On 18 March, 1967 the 'Torrey Canyon' struck Pollard's Rock in the Seven Stones reef between the Scilly Isles and Land's End, England. She was the first of the big supertankers, carrying a cargo of 120,000 tons of oil.

The oil leaked from the ship (31,000,000 gallons) and spread along the sea between England and France, killing most of the marine life it touched along the whole of the south coast of Britain and the Normandy shores of France, and blighting the region for many years thereafter.

Because nobody had planned for this, all sorts of emergency measures were attempted, many of which made matters worse; lots of chemical dispersants were eventually sprayed onto the oil slicks, but these were more lethal for life than the original oil. What follows is a brief story about why it happened, emphasising only the important ergonomics issues (and leaving out many other important issues).

Your health warning:  The official report is very thick, and comprehensive.  This story discusses  some of the ergonomics aspects only, and is not a precis of the report.  For a comprehensive version, read: R. Petrow, 1968, In the wake of the Torrey Canyon. (New York: David Mackay Co, Inc.) R.A. Cahill, 1985, Strandings and their causes. (London:  Fairplay publications) A more complete ergonomics version is in: S. Casey, 1998, Set phasers on stun, and other true tales of design, technology, and human error.  (Santa Barbara: Aegean Publishing Co.), 2nd edition, pp 40-58 (the whole book is very interesting).