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Missing rivets = leaking lifeboat!

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Sherkin Island Yoker Swan Ferry. Proposed exhibition space measured out for class collaborative project display

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The Bell markings

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A stone from Michael's field and the plinth is flotsom from the Dock Farm shoreline

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I joined the British Merchant Navy Forum to see if I could track down any further information on whether a second lifeboat survived the disaster, the indications are that only The Bell survived. I also posted a query on the forum as to the meaning of these markings. Seems the M crown T means the Ministry of Transport, and 16 8 54 may be the date (16/08/1954) when The Bell Lifeboat received her Certificate of Seaworthiness.

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No detail on photographer or whether this is a part from one of the lifeboats or some other part from the ship, but a find nonetheless!

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'Western Flag (Spindletop, Texas)' [2017] by Irish artist John Gerrard for #WorldEarthday: a Channel 4 Commission, live launch at Somerset House. “Western Flag is the legacy of oil. The invisible legacy: unlike most human waste, it’s invisible, and it’s one of the great drivers of the political reality that is climate change,” he says.

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The St Anthony in trouble with the Navy!

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Richard Wilson's 20:50, initial installation 1987. The gallery is filled to waist height with recycled engine oil, from which the piece takes its name. A walkway leads from a single entrance, leading the viewer into the space until they are surrounded by oil on all sides

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A 1955 rivetted aluminium, 24ft open lifeboat from the SS Explorer

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A 1955 rivetted aluminium, 24ft open lifeboatSS Explorer

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Áine Tierney and I helped Michael and Mikey Collins clear stones from one of the fields on Michael's Dock Farm.
Was chatting to Michael about The Bell, and he tells me that there is a boat, very similar to The Bell moored over on Turk Head. Very exciting news, and she's afloat too.
Maybe it's The Bell's sister ship that Diarmuid O'Mahony mentioned was in Courtmacsherry the same time as The Bell...
Bad news, Michael tells me that the boat moored in Turk Head is made of fibreglass, so unfortunately another dead end.

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Diarmuid O'Mahony remembers The Bell was brought to Sherkin and that there was a sister lifeboat moored in Courtmacsherry, no details on where she is now.

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The plan was for the chemical to break down the oil and allow it to disperse and be removed by natural bacteria. But instead it killed any kind of marine life it came into contact with, from seaweed to limpets to fish.

It pooled on beaches for hours before being washed away by the tide, making the poisonous effects even worse. A Marine Biological Association (MBA) report in 1968 said the UK's use of detergents resulted "in the death of a large number of shore organisms of many kinds".

It took 13-15 years for the treated areas to recover, about five times longer than those areas where the oil was dispersed naturally by wind and waves.

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Chouet Quarry, Guernsey. Aerial view

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Oil was removed from the coasts of Guernsey  and dumped into the quarry at Chouet Headland. Attempts were made to clean the quarry  with a biological treatment programme called bioremediation. The process uses micro-organisms that treat the quarry as a whole breaking down the oil present in the water and sediment.
Since treatment began in May 2010 there has been a big improvement, with an estimated two thirds of the oil on the surface of the quarry water being cleared so far.

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Volunteers use watering cans full of dispersal agents try to get rid of the oil on the beach at Marazion, Cornwall

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Another interesting resource for information on 'Disasters at Sea' - tracked down in Carraig Books, Blackrock, Co Dublin.

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B. The Torrey Canyon's back is broken and she spills all of her cargo. It remains Britain's biggest oil spill and its worst environmental disaster.

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F. The Torrey Canyon Lifeboat makes her way to Courtmacsherry as salvage.
She is now named The Bell.

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G. The St. Anthony's skipper and crew, Pat O'Connor, Richard Collins and Michael Collins towed The Bell to Sherkin Island in 1978.. Seems The Bell was unstable in the water (strange considering she's a lifeboat),  and was so troublesome they were tempted to cast her adrift.

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Courtmacsherry Pier.

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E. The oil reaches Brittany and comes on shore at Perros Guirec. I visited friends there in 1979 and was told of the cleanup efforts and the damage to wildlife populations. There is a photo of me taken in Perros Guirec, on board a yacht, no sign of an oil slick.

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D. The oil reaches Guernsey. The army remove oil and pour it into a quarry. This quarry is still contaminated 50 years later.

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C. Attempts are made to burn off the oil but it still inexorably makes its way to the shores of Cornwall.

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A. The Torrey Canyon runs aground,  in broad daylight, on Pollard rock on the Seven Stones reef, NE of The Scilly Isles.

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The Torrey Canyon and The Bell: Their Story

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The Torrey Canyon and The Bell: Their Story

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a work in progress...

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Soldiers clean up on a beach near Perros Guirec in Brittany

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Images: In the Wake of the Torrey Canyon by Richard Petrow

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Captain Pastrengo Rugiati sadly trying to hide under his hospital bed pursued by a relentless photographer

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Kathy and Mike O'Connor,  the Brennan brothers, some Sherkin Islanders and 3 BAVA students.

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One outcome of the Torrey Canyon environmental disaster was MARPOL (Marine Pollution), the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973, one of the most important international marine environmental conventions.
Read more at http://www.cornwalllive.com/torrey-canyon-disaster-cornwall-remembers-devastating-maritime-oil-spill-50-years-on/story-30206100-detail/story.html#Q7cMRXlcrHiayLxM.99

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Getty Images http://www.cornwalllive.com/torrey-canyon-disaster-cornwall-remembers-devastating-maritime-oil-spill-50-years-on/story-30206100-detail/story.html

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The St Anthony, built in 1925, is currently being restored by Richard Collins

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Operation Oil Buster dropped 41 1,000lb bombs containing napalm to burn off the oil, however only 23 hit their target...

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Papers and journals in the Marine Research Station library

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The Torrey Canyon Lifeboat, aka "The Bell", arrived on Sherkin Island via Courtmacsherry, towed to Sherkin by both Pat O'Connor, (her new owner), and Richard Collins owner of the fishing vessel St Anthony. Fiona O'Connor told me the story of how The Bell got her name. While tied up to the Courtmacsherry pier, without fenders, the noise of her striking the harbour wall sounded exactly like a bell - much to the annoyance of the local fishermen, who were unable to sleep due to her incessant tolling. 

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The Torrey Canyon Lifeboat, aka "The Bell", arrived on Sherkin Island via Courtmacsherry, towed to Sherkin by both Pat O'Connor, (her new owner), and Richard Collins owner of the fishing vessel St Anthony. Fiona O'Connor told me the story of how The Bell got her name. While tied up to the Courtmacsherry pier, without fenders, the noise of her striking the harbour wall sounded exactly like a bell - much to the annoyance of the local fishermen, who were unable to sleep due to her incessant tolling. 

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Matt Murphy gave me a tour of the library and he kindly tracked down several publications about the Torrey Canyon disaster for my research.

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Seven Stones Oil Tanker Disaster Aka Torrey Canyon (1967)

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Seven Stones Oil Tanker Disaster Aka Torrey Canyon (1967)

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Seven Stones Oil Tanker Disaster Aka Torrey Canyon (1967)

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No title - Seven Stones 'Torrey Canyon' oil tanker disaster. South West Cornwall. Various shots waves and surf rolling in. L/S Porthleven harbour. M/S's showing oil slick on water. Various shots as barrels of detergent are rolled out. M/S's naval and army officers walking along. C/U Maurice Foley talking to soldier, pan to others.

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Disasters are usually caused by a confluence of events, each of which, by itself, would have no serious consequences. That was true of Torrey Canyon. A report by the Ergonomics and Safety Research Institute in Loughborough, England, listed the following reasons for the first major catastrophic oil spill:• Ship design: Torrey Canyon had manoeuvrability problems, many as a result of being jumboized. In coastal waters it did not respond quickly enough to avoid impending disaster.• Autopilot design: Lever placement on this particular model could be confusing and, in this particular case, led to the wrong control mode being selected.• Competence: The captain made a bad decision steering Torrey Canyon between the Scillies and the Seven Stones. The first officer made ill-advised course corrections while the captain slept.• Time pressures: Safe course alternatives were discarded because of the pressure to arrive in port at Milford Haven by high tide on March 18.While Torrey Canyon was the first oil tanker disaster to be cast into the spotlight of the world, it wouldn't be the last. At least 10 other supertankers spilled tons of oil into surrounding environments over the next few decades. http://www.professionalmariner.com/March-2007/Torrey-Canyon-alerted-the-world-to-the-dangers-that-lay-ahead/

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March 18th 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the Torrey Canyon oil spill. On 18th March 1967, the supertanker Torrey Canyon ran aground on Seven Stones Reef, northeast of the Scilly Isles, spilling every drop of the 119,328 tons of crude oil cargo. It was, at the time, the biggest oil spill ever,  and 50 years on the crude from the Torrey Canyon is still killing wildlife on a daily basis.

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March 18th 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the Torrey Canyon oil spill. On 18th March 1967, the supertanker Torrey Canyon ran aground on Seven Stones Reef, northeast of the Scilly Isles, spilling every drop of the 119,328 tons of crude oil cargo. It was, at the time, the biggest oil spill ever,  and 50 years on the crude from the Torrey Canyon is still killing wildlife on a daily basis.

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18th March 1967

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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Mike O'Connor brought me to the location of the Torrey Canyon Lifeboat close by to the North Shore Discovery centre.