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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that reveals a little bit more about history

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Speaker 1: day by day. I'm Gay Bluesier, and today we're talking

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Speaker 1: about a thankfully rare occurrence, the deadly collision between two

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Speaker 1: fully loaded oil tankers. The day was July seventy nine.

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Speaker 1: During a tropical storm, to enormous supertankers collided off the

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Speaker 1: coast of Tobago. The two vessels, known as the Atlantic

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Speaker 1: Empress and the Aegean Captain, were each carrying hundreds of

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Speaker 1: thousands of tons of crude oil. Their collision created a

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Speaker 1: twenty five square mile oil slick in the Caribbean Sea

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Speaker 1: and claimed the lives of twenty seven crew members. It

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Speaker 1: was the largest tanker spill on record at the time,

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Speaker 1: and one of just a few instances in history when

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Speaker 1: two oil tankers have struck one another. Each of the

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Speaker 1: giant ships involved in the crash was more than three

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Speaker 1: hundred meters in length, three times longer than an American

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Speaker 1: football field. The Atlantic Empress had set sail from Beaumont, Texas,

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Speaker 1: and was en route to an oil terminal in Saudi Arabia.

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Speaker 1: It was loaded with two hundred and seventy six thousand

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Speaker 1: tons of light crude oil. Meanwhile, the Aegean Captain had

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Speaker 1: set out from Curassow and Bonair carrying about two hundred

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Speaker 1: thousand tons of light and heavy crude oil. That ship

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Speaker 1: was bound for a refinery in Singapore and was therefore

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Speaker 1: heading in the opposite direction of the Atlantic Empress. The

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Speaker 1: trouble began in the early evening of July nineteenth, when

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Speaker 1: the two vessels were passing one another about eighteen miles

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Speaker 1: off the shore of Tobago. A tropical rainstorm severely reduced

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Speaker 1: the visibility of the ships, and as a result, neither

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Speaker 1: knew it was on a collision course with the other

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Speaker 1: until it was far too late. At around seven pm,

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Speaker 1: the second officer of the Aegean Captain finally sighted the

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Speaker 1: Atlantic Empress when the ships were just two meters apart.

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Speaker 1: That officer, Pisco Pianos Christos, immediately started turning the ship

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Speaker 1: left in the hope that the Atlantic Empress would do

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Speaker 1: the same and a collision would be avoided. Unfortunately, the

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Speaker 1: Empress didn't react in time, and the bow of the

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Speaker 1: Aegean Captain wound up striking a planting blow into its side.

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Speaker 1: The explosion was instantaneous, and both tankers burst into flames.

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Speaker 1: The captains of both vessels ordered their crews to abandon

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Speaker 1: ship right away. However, the evacuation of the Aegean Captain

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Speaker 1: went much more smoothly than that of the Atlantic Empress.

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Speaker 1: Panic seized the crew of the latter ship, causing many

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Speaker 1: of the men to leap into the burning waters. In

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Speaker 1: the end, twenty six crewmen of the Atlantic Empress died

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Speaker 1: in the flames, while only one perished aboard the Aegean Captain.

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Speaker 1: One reason for that disparity and death toll is the

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Speaker 1: severity of the fires on each ship. Fire had only

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Speaker 1: broken out on the starboard bow of the Aegean Captain

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Speaker 1: and was extinguished relatively quickly by the Trinidad and Tobago

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Speaker 1: Coast Guard. It was then towed to cure a sow,

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Speaker 1: leaking crude oil all the way. Once it arrived, the

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Speaker 1: remaining oil was transferred to other vessels and the arduous

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Speaker 1: task of repairing the ship began. Meanwhile, back aboard the

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Speaker 1: Atlantic Empress, things were much more dire. The ship was

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Speaker 1: burning all over and had even started to sink. Two

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Speaker 1: tug boats were dispatched to tow the burning ship further

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Speaker 1: out to sea, while a salvage team worked to control

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Speaker 1: the blaze. For the next ten days, firefighters worked day

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Speaker 1: and night with foam guns and hoses, trying desperately to

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Speaker 1: keep the ship and its remaining cargo afloat. They had

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Speaker 1: made good headway by the evening of July twenty nine,

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Speaker 1: but just minutes after the team left the ship for

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Speaker 1: the night, a large explosion rocked the Atlantic Empress. One

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Speaker 1: of the oil tanks had exploded, tearing open the main

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Speaker 1: deck and destroying most of the firefighting equipment on board.

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Speaker 1: The fire spread worse than before, and by August two,

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Speaker 1: the metal plating of the ship's hull began to give way.

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Speaker 1: The tow crew released the ship at that point and

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Speaker 1: backed away, as oil had begun to pool around the tanker.

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Speaker 1: Soon the Atlantic Empress began to sink in earnest witnesses

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Speaker 1: reported seeing its bow red hot from the flames poking

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Speaker 1: out of the water just before the ships sank out

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Speaker 1: of sight. A full two weeks after the vision, roughly

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Speaker 1: two hundred and eighty seven thousand metric tons of oil

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Speaker 1: or about ninety million gallons were spilled from the Atlantic

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Speaker 1: Empress alone, making it the largest ship based spill ever recorded.

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Speaker 1: The oil slick continued to burn after the ship had sunk,

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Speaker 1: its flames stretching five hundred feet into the air, with

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Speaker 1: the smoke reaching six thousand feet. Much of the oil

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Speaker 1: was consumed by the fire, but aircraft continued to fly

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Speaker 1: over the area to spray disperse sense. Although a massive

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Speaker 1: amount of oil was released during the ordeal, the spill

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Speaker 1: reportedly caused only minor environmental damage to nearby beaches. Winds

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Speaker 1: were said to have pushed most of the oil out

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Speaker 1: to sea, sparing the local islands from the brunt of

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Speaker 1: what would have been significant pollution. It's worth noting, though,

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Speaker 1: that no impact studies were conducted to measure the full

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Speaker 1: effects of the spill. Media coverage of the Supertanker collision

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Speaker 1: was soon overtaken by an even larger spill, a blowout

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Speaker 1: at the XTC oil well in the Gulf of Mexico,

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Speaker 1: which would take nearly ten months to contain. This quick

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Speaker 1: succession of oil based disasters highlighted the many inherent dangers

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Speaker 1: in extracting, refining, and transporting the volatile resource. It also

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Speaker 1: called attention to a troubling pattern that's all too frequently

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Speaker 1: repeated even today. Private businesses make a huge mess, whether

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Speaker 1: through negligence, human error, or just bad luck. Then government

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Speaker 1: swoop in to clean things up, and any lasting problems

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Speaker 1: are left for the public and nature to deal with.

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Speaker 1: Say what you will about energy alternatives like wind and solar,

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Speaker 1: but they are called clean for a reason. I'm Gay

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Speaker 1: Blusier and hopefully you now know a little more about

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Speaker 1: history today than you did yesterday. If you'd like to

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Speaker 1: keep up with the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: you have any comments or suggestions, you can always send

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Speaker 1: them my way at this Day at I heart media

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Speaker 1: dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show,

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Speaker 1: and thanks to you for listening. I'll see you back

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Speaker 1: here again tomorrow for another Day in History class