil tanker with a cargo capacity for 120,000 tons of crude oil. She was shipwrecked off the western coast of Cornwall, England, in March 1967, causing an environmental disaster. At that time she was the largest vessel ever to be wrecked.
Design and history
When laid down by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in the USA in 1959, she had a capacity of 60,000 tons. However, the ship was later enlarged in Japan to 120,000 tons capacity. At the time of the shipwreck she was owned by Barracuda Tanker Corporation, a subsidiary of the Union Oil Company of California, and registered in Liberia but chartered to British Petroleum. She was 974.4 feet (297.0 m) long, 125.4 feet (38.2 m) beam and 68.7 feet (20.9 m) draught.
Accident and oil spill
The ship left the Kuwait National Petroleum Company refinery at Mina al-Ahmadi on her final voyage on 19 February 1967 with full cargo of crude oil, reaching the Canary Islands by 14 March. From there the planned route was to Milford Haven in Wales.
Podcasts:
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by Serge Gainsbourg
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by Gainsbourg Serge
Torrey Canyon
by: Serge GainsbourgJe suis né dans les chantiers japonais,
En vérité, j'appartiens aux Americains.
Une filiale d'une compagnie navale,
Dont j'ai oublié l'adresse à Los Angeles
Cent vingt mille tonnes de petrole brut
Cent vingt mille tonnes, dans le torrey canyon,
Le torrey canyon.
Aux bermudes, à 30 degré de latitude,
Se tient la barracuda, tankers coporation.
Son patron m'a donné en location
A l'union Oil company de Californie.
Cent vingt mille tonnes de pétrole brut
Cent vingt mille tonnes, dans le torrey canyon,
Le torrey canyon.
Si je bats,
Pavillon du Liberia,
Le captain et les marins,
Sont tous italiens,
Le mazout dont on m'a rempli les soutes,
C'est celui du consortium,
British Petroleum.
Cent vingt mille tonnes espece de brute
Cent vingt mille tonnes, dans le torrey canyon,
Le torrey canyon, le torrey canyon,
Le torrey canyon, le torrey canyon,