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The Grounding Of The Sea Empress

On Thursday, February 15, 1996, the Spanish-built, Norwegian-owned, Cyprus-registered, Glasgow-managed, French-chartered, Russian-crewed, and Liberian-flagged Sea Empress struck the Milford Channel Rock in Milford Haven harbour, Wales. Nearly half the ship's cargo -- 70,000 tons of light crude oil -- spilled into the Irish Sea. The pilot (who came on board to help navigate the final part of the journey to the docks) had attempted to steer west of the rock, which lay in the middle of the harbour. A strong eastward-tugging tide arose, defeating his efforts to keep the 147,000-ton vessel clear.

Before the collision, the captain and harbour pilot had not discussed or agreed upon a plan for their approach to the docks. The captain, the chief officer and the helmsman all spoke Russian and were not fluent in English, raising questions about possible communications problems between them and port officials onshore. When the Sea Empress ran aground, the official tug used in this area was down near Portugal 'on business'. So a Chinese tug - one of the most powerful in the world - which was nearby in Milford Haven at the time, was called out to help. But according to observers none of the crew members spoke English, and the Port Authority had to go and fetch a local Chinese restaurant owner to act as a translator. The tug was unable to free the Sea Empress.

For the whole of the next week more tugs arrived and rescue workers battled to free the stricken vessel and to stop the rapidly-spreading slick of toxic oil. But violent gales and falling tides kept the ship stuck fast on the rock. By the Sunday evening, when the weather began to worsen, the Sea Empress had been at St Anne's Head for three days. Yet she had still only spilled about 2,000 tonnes of oil. Over the next few days, as the ship lay on the rocks and was buffeted by storm-force winds, oil flooded out in massive quantities. By the following Thursday (eight days after the crash) when she finally limped into Milford Haven port - still under her own power - she had lost 72,000 tonnes of oil.