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Speaker 1: Pushkin in twenty nineteen, the year that Cautionary Tales developed

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Speaker 1: from an unsettling thought to a fully fledged new show.

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Speaker 1: I was on the lookout for disasters, and there are

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Speaker 1: a few catastrophes more compelling than the wreck of Torry Kanyon.

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Speaker 1: It's partly the shattering environmental impact of the error, It's

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Speaker 1: partly the tragic figure of Captain Pastrengo Rugiati. But above all,

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Speaker 1: what compels me about this story is all the things

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Speaker 1: Tory Kanyon represents as it plows towards an obvious disaster,

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Speaker 1: and yet, for some mystifying reason, doesn't seem to be

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Speaker 1: able to change course. We've all set a course for

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Speaker 1: disaster at some stage in our lives, and we've all

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Speaker 1: struggled to admit it until it's too late. We have

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Speaker 1: a treasure chest full of cautionary Tales to bring you

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four, but we also need to take

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Speaker 1: a short rest. So the next two episodes will be

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Speaker 1: classics from our Cautionary Tales vault. I hope you enjoy them.

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Speaker 1: Starting with the very first episode of Cautionary Tales that

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Speaker 1: was ever released, Danger Rocks Ahead.

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Speaker 2: We pray thee Lord not that rex should happen, but

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Speaker 2: that if any rex do happen, thou wilt guide them

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Speaker 2: to the Silly Isles for the benefit of the poor inhabitants.

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Speaker 1: That's an old prayer from the Isles of Silly. The

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Speaker 1: isles are just off the coast of Cornwall, the southwest

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Speaker 1: tip of Great Britain, and that prayer has been answered

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Speaker 1: many times. The rocks around the islands have a fearsome

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Speaker 1: reputation and it's well earned. One autumn night in seventeen

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Speaker 1: oh seven, the Royal Navy lost its way in a storm.

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Speaker 1: The flagship HMS Association struck a rock and went down.

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Speaker 1: In minutes. Eight hundred men drowned behind it. HMS Saint

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Speaker 1: George hit the rocks and became stuck. So did HMS Phoenix,

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Speaker 1: so did HMS Firebrown. HMS Romney lost her entire crew.

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Speaker 1: HMS Eagle was shattered on the cruel stone. Hundreds more

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Speaker 1: sailors died. That dreadful night was one of the worst

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Speaker 1: disasters in the history of the British Navy. Local legend

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Speaker 1: has it that there was one notable survivor that the

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Speaker 1: Commander in Chief of the British Fleets, Sir Cloudsley shovel

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Speaker 1: was washed up on the beach of the Isles of Silly,

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Speaker 1: but was strangled by a local woman who fancied wearing

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Speaker 1: his emerald ring herself. If she had been praying the

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Speaker 1: old prayer God or the devil had been listening, it

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Speaker 1: is a dark tale that the story I shall tell

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Speaker 1: you today is a far stranger one. It was sometime

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Speaker 1: after dawn on Saturday March the eighteenth, nineteen sixty seven.

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Speaker 1: Martyr Christie was a langustier, a French lobster boat, fishing

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Speaker 1: for crayfish and crab between the mainland and the Isles

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Speaker 1: of Silly. Twenty one miles further west on deck was

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Speaker 1: Captain ghee Folich, another langustier, was nearby, both of them

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Speaker 1: enjoying rich pickings a few hundred yards north of the

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Speaker 1: Seven Stones. The Seven Stones make up a vicious reef

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Speaker 1: about one third of the way between the Isles of

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Speaker 1: Silly and the mainland. At low tide, the unyielding rocks

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Speaker 1: are visible, but even at high tide they're marked by

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Speaker 1: a lighthouse vessel warning ships to stay away. Githolich looked

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Speaker 1: up from his lobster lions to see an unexpected sight,

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Speaker 1: a vast black hull coming over the horizon from an

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Speaker 1: unusual direction. He was surprised. A major vessel in that

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Speaker 1: position would usually have passed outside of the Isles of Scilly,

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Speaker 1: rather than squeezing between them and the mainland. True, a

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Speaker 1: big ship could come between the isles of Silly and

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Speaker 1: the mainland, passing on either side of the Seven Stones,

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Speaker 1: but it would be a little on the tight side.

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Speaker 1: And this ship, a supertanker, was very big. Indeed, in fact,

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Speaker 1: it was the thirteenth biggest ship in the world. On

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Speaker 1: the lighthouse vessel, the two seamen on watch saw the

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Speaker 1: tanker approaching too.

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Speaker 3: Have you seen this?

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Speaker 4: Have you? Eh? You'll got that big basher coming up.

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Speaker 1: Gee. Folich could see the huge ship coming straight towards

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Speaker 1: him as he fished, but he wasn't worried. In between

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Speaker 1: him and the oncoming juggernaut were the Seven Stones.

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Speaker 5: He later said, I was sure that before ever hitting us,

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Speaker 5: he would go on to the rugs. He yelled to

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Speaker 5: his men, stop work, You're going to see something extraordinary.

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Speaker 1: All seven of them lined up on the rail of

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Speaker 1: Marta Christi to watch the oil tanker bear closer and

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Speaker 1: closer four miles three miles. Folich was sure it was doomed.

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Speaker 1: It just wasn't possible to turn a super tanker that quickly,

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Speaker 1: was it? Actually, Folich wasn't quite right. The tanker, whose

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Speaker 1: name was Torry, did still have room to turn. This

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Speaker 1: wasn't a storm tossed fleet of sailing ships fumbling through

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Speaker 1: the darkness. The weather was good, the visibility was good.

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Speaker 1: Tory Canyon was a superb ship, in fine working order

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Speaker 1: and armed with radar. The seven Stones were clearly marked

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Speaker 1: on every chart, as well as being identified by the

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Speaker 1: position of the lighthouse vessel. But Tory Canyon still wasn't turning.

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Speaker 1: Gathered close and listened to my cautionary tale. Nobody knew

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Speaker 1: it at the time, but the trouble all started with

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Speaker 1: a radio message from milford Haven, the harbor towards which

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Speaker 1: Torry Canyon was sailing. Milford Haven is a major UK port,

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Speaker 1: and the thing you need to know about in the

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Speaker 1: UK is that the difference between high tide and low

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Speaker 1: tide can be enormous. What's more, there are high tides

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Speaker 1: and high tides, some are higher than others. The message

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Speaker 1: from milford Haven was simple enough. Torry Canyon needed to hurry.

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Speaker 1: If the ship didn't arrive by eleven pm on Saturday evening,

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Speaker 1: March the eighteenth, nineteen sixty seven, it would miss the

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Speaker 1: extra high tide and wouldn't be able to slip into

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Speaker 1: the harbor and dock. It would then have to wait

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Speaker 1: another six days before the tide would once more be

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Speaker 1: high enough. Missing the eleven pm deadline would mean a

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Speaker 1: very expensive delay. That news put Captain Pastrengo Ruggiati under pressure.

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Speaker 1: He had no more than one or two hours margin,

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Speaker 1: not a lot, but Ruggati had coped with worse. He'd

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Speaker 1: been a navigator on an Italian submarine during the war,

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Speaker 1: had survived a German prison camp, and had been commanding

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Speaker 1: oil bill tankers for twenty years. Captain Ruggiati was in

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Speaker 1: many ways a genial fellow, chatty and hospitable. He liked

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Speaker 1: to eat good food, but insisted he shouldn't be served

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Speaker 1: anything that wasn't available to his crew. As a result,

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Speaker 1: the men on Torry Canyon ate very well. But Ruggiati

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Speaker 1: was also a details man who kept a close eye

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Speaker 1: on his officers.

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Speaker 4: Ruggiatti was extremely conscientious. He was a man who wanted

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Speaker 4: to know absolutely everything.

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Speaker 1: Perhaps because of that, Ruggiati stayed up late on the

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Speaker 1: Friday night before landfall, preparing the paperwork for when they docked.

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Speaker 1: It was only at half past three in the morning

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Speaker 1: that he went to bed, leaving instructions that he was

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Speaker 1: to be awakened first thing when the Isles of Silly

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Speaker 1: were sighted. It was half past six in the morning

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Speaker 1: when the Isles of Silly appeared on the radar, about

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Speaker 1: thirty five miles away. First Officer Silvano Bonfiglio was on duty,

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Speaker 1: and the position of the ship relative to the Isles

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Speaker 1: of Scilly was an un pleasant surprise. Torry canyon plowing

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Speaker 1: through the night across the ocean had been pushed off

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Speaker 1: its intended course by the current and the winds. It

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Speaker 1: was now headed between the islands and the mainland. Bonfilio

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Speaker 1: immediately changed course, steering away from the channel, figuring that

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Speaker 1: Captain Ruggati had intended to pass outside of the islands,

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Speaker 1: but he hedged his bets. Rather than heading out to

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Speaker 1: sea or closer to the mainland, he was bearing straight

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Speaker 1: towards the Isles of Scilly. He then woke up Captain Ruggati.

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Speaker 1: Rugiati was angry Was it because Bonfilio had changed course

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Speaker 1: without checking? Was it because the new course was neither

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Speaker 1: one thing nor another? Or was he just sleep deprived?

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Speaker 3: Will our original heading of eighteen degrees be free of

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Speaker 3: the Sillies?

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Speaker 4: Yes?

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Speaker 3: Then continue on course eighteen degrees. I intend to pass

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Speaker 3: to the starboard of the Silly Isles.

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Speaker 1: Bonfilio was so surprised he had to check that it

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Speaker 1: understood the order, which irritated Rugiati. Still further still, a

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Speaker 1: maneuver shouldn't be too perilous. It was perfectly possible to

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Speaker 1: get even a large ship through. The standard manual for

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Speaker 1: navigating the waters around the coast of the British Isles

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Speaker 1: is called the Channel Pilot. If Captain Rugiati had consulted

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Speaker 1: a copy, here's what it would have said.

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Speaker 6: The actual width of the channel between the nearest of

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Speaker 6: the Silly Islands and Land's End is twenty one miles,

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Speaker 6: but as the route taken by all large vessels should

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Speaker 6: be eastward of seven stones light vessel, the navigable channel

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Speaker 6: can only be considered as twelve miles wide. The lights

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Speaker 6: render the passage perfectly simple at night as well as

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Speaker 6: by day in ordinarily clear weather, but as there is

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Speaker 6: no part of the coast of England more subject to

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Speaker 6: sudden changes of weather, the greatest vigilance is necessary, and

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Speaker 6: a vessel's position, even in the clearest weather, should be

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Speaker 6: checked by cross bearings at short intervals.

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Speaker 1: But Captain Ruggiati Alas did not have a copy of

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Speaker 1: the channel pilot on board, and so he missed two

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Speaker 1: important pieces of wisdom. First, if you want to go

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Speaker 1: between the Isles of Silly and the mainland, be careful. Second,

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Speaker 1: pass between the mainland and the seven Stones. There is

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Speaker 1: an alternative route between the seven Stones and the Isles

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Speaker 1: of Silly themselves, but the channel pilot doesn't mention it

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Speaker 1: because it's narrower, six and a half miles wide rather

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Speaker 1: than twelve. Why take the narrower channel when you could

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Speaker 1: take the broader one. Of course, you could still fit

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Speaker 1: an oil tanker through the narrower gap, even an oil

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Speaker 1: tanker that's nearly as big as the Chrysler building, but

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Speaker 1: you'd be cutting it close. You'd be better and nothing

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Speaker 1: went wrong. Inertia is a powerful thing. That's true for

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Speaker 1: an oil tanker the size of Torry Canyon, which needed

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Speaker 1: nearly five minutes to make a ninety degree turn, during

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Speaker 1: which time it would travel a mile and a half

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Speaker 1: at cruising speed. But inertia is a powerful thing for

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Speaker 1: humans too. We also sometimes struggle to change course. Psychologists

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Speaker 1: have identified a strong bias towards the status quo. For example,

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Speaker 1: whether we sign up for a workplace pension plan or

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Speaker 1: not seems to depend on whatever the status quo is.

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Speaker 1: If the default option is to sign up, we sign up.

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Speaker 1: If the default is to stay out, we stay out.

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Speaker 1: As I say, inertia is powerful. Psychologists who study accidents

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Speaker 1: have a name for a particular form of inertia. They

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Speaker 1: call it plan continuation bias. It's best known in aviation.

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Speaker 1: Pilots form a plan and then are reluctant to change it,

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Speaker 1: even if the circumstances suggest they should. The pilots themselves

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Speaker 1: have another name for it, get their itis. The classic

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Speaker 1: form of get their itis is an approach to an

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Speaker 1: airfield with a storm coming in. If you land well

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Speaker 1: before the storm arrives, no problem. If the storm arrives

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Speaker 1: before you land, that's not a crisis either. It's a hassle.

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Speaker 1: You have to divert to another airfield, with all the delay,

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Speaker 1: expense and annoyance that implies, but you do it because

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Speaker 1: you don't want to fly into a dangerous storm. The

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Speaker 1: risk comes when the storm is closing in, but there's

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Speaker 1: still a window of opportunity to land. The landing strip

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Speaker 1: is so close, just minutes away. Tunnel vision sets in,

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Speaker 1: people start to hurry, Margins for error are stripped away.

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Speaker 1: Usually there's no harm done. The pilot lands just as

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Speaker 1: the storm rips across and congratulates himself or herself for

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Speaker 1: keeping cool and sharing skill under pressure. But sometimes the

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Speaker 1: consequences are more serious. One study of get their Itis

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Speaker 1: looked at twenty occasions when thunderstorms had closed in at

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Speaker 1: Hartsfield Jackson, at Lanta's major international airport, Again and again,

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Speaker 1: pilots decided to chance a risky landing, risky in the

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Speaker 1: sense that the Federal Aviation Administration's official guidelines would have

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Speaker 1: advised against it. One plane after another would land under

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Speaker 1: ever more perilous conditions, until eventually one flight crew would

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Speaker 1: resist the inertia and decide to divert elsewhere. At that point,

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Speaker 1: every subsequent plane would also decide to divert. The madness

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Speaker 1: only ended when some one set an example and change

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Speaker 1: the plan I'm no airline pilots, but I sometimes suffer

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Speaker 1: from get their itis in my own life. Perhaps you

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Speaker 1: do too. For me, it tends to emerge when dealing

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Speaker 1: with family logistics. I've got three children at two different schools,

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Speaker 1: and they all have their hobbies and sports and all

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Speaker 1: the usual things. I'm sure many parents will be familiar

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Speaker 1: with the plate spinning that this sometimes involves. But then

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Speaker 1: something goes wrong. The cars in the shop to be repaired,

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Speaker 1: No problem, we can bike instead. Then someone needs to

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Speaker 1: be at home to meet the plumber. We make contingency

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Speaker 1: plans and they seem like they'll be fine, but then

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Speaker 1: a fresh airrand appeers, or a babysitter calls to cancel.

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Speaker 1: As complications mount, the plan starts to resemble an increasingly

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Speaker 1: precarious assembly of stages and steps, lift swaps and rendezvous.

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Speaker 1: It's a Rube Goldberg fever dream of an itinerary. And then,

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Speaker 1: if I'm lucky that I or my wife will find

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Speaker 1: enough headspace to say this is crazy. Someone's going to

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Speaker 1: have to skip dance class tonight. We'll call a plumber

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Speaker 1: to see if tomorrow's okay. Instead, we'll replace the entire

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Speaker 1: time and motion nightmare with something radically simpler. But that's

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Speaker 1: hard to do because of the inertia, because of the

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Speaker 1: plan continuation bias, and the more the pressure mounts, the

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Speaker 1: harder it is to see clearly just how precarious everything

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Speaker 1: has become. I become so fixated on executing the plan

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Speaker 1: that I don't have a moment to realize that it's

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Speaker 1: now a stupid plan. Captain Rouggiati was under pressure to

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Speaker 1: reach the harbor at Milford Haven in time, and had

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Speaker 1: been woken with the unwelcome news that the ship was

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Speaker 1: off course too far towards the mainland. If he'd stopped

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Speaker 1: to think or to talk to his officers, he would

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Speaker 1: have realized that he still had time to turn and

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Speaker 1: go the long way round outside the Aisles of Silly.

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Speaker 1: He only had an hour or two to spare, but

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Speaker 1: a brief calculation would have revealed that the detour would

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Speaker 1: have cost just twenty nine minutes. Yet he didn't pause

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Speaker 1: to reflect. He snapped at Bonfilio and ordered him to

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Speaker 1: stick to the course that would now cut inside the

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Speaker 1: aisles of Silly. Nor did he reflect that since his

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Speaker 1: ship had already been deflected by the current and the wind,

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Speaker 1: those forces might well continue to work upon the ship,

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Speaker 1: moving it out of its intended position. Under time pressure,

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Speaker 1: he began to suffer get their itis. His plan was risky,

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Speaker 1: and his plan was not about to change. At eight

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Speaker 1: eighteen a m, a junior officer calculated their position, this

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Speaker 1: being the days before GPS. He did it with the

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Speaker 1: ships charts, a compass bearing, and a radar reading old school,

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Speaker 1: but the inexperienced officer was anxious. He wasn't convinced he'd

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Speaker 1: got the ship's position exactly right, but he didn't speak up.

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Speaker 1: After all, there'd be another chance to take a fix

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Speaker 1: in ten minutes or so. Captain Ruggiarti wasn't speaking up either,

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Speaker 1: As the ship steamed north at sixteen knots nearly twenty

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Speaker 1: miles an hour. He'd already decided which course he would take,

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Speaker 1: but he hadn't told his crew, which meant that they

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Speaker 1: hadn't had a chance to comment, and they didn't feel

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Speaker 1: entitled to ask. Captain Ruggati had actually decided to pass

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Speaker 1: through the narrow channel, which involved bending the ship's course

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Speaker 1: in a long, slow curve to the left. Why perhaps

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Speaker 1: because it was the most direct route, but mostly because well,

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Speaker 1: why not to me.

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Speaker 3: It was this same.

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Speaker 4: But should he not.

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Speaker 1: Have taken just a few more minutes to avoid the

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Speaker 1: narrow route?

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Speaker 3: That was never in my mind.

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Speaker 1: Never, that's a revealing turn of phrase. Never in my mind.

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Speaker 1: Pastrengo Rugiati didn't even consider the possibility of going through

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Speaker 1: the wider channel. And while that might seem strange to

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Speaker 1: you or me, it's a natural feature of plan continuation

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Speaker 1: by us. As the tunnel vision develops. We don't even

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Speaker 1: think about alternatives to our initial plan. We don't have

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Speaker 1: the bandwidth. We continue to plow on. In two thousand

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Speaker 1: and five, a young boy was rushed into a hospital

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Speaker 1: emergency room. He suffered from asthma and he was in distress.

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Speaker 1: He was finding it harder to breathe and harder and harder,

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Speaker 1: and then his breathing stopped. The medical team quickly strapped

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Speaker 1: an oxygen mask on to the boy. That should have helped,

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00:20:16,490 --> 00:20:20,730
Speaker 1: but instead his heart stopped beating two. There were eight

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00:20:21,010 --> 00:20:23,890
Speaker 1: trained medical professionals in the room, taking it in turns

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00:20:23,930 --> 00:20:28,330
Speaker 1: to perform CPR on the boy. Still no pulse, still

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00:20:28,650 --> 00:20:34,130
Speaker 1: no breathing. The minutes ticked by a doctor slierded a

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00:20:34,170 --> 00:20:35,810
Speaker 1: breathing tube down the boy's throat.

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Speaker 3: Nothing's happening as the tube in position.

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Speaker 1: The tube's fine. I checked, is.

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Speaker 3: There any pulse?

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00:20:41,330 --> 00:20:41,930
Speaker 4: Still nothing.

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Speaker 3: Let's take the breathing tube out and try the airbag again.

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Speaker 1: It's not helping. No, it wasn't helping. And the reason

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Speaker 1: it wasn't helping was because the breathing apparatus was broken.

301
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Speaker 1: It would have taken a few seconds to check if

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00:20:57,730 --> 00:21:01,090
Speaker 1: any of the five nurses or three doctors had thought

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00:21:01,370 --> 00:21:05,210
Speaker 1: to check. But they didn't think, not until the boy

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00:21:05,290 --> 00:21:11,970
Speaker 1: had been deprived of oxygen for ten minutes. Thankfully, this

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00:21:12,170 --> 00:21:16,050
Speaker 1: wasn't a tragedy. It was a training exercise. Instead of

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00:21:16,090 --> 00:21:18,330
Speaker 1: a real boy, it was a medical dummy that was

307
00:21:18,410 --> 00:21:21,650
Speaker 1: lying on the bed failing to produce a simulated pulse

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00:21:21,730 --> 00:21:26,290
Speaker 1: orce simulated respiration because the medical team didn't step back

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00:21:26,450 --> 00:21:34,930
Speaker 1: and think. This training scenario was conducted nineteen times and

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00:21:35,090 --> 00:21:38,490
Speaker 1: videos of the exercise were studied by Marlis Christiansen, a

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00:21:38,530 --> 00:21:42,930
Speaker 1: professor of organizational behavior and previously a doctor.

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Speaker 5: Professor.

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00:21:44,770 --> 00:21:48,290
Speaker 1: Christiansen found that some medical teams took just seconds to

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00:21:48,370 --> 00:21:50,450
Speaker 1: identify the problem with the breathing equipment.

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Speaker 4: This isn't working, it's broken.

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00:21:53,130 --> 00:21:57,850
Speaker 1: That's impressive. But perhaps more impressive were the teams who

317
00:21:57,970 --> 00:22:01,090
Speaker 1: started with the wrong theory about the problem, but didn't

318
00:22:01,090 --> 00:22:04,130
Speaker 1: get stuck on that idea. They didn't fixate on one

319
00:22:04,170 --> 00:22:08,170
Speaker 1: possibility or keep repeating the same approach over and over again.

320
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Speaker 1: Talk through what they were thinking and challenge themselves and

321
00:22:12,450 --> 00:22:17,410
Speaker 1: each other. They could change course, but not every team

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00:22:17,490 --> 00:22:21,410
Speaker 1: did that. Many teams would hammer away at the same plan,

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00:22:21,850 --> 00:22:24,570
Speaker 1: regardless of the signs that it wasn't going to work.

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00:22:25,090 --> 00:22:28,490
Speaker 1: They didn't step back and think, They didn't talk things through,

325
00:22:29,130 --> 00:22:35,410
Speaker 1: They just kept going. Could Captain Rugiati avoid the same fate.

326
00:22:41,850 --> 00:22:45,650
Speaker 1: Captain Rujati is now trying to curve his ship through

327
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Speaker 1: the narrower channel. He doesn't even have the full six

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00:22:49,010 --> 00:22:51,930
Speaker 1: and a half miles to aim at because he's approaching

329
00:22:51,970 --> 00:22:55,930
Speaker 1: at an angle. He's left himself precious little margin for error.

330
00:22:56,490 --> 00:23:00,090
Speaker 1: As it is, Torry Kanyon is heading straight for the

331
00:23:00,130 --> 00:23:05,210
Speaker 1: submerged rocks at half past eight. As the slow, slow

332
00:23:05,330 --> 00:23:09,890
Speaker 1: turn begins, two fishing boats appear on the radar, the

333
00:23:09,930 --> 00:23:13,770
Speaker 1: two French Langustiers that are watching the oncoming super tanker

334
00:23:13,810 --> 00:23:18,650
Speaker 1: with astonishment. Rugiati had planned to keep turning, but now

335
00:23:18,690 --> 00:23:22,010
Speaker 1: he has to ensure he doesn't hit the boats. Suddenly

336
00:23:22,170 --> 00:23:24,730
Speaker 1: floats come into view. They are a sign of fishing

337
00:23:24,770 --> 00:23:29,090
Speaker 1: nets beneath the surface. Tory Canyon can't possibly avoid them

338
00:23:29,130 --> 00:23:33,130
Speaker 1: all and slices through one set of nets. Captain Ruggati

339
00:23:33,410 --> 00:23:36,090
Speaker 1: pauses his turn in order not to shred the rest.

340
00:23:37,770 --> 00:23:40,410
Speaker 1: He's now heading very close to where he thinks the

341
00:23:40,450 --> 00:23:42,850
Speaker 1: stones are, but he still hopes to be able to

342
00:23:42,890 --> 00:23:48,450
Speaker 1: resume his turn after passing the nets. But meanwhile, all

343
00:23:48,490 --> 00:23:53,410
Speaker 1: the while, the current has been gently, insistently pushing Torry

344
00:23:53,530 --> 00:23:58,890
Speaker 1: Canyon closer and closer to the seven Stones. At this point,

345
00:23:59,090 --> 00:24:02,130
Speaker 1: Ruggiati seems to have woken up to the danger. He

346
00:24:02,210 --> 00:24:06,210
Speaker 1: has precious little room for maneuver. Rather than curving out

347
00:24:06,210 --> 00:24:10,050
Speaker 1: of danger, he's heading directly towards the seven Stone. He

348
00:24:10,170 --> 00:24:12,130
Speaker 1: was later asked whether he would have been heading that

349
00:24:12,210 --> 00:24:14,610
Speaker 1: way if not for the fishing boats and their nets.

350
00:24:14,890 --> 00:24:18,090
Speaker 3: No, only a madman would have followed in northern course.

351
00:24:18,370 --> 00:24:22,330
Speaker 1: Ruggiati now knows his heading is dangerous. His plan to

352
00:24:22,370 --> 00:24:25,690
Speaker 1: go through the narrow channel is being frustrated, but as

353
00:24:25,730 --> 00:24:29,330
Speaker 1: the pressure rises, he can't step back and form a

354
00:24:29,370 --> 00:24:33,290
Speaker 1: better plan. Why doesn't he slow down? Why doesn't. He

355
00:24:33,290 --> 00:24:36,090
Speaker 1: abandon his plan to turn left into the channel and

356
00:24:36,210 --> 00:24:39,130
Speaker 1: instead turned sharply right into deep water.

357
00:24:39,970 --> 00:24:41,530
Speaker 3: That was never in my mind.

358
00:24:42,330 --> 00:24:47,610
Speaker 1: Never When get their itis takes hold, there are a

359
00:24:47,650 --> 00:24:50,770
Speaker 1: lot of things that should be in our minds but aren't.

360
00:24:52,370 --> 00:24:55,570
Speaker 1: At eight thirty eight a m Captain Ruggiati takes a

361
00:24:55,570 --> 00:24:59,250
Speaker 1: look at the chance his junior officer has just taken

362
00:24:59,290 --> 00:25:03,090
Speaker 1: another bearing. Ruggiati is an old hand. He can see

363
00:25:03,090 --> 00:25:06,090
Speaker 1: at once that it can't be right. The cross is

364
00:25:06,170 --> 00:25:09,450
Speaker 1: marking the ship's position should be at regular intervals, but

365
00:25:09,450 --> 00:25:13,170
Speaker 1: they're not. One of the bearings is wrong. He doesn't

366
00:25:13,210 --> 00:25:18,490
Speaker 1: know which. Maybe they're both wrong. Captain Ruzzati doesn't know

367
00:25:18,570 --> 00:25:22,570
Speaker 1: where he is. The junior officer takes another bearing with

368
00:25:22,610 --> 00:25:25,770
Speaker 1: the captain's help. The new fix shows that the ship

369
00:25:25,810 --> 00:25:29,050
Speaker 1: is closer to the seven Stones than they'd realized, less

370
00:25:29,050 --> 00:25:33,050
Speaker 1: than three miles. Remember, Torry Canyon takes a mile and

371
00:25:33,130 --> 00:25:37,090
Speaker 1: a half to make a ninety degree turn on his trawler.

372
00:25:37,690 --> 00:25:42,570
Speaker 1: Watching with horror, Gee Folich has already concluded that it's

373
00:25:42,610 --> 00:25:48,970
Speaker 1: all over. Torry Canyon can't possibly avoid the rocks, but

374
00:25:49,050 --> 00:25:53,130
Speaker 1: he's wrong. There is still time. There's still time to

375
00:25:53,130 --> 00:25:56,210
Speaker 1: turn into deep water. There's even still time to turn

376
00:25:56,250 --> 00:25:59,210
Speaker 1: into the channel, which is what pastranger Ruggati has been

377
00:25:59,290 --> 00:26:02,290
Speaker 1: trying to do for the last four miles, and so,

378
00:26:02,610 --> 00:26:05,050
Speaker 1: even though it doesn't really make sense anymore, that's what

379
00:26:05,170 --> 00:26:06,970
Speaker 1: he continues to try to do.

380
00:26:07,610 --> 00:26:11,290
Speaker 3: Hensman can't do the wheel, Yes, Captain hard to part

381
00:26:11,690 --> 00:26:13,930
Speaker 3: go to three fifty, Yes, Captain no, take her to

382
00:26:14,010 --> 00:26:16,210
Speaker 3: three forty, take her to three twenty.

383
00:26:16,650 --> 00:26:20,210
Speaker 1: Rugiati is ordering an ever tighter turn into the channel.

384
00:26:22,410 --> 00:26:25,330
Speaker 4: Captain. Captain, the ship's not turning.

385
00:26:25,850 --> 00:26:31,490
Speaker 1: Even now, there's still time. If she's not turning, Captain

386
00:26:31,650 --> 00:26:36,730
Speaker 1: Ruggiati needs to think, why isn't the ship turning? Perhaps

387
00:26:36,770 --> 00:26:40,130
Speaker 1: the fuel pumps controlling the rudder have broken. Ruggiati has

388
00:26:40,170 --> 00:26:43,810
Speaker 1: seen that happen before. He tries to dial the engine room,

389
00:26:43,850 --> 00:26:47,130
Speaker 1: but instead he makes the kind of mistake you make

390
00:26:47,450 --> 00:26:50,330
Speaker 1: when you've had three hours sleep and you only have

391
00:26:50,450 --> 00:26:54,330
Speaker 1: seconds to solve a problem. He calls the officer's dining room.

392
00:26:54,890 --> 00:26:57,330
Speaker 6: Ah, captain, are you ready for breakfast?

393
00:26:57,530 --> 00:26:58,370
Speaker 3: Not good deal?

394
00:26:59,890 --> 00:27:04,210
Speaker 1: God is a pig. That's some serious blasphemy from a

395
00:27:04,250 --> 00:27:08,810
Speaker 1: good Italian Catholic. It's the blasphemy of a man who

396
00:27:08,850 --> 00:27:37,890
Speaker 1: knows whose time has just run out. There's a photograph

397
00:27:37,930 --> 00:27:40,690
Speaker 1: of Pastrengo Rugiati that I can't get out of my head.

398
00:27:41,410 --> 00:27:45,770
Speaker 1: He's scrunched up in a confined space, his knees tucked

399
00:27:45,890 --> 00:27:49,210
Speaker 1: into his chest as if to protect himself. His eyes

400
00:27:49,490 --> 00:27:54,010
Speaker 1: rolled sharply to one side, his face ghoulishly lit from below.

401
00:27:54,970 --> 00:27:58,090
Speaker 1: He's wearing a hospital gown and he's hiding under a

402
00:27:58,170 --> 00:28:03,210
Speaker 1: hospital bed. That's where he was when the paparazzi found him.

403
00:28:03,290 --> 00:28:10,290
Speaker 1: He looks terrified. He's broken. His ship was gone, impaling

404
00:28:10,330 --> 00:28:14,130
Speaker 1: itself onto the seven Stones at full speed with a noise.

405
00:28:14,530 --> 00:28:15,730
Speaker 1: One crewman said.

406
00:28:15,770 --> 00:28:20,690
Speaker 4: Like a slab of lead being ripped by spikes.

407
00:28:21,650 --> 00:28:25,530
Speaker 1: Watching from his trawler, Gi Folich turned to his men.

408
00:28:25,930 --> 00:28:30,810
Speaker 3: That's the end of her. She'll never get off. He

409
00:28:30,930 --> 00:28:31,290
Speaker 3: was right.

410
00:28:32,570 --> 00:28:36,050
Speaker 1: The crew escaped safely, but during an attempt to refloat

411
00:28:36,090 --> 00:28:39,170
Speaker 1: the ship, there was a huge explosion. One of the

412
00:28:39,210 --> 00:28:43,930
Speaker 1: salvage team was killed. By then torry Kanyon's back was

413
00:28:43,970 --> 00:28:48,370
Speaker 1: already broken and her underbelly sliced open by the teeth

414
00:28:48,450 --> 00:28:51,890
Speaker 1: of the reef. She was bleeding one hundred and nineteen

415
00:28:52,090 --> 00:28:56,290
Speaker 1: thousand tons of crude oil into coastal waters. It was

416
00:28:56,330 --> 00:29:02,210
Speaker 1: an environmental catastrophe. The oil spill was unprecedented. Even today,

417
00:29:02,450 --> 00:29:04,850
Speaker 1: there are places where you can still see the dark

418
00:29:04,890 --> 00:29:08,850
Speaker 1: stain on the coast. Torry Canyon was at the time

419
00:29:09,370 --> 00:29:15,090
Speaker 1: the largest shipwreck in history and the largest maritime insurance claim.

420
00:29:15,850 --> 00:29:20,090
Speaker 1: Ruggiatti took responsibility. He was the captain, and he was,

421
00:29:20,170 --> 00:29:21,850
Speaker 1: he said, in charge of.

422
00:29:21,930 --> 00:29:24,650
Speaker 3: The best ship in the world for a ship's captain.

423
00:29:24,730 --> 00:29:29,450
Speaker 3: His ship is all and I have lost mine. I

424
00:29:29,450 --> 00:29:33,090
Speaker 3: am terrified by the dimensions which the accident has assumed.

425
00:29:35,530 --> 00:29:39,810
Speaker 1: The inquiry was conducted in private. Journalists weren't allowed in,

426
00:29:40,650 --> 00:29:43,290
Speaker 1: but the manager of the hotel where the proceedings were

427
00:29:43,290 --> 00:29:45,690
Speaker 1: being held told one of them that he had seen

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00:29:45,810 --> 00:29:46,770
Speaker 1: Captain Ruggiati.

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Speaker 3: I had a glimpse of this man. I had the

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00:29:49,970 --> 00:29:51,690
Speaker 3: impression of a man finished.

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Speaker 6: He very seldom have so strong an impression from so

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Speaker 6: short of seeing a man.

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00:29:57,450 --> 00:30:02,530
Speaker 3: I must answer for everything for everyone. I must carry

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00:30:02,570 --> 00:30:07,050
Speaker 3: the cross alone. I wish I could tell the people

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00:30:07,090 --> 00:30:10,330
Speaker 3: of Cornwall how so I am.

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00:30:10,370 --> 00:30:11,570
Speaker 1: And he really was sorry.

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00:30:13,170 --> 00:30:14,370
Speaker 3: It was very bad.

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00:30:18,170 --> 00:30:23,410
Speaker 1: The disaster broke Ruggiati. He spent months in hospital recovering

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00:30:23,450 --> 00:30:26,890
Speaker 1: from the strain and the anxiety and the heartbreak, which

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00:30:26,930 --> 00:30:32,650
Speaker 1: is where the eager photographers found him. A transcript of

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00:30:32,690 --> 00:30:37,290
Speaker 1: the inquiry was leaked to the journalist Richard Petro. The

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00:30:37,370 --> 00:30:40,730
Speaker 1: tanker owners were keen to downplay any fault on their part,

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00:30:41,170 --> 00:30:43,850
Speaker 1: including the fact that the steering had broken in the past,

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00:30:44,410 --> 00:30:47,850
Speaker 1: confusing Captain Ruggati when the ship had failed to turn.

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00:30:48,930 --> 00:30:52,010
Speaker 1: But why had the ship failed to turn in those

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00:30:52,130 --> 00:30:56,810
Speaker 1: last moments? It was a small thing. After Ruggiati had

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00:30:56,850 --> 00:31:00,730
Speaker 1: accidentally called the officer's dining room and slammed down the receiver,

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00:31:01,250 --> 00:31:05,050
Speaker 1: he looked across the bridge. From his position by the telephone,

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00:31:05,450 --> 00:31:08,930
Speaker 1: he could see that someone had inadvertently knocked the steering

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00:31:09,130 --> 00:31:14,810
Speaker 1: control lever. The ship's steering had simply been disconnected. All

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00:31:14,890 --> 00:31:18,330
Speaker 1: Ruggiati needed to do was switch the lever back and

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00:31:18,490 --> 00:31:22,970
Speaker 1: drag Torry Canyon over to port, but he'd lost time.

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00:31:23,890 --> 00:31:26,890
Speaker 3: With thirty seconds more to maneuver, I could have avoided

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Speaker 3: the rocks.

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00:31:28,930 --> 00:31:33,330
Speaker 1: Ruggiati had made a plan, and as one small problem

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00:31:33,370 --> 00:31:37,690
Speaker 1: after another made the plan riskier and riskier, he hadn't

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00:31:37,690 --> 00:31:38,770
Speaker 1: been able to adjust.

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00:31:39,810 --> 00:31:43,890
Speaker 3: Many little things added up to one big disaster.

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00:31:44,570 --> 00:31:49,130
Speaker 1: That's true, the deadline, the currents, the fishing boats, the

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00:31:49,290 --> 00:31:54,090
Speaker 1: error from his junior officer, the steering control. It's bad luck.

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00:31:54,610 --> 00:31:58,210
Speaker 3: Thirty seconds before the sheep she was saved.

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00:31:59,050 --> 00:32:03,730
Speaker 1: But the missing thirty seconds aren't what interests me. What

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00:32:03,850 --> 00:32:08,490
Speaker 1: interests me are the two hours that Rouggiati had to

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00:32:08,570 --> 00:32:12,770
Speaker 1: save his Torry Canyon, the best ship in the world.

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00:32:13,530 --> 00:32:17,410
Speaker 1: He had two hours to reroute outside the Isles of Scilly,

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00:32:18,050 --> 00:32:21,330
Speaker 1: two hours to slow the ship down, two hours to

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00:32:21,450 --> 00:32:24,570
Speaker 1: ask for advice or to turn towards the wider channel,

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00:32:25,290 --> 00:32:29,890
Speaker 1: but he didn't do any of those things. After the

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00:32:29,970 --> 00:32:34,170
Speaker 1: exploitative photograph was released, there was a surge of sympathy

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00:32:34,210 --> 00:32:38,770
Speaker 1: for Ruggiati from around the world. People wrote letters of consolation.

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00:32:39,810 --> 00:32:42,330
Speaker 1: One that caught my eye was from a thirteen year

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00:32:42,330 --> 00:32:46,890
Speaker 1: old boy from County Cork in Ireland. I see beautiful tankers,

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00:32:47,250 --> 00:32:49,730
Speaker 1: but I'm sure I've never seen one as beautiful as yours.

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00:32:50,330 --> 00:32:53,130
Speaker 1: I thought and prayed for you. I am sure you

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00:32:53,130 --> 00:32:59,410
Speaker 1: will sail the seas again. Pastrengo Rugiati never did. His

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00:32:59,530 --> 00:33:03,530
Speaker 1: mistake was just too grave, but at the same time

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00:33:03,890 --> 00:33:08,210
Speaker 1: it was also all too human. After all, it's our

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00:33:08,330 --> 00:33:21,450
Speaker 1: nature to be slow to change course you've been listening

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00:33:21,570 --> 00:33:24,490
Speaker 1: to Cautionary Tales. If you'd like to find out more

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00:33:24,530 --> 00:33:28,050
Speaker 1: about the ideas in this episode, including links to our sources,

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00:33:28,370 --> 00:33:32,690
Speaker 1: the show notes are on my website, Timharford dot com.

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00:33:32,730 --> 00:33:36,290
Speaker 1: Cautionary Tales is written and presented by me, Tim Harford.

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00:33:36,730 --> 00:33:40,690
Speaker 1: Our producers are Ryan Dilly and Marilyn Rust. The sound

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00:33:40,690 --> 00:33:44,610
Speaker 1: designer and mixer was Pascal Wise, who also composed the

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00:33:44,690 --> 00:33:51,050
Speaker 1: amazing music. This season stars Alan Cumming, Archie Panchabi, Toby

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00:33:51,090 --> 00:33:56,490
Speaker 1: Stephens and Russell Tovey, with Ensochilente, Ed Gochen, Melanie Gutteridge,

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00:33:56,650 --> 00:34:03,170
Speaker 1: Mercier Munroe, Rufus Wright and introducing Malcolm Gladwell. Thanks to

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00:34:03,210 --> 00:34:08,010
Speaker 1: the team at Pushkin Industries, Julia Barton, Heather Fame, Mia LaBelle,

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00:34:08,290 --> 00:34:13,250
Speaker 1: Carli Milor, Jacob Weisberg, and of course the mighty Malcolm Gladwell.

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00:34:13,530 --> 00:34:16,170
Speaker 1: And thanks to my colleagues at The Financial Times,