The power of nature.....

For almost ten years the Torrey Canyon made money for all who chartered her. She was a ‘big girl’, the first of the supertankers capable of carrying a cargo of 120,000 tons of crude oil.

On February 19th 1967 she left the Kuwait National Petroleum Company refinery at Mina al-Ahmadi, under charter to British Petroleum.

Then on March 18th 1967 Captain Pastrengo Rugiati took a short cut to save time in getting to Milford Haven and struck Pollard’s Rock in the Seven Stones reef between the Cornish mainland and the Scilly Isles.

This was the first major oil spill in British waters and of course the Government had no plans in place to deal with the disaster.

Unsuccessful attempts were made to float the ship off the reef, and one member of the Dutch salvage team was tragically killed. The ship started to break up and 50 miles of French and 120 miles of Cornish coast were ultimately contaminated.

After 10 days of Government dithering bombing raids began and eight Royal Navy Buccaneers set off from Lossiemouth in Scotland to drop 62,000lbs of bombs, 5,200 gallons of petrol, 11 rockets and large quantities of napalm onto the ship,

Despite direct hits, and a towering inferno of flames as the oil slick began to burn, the tanker refused to sink.

The Government said,’ We have been informed officially that the fire in the wreckage of the Torrey Canyon is out. We cannot say at this stage what the next step will be’.

The answer came wrapped up in hard work and the power of nature……

Gordon Brown was ‘on the Bridge of the Torrey Canyon’ for ten years and now he wants us to trust his use of 'bombs, rockets and napalm' in his attempt to reverse the ‘global recession’.

I would prefer the power of nature alongside hard work and a reduction in the size of government.


Aldershot Town travelled to Chester on Saturday in a confident frame of mind following the brilliance of their Cup replay win at Rotherham on Tuesday evening.

Undoubtedly Rhys Day’s return to fitness has instilled a confidence and strength to the back four that has been lacking all season. His presence a natural and powerful force. Added to which, Gary Waddock has at last found a formula to energise the whole team, such that performance can be sustained over 90 minutes.

Chester never threatened and despite the ‘woodwork’ working hard to keep the scores level, the Shots were always going to win.

When it finally came, the winner was no more than a just reward for the effort of Marvin Morgan, even if it was in a style befitting the scruffy and dismal surroundings…..but then who cares.