(http://www.MaritimeCyprus.com) On the world stage, the grounding of the supertanker TORREY CANYON on Pollard’s Rock in the Seven Stones reef between Cornwall and the Scilly Isles is more significant than the 1989 EXXON VALDEZ oil spill. The TORREY CANYON was one of the first tankers large enough (120,000 tons capacity) to be designated a supertanker. It…
(http://www.MaritimeCyprus.com) On 24 March 1989, the single-hull tanker EXXON VALDEZ was departing the Port of Valdez, Alaska with a full load of North Slope crude oil (approximately 1.26 million barrels) destined for Long Beach when it grounded on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound. The resulting oil spill, while not the largest in US history, was…
(www.MaritimeCyprus.com) SS Utopia – Collided with HMS Anson while trying to enter the Bay of Gibraltar on 17 March 1891. She sank in minutes, killing 562 passengers and crew. Two rescuers from HMS Immortalité also drowned; 318 survivors were rescued. On 25 February 1891 Utopia sailed out from Trieste to New York City with stopovers at Naples, Genoa and Gibraltar. She carried a total of…
(http://www.MaritimeCyprus.com) On 16 March 1978, the very large crude carrier (VLCC) AMOCO CADIZ lost steering in a Force 10 storm and grounded on Portsall Rocks off the coast of Brittany, France. As it broke up, the tanker lost its entire cargo of 1.6 million barrels of crude oil. The coastal areas in the vicinity were heavily…
(http://www.MaritimeCyprus.com) On 11 March 2011, at 1446 JST, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake occurred beneath the seafloor in the Pacific Ocean 70 kilometers east of the Oshika Peninsula of Tohoku Prefecture on the main Japanese island of Honshu. It was the most powerful earthquake to hit Japan in modern times, moving the island 2.4 meters east…
(http://www.MaritimeCyprus.com) The SS Koombana was a late Edwardian-era passenger, cargo and mail carrying steamship. From March 1909 to March 1912, she operated coastal liner services between Fremantle, Western Australia and various ports in the northwest of that State. She is best known for disappearing at an unknown location north of Port Hedland, Western Australia, during a…
(http://www.MaritimeCyprus.com) Herald of Free Enterprise – Capsized and sank on 6 March 1987 due to taking on water just minutes after leaving the harbour at Zeebrugge in Belgium. MS Herald of Free Enterprise was a roll-on roll-off (RORO) ferry which capsized moments after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on the night of 6 March 1987,…
