In the midst of an ecological disaster, St Mary’s and Penlee volunteers helped keep 35 people safe.

The crude oil supertanker Torrey Canyon left Kuwait on 19 February 1967 for Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire. Her crew were on a tight schedule and navigating by autopilot and charts. All was well until 18 March when the tanker reached the Isles of Scilly.

The crew thought that they were passing with the isles to starboard. In fact, the tanker was in the channel between them and the mainland. On realising their mistake, the crew woke the Master who gave the order to continue on their course in what was after all a 7-mile-wide channel. At 297m long and 38m wide Torrey Canyon could not turn easily and, as she was carrying 120,000 tonnes of oil and travelling at around 17 knots, she would have taken a full 5 miles to stop.

But there were other vessels about: fishing boats busy working their nets. The Master gave orders to avoid them only to discover his ship was much closer to the hazard of the Seven Stones than he had anticipated. An autopilot error meant the ship didn’t respond correctly to an emergency change of course and the tanker hit the submerged Pollard’s Rock.

St Mary’s lifeboat, the Watson class Guy and Clare Hunter, launched with Coxswain Matt Lethbridge at the helm. Drawing alongside the tanker at around 10.35am he learned that the Master was awaiting tugs. At 12.10pm the lifeboat transferred two men from the tug Utrecht onto the Torrey Canyon. At about 1.30pm the tanker began to discharge oil and the lifeboat moved to stand by. The tug, meanwhile, made repeated attempts to get a line aboard until 9.20pm when operations were discontinued. The lifeboat continued to standby. It was going to be a long night.

Matt recalls the incident: ‘We were just steaming around her and even above the noisy engines you could hear all her plates groaning and creaking. Her after part was afloat and she was pivoting and grinding on the rocks. At about 3am there was a crash and all her lights went out. We thought she had broken in half.’

By around 7am the next morning, Torrey Canyon was listing severely, her starboard deck was awash and her bow pointed down. The wind grew to force 6 and at 8am her Master asked the lifeboat crew to transfer 14 men to the Trinity House tender in attendance. The ship then started to shift from side to side and the Master decided that 18 more of his crew should be taken off for safety.

The lifeboat came alongside her main deck as conditions rapidly deteriorated. With a 5m swell and the sea thick with oil, the Guy and Clare Hunter was made fast alongside the tanker and, as she listed heavily, her port fender was damaged. The Life-boat journal of the time said:

‘At times she was lifted to the level of the tanker’s main deck rails, and the Coxswain continually used helm and engines to maintain position. One at a time, eight men jumped aboard the lifeboat as she rose to the tanker’s main deck. The ninth man misjudged his jump and fell into the sea, and Coxswain Lethbridge ordered the lifeboat full astern to avoid crushing him. The man managed to grab the lifeboat’s outside lifeline and was recovered with a scrambling net.’

The Watson took off nine of the ship’s crew but the rest waited for a helicopter. Just after 2pm a helicopter removed five men with a second taking four more. This left the Master, three tanker crew members and two officers from the tug still aboard. Matt did not want to leave them so the lifeboat remained until relieved by the Penlee lifeboat Solomon Browne at 5pm. St Mary’s returned to station shortly after 6.30pm with an exhausted crew.

Solomon Browne and her crew stayed throughout the night and most of the next day until she was relieved by the returning Guy and Clare Hunter at 5pm. Back on duty, the St Mary’s lifeboat was in situ all night until, at 7.15am on 21 March, she returned to station – the weather had improved enough for the helicopters to cover and the volunteers needed rest.

But just after midday the Coastguard advised the station that the tanker was now on fire. The volunteers launched again, with their Lifeboat Medical Adviser, and by 1.12pm they had taken everyone off the Torrey Canyon. In all, the St Mary’s lifeboat had been at sea for 54 hours and Penlee’s for 30.

A Chairman’s Letter of Thanks was sent to St Mary’s lifeboat crew and monetary awards were given to both lifeboat crews. The tanker’s crew left money to produce a plaque of thanks to the RNLI and the community of Hugh Town for their assistance and hospitality.

Lasting impact

At the time, the grounding of the Torrey Canyon was the worst ever UK environmental disaster. Attempts to burn the slick were unsuccessful and the Government gave orders for the military to destroy the vessel by aerial bombardment in the hope that any oil left onboard would be burnt off. This was only partly successful and did not stop oil reaching many parts of the coast.

In all 119,000 tonnes of oil were lost and over 7,000 birds were destroyed as well as other marine wildlife. Such was the impact of the loss of the Torrey Canyon that it led to the 1973 International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships. [Read more about the international shipbuilding industry on page 34.]