Thanks for the oil , Spain

[Vasco]

The tanker Prestige sunk yesterday , but had been in trouble for more than a couple of days.The spanish authorities refused to beach the tanker in one of the rias , cutting the losses and harming only one closed section of the coast and transfering some 60000tons of fuel to safety before the ship broke and sunk.
They decided to tow her away offshore , and this they did.No one has explained why did they ( salvage company with spanish government ) towed the ship South by Southwest instead of Northwest. The Ocean is allready suffering from the spill , the Galician beaches and rias as well , and thanks to this decision , the Portuguese coast is now in serious danger.
Portugal has had issues with the Spanish for over 800 years. Spanish attitudes have seldom been those of a good neighbour. Amongst many others we have a saying , " from Spain, no good winds or good weddings". A little more respect would have prevented this. The two countries basically get along well , as everyone knows , but just now the feelings in Portugal are not very kind towards spain.Again. And we all stand to loose, our waters , beaches and coastline , both spanish and Portuguese.

 

[NDG]

..........and they're trying to say its UK's fault, apparently, because the ship once went within a couple of hundred miles of Gib or something like that. Nice one.

 

[Guest]

NO SPANISH BOAT

You have forgotten that the Prestige wasn't a Spanish tanker and hadn't a Spanish destination. They only have the polution.

 

[Guest]

So what

If my garden floods, is it OK for me to dig a channel into my neighbours garden and flood his instead? (Some actually tried to do that to me incidentally).

Geoff W

 

[Iota]

Re: NO SPANISH BOAT

ah but the Spanish politicos made the salvars tow her out in less than ideal conditions against the advice of the salvars and that is the cause of the bigger problem and that is why I suspect that the UK's oldest ally entered the post

Courtesy is an iota but makes the world go round

 

[Guest]

Blame

Is very easy to blame when we are far away. I don't know why the tanker was no beached, but if you remember the disaster in Alaska the tanker was beached and still broke down. If this had happened in the South of England should you let to beach the tanker in the Solent?

 

[Iota]

Re: Blame

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2495487.stm>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2495487.stm</A>

Courtesy is an iota but makes the world go round

 

[Bergman]

Well of course they are.

As I understand it the ship is owned by a Russian
Managed by a Greek company
Registered in Bahamas
With Greek captain
Latvian Crew
Sailing from Latvia to Singapore.

No chance of any cash from that mess

So blame us - we are the world's soft touch no doubt give them megabucks or Gibraltar or something.

 

[ROSSCO]

no cash? under international oil pollution compensation fund there is $178 million available

 

[qsiv]

Re: Blame

But who said it needed to be beached? All that was needed was somewhere calm enough to pump the cargo off. The ship though badly damaged stayed afloat for days - it is only because she then met further vile weather that she broke up and sank. Providing that the cargo was pumped off in a way that didnt add to the stresses she could have been emptied, rather than polluting a huge swathe of coast

 

[Bergman]

Re: Thank goodness

That should just about cover the legal fees.

 

[Chris_Stannard]

I saw on the news the reason the Prestige was holed was that two wing tanks were empty which meant of course that she was about as strong as an eggshell in that area. I believe the Captain and first officer should be arrested and charged with criminal negligence for loading her in that way.

Chris Stannard

 

[webcraft]

Hi Vasco,

I think you are quite correct in questioning the Spanish authorities and wondering if they intentionally thought to dump the catastrophe in Portuguese waters.

Ironically though, according to an interview with the MD of the salvage company the last straw was an order to alter course given by a Portuguese ?warship ?coastguard (can't remember) which ordered Smit to tow the vessel W instead of SW. this apparently put her beam on to the seas which caused or accelerated the final break-up of the Prestige.

To me this entire event demonstrates the ultimate shortsightedness of NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard)

The flag/ownership/registration mess is deliberately engineered to make control and/or accountability impossible.

Who by? THE OIL COMPANIES.

These evil bastards control most of the world's governments and dictate the foreign policy of major nations. Now we are facing the biggest religious conflict since the crusades - over oil.

It was good to see the recent demo by yachties over the nuclear shipment returned from Japan to Sellafield, and it's even better to know that nutters are still sailing into French Polynesia when the French in their atom testing madness decide to nuke another atoll. It would be even nicer to see yachtsmen the world over take a stand against Big Oil. They are the b......s who have condemned us to ever increasing storm frequency and windspeed, the ones who have scuppered the Kyoto protocol and wrecked the climate for the forseeable future.

<font color=blue>Nick</font color=blue> -

 

[trev]

Re: , Empty wing tanks

So your a tanker expert are you?
Its quite common to sail with some empty tanks - in fact some tanks are kept that way and used as permanent ballast tanks for the empty voyage.

Trev

 

[Roberto]

--as strong as an eggshell--

certainly less: I bet whatever you want you (or anyone else)are unable to break an egg by holding it in the palm of your hand and push as hard as you can -but evenly- with your fingers over it!

 

[steffen]

I assume you dont drive a car (or two perhaps?) and you row your boat to your mooring because you have of course no engine in it and you dont heat your house in the winter.
And of course plastics, paint, medicin and a thousand other things do not have a place in your household.

Come off it. This is a way over the top reaction to blame oil companies (in no way attached to any of them) for all evil.

We, as consumers are responsible because we demand all our luxury at a reasonable price.

 

[Mirelle]

Oh dear.

I have spent a career in shipping; your response saddens me more than anything else I have seen, including the demise of the British merchant marine.

It takes years to train and educate a Master Mariner.

They were ballast tanks. Of course they were empty. Absolutely normal. What would be abnormal and wrong would be to fill them with water when the ship was loaded with oil, which would sink her.

Why are the ballast tanks located as they are? Because the United Nations says that they should be.

As a matter of fact the Master is currently in a Spanish gaol; what good this will do I cannot imagine. The people who should be in there are the Spanish politicians who ordered the ship to be towed out to sea, rather than allow her into shelter.

 

[Mirelle]

Nice timing by the Old Ally

Portugal will obtain compensation, under the International Oil Pollution Convention....which Portugal acceded to on November the 13th 2002!

But I agree with what you say.

 

[webcraft]

Steffen,

I didn't say I wasn't responsible.

I worked offshore for eight years, so am a lot 'guiltier' than most of us. The old 'so you don't drive a car then - we're all just as guilty' argument is so tired I'm surprised anyone bothered to trot it out. You don't work for an oil company do you? They would love to infect us all with this collective guilt.

Because I have worked as a contractor for most of the major oil companies at one time or another I also know better than most that the oil companies are driven by unmitigated greed and don't give a stuff about the planet.

Surely it is not unreasonable to expect them to spend some of their ludicrous profits ensuring that all oil is transported in adequately constructed double-hulled tankers with twin propulsion systems, staffed by ample well-trained English speaking crews.

I'm sorry, I just don't get your point - you'll have to come up with a stronger defence of Big Oil than that. There is no way that my post was 'over the top' - it is the wanton destruction of the environment for short-term gain by big business with government collaboration that is over the top. (IMHO).

<font color=blue>Nick</font color=blue> -

 

[Twister_Ken]

Nick - count me as a supporter

I'm just waiting (with dread) the time something happens to an oil or gas tanker in the Solent.