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The Guy And Clare Hunter lifeboat
control (which still enabled a +/-
3° of manual change), full manual
override, or enabled steering to
be done from another station
aboard. In auto or manual mode,
the system produced audible
‘clicks’ to notify to the crew that
a course change of 1° or more
had been made.
On 19 February 1967, captain
Pastrengo Rugiati ordered that the
tanker slip her lines at the Mina
al-Ahmadi refi nery in Kuwait and
set sail, bound for the Atlantic. On
board was a full cargo of crude oil.
As was often the case, at this
point the captain was unaware
of the tanker’s fi nal destination.
Torrey Canyon reached the Canary
Islands on 14 March, whereupon
Rugiati was instructed to make
for Milford Haven in Wales by
18 March, creating a stressful
situation if the supertanker was to
make land on the required day,
and demanding the near-2,000-
mile passage be
covered in just
fi ve days. And
while Rugiati had
sailed through the Isles of Scilly
and Land’s End channel 18 times
before, it is rumoured that just
one chart was relied upon for
navigating these hugely
hazardous waters.
Sea state conditions on 18
March were said to be good for
a vessel of this size, with a tide
running from west to east across
her bows. After just a few hours’
sleep, the captain was awoken to
be told that the Isles of Scilly were
now on the radar scope, but on
their port quarter rather than to
starboard, which is where they
expected them to be. At 0800,
there was a change of watch; an
inexperienced second-in-
command and an experienced
helmsman took over.
Ahead lay a group of fi shing
boats surrounded by a swathe
of nets, and the captain ordered
a change of course. Meanwhile,
the junior offi cer performed a
dead-reckoning exercise. With
this information now placed on
the chart, the captain and crew
realised to their alarm that they
were just 2.8 miles from Seven
Stones. Worse was to come.
Perhaps due to tiredness, the
captain ordered a change of
course to north, putting the huge
tanker in direct line with the reef,
which was now only around two
miles away. Signifi cantly, the crewsuddenly realised that there
were no ‘clicks’ coming from the
autopilot, and the captain checked
that both the navigation and the
rudder control systems (both
known to have malfunctioned in
the past) were operating correctly.
Finally, he saw to his horror that
the autopilot lever was set in the
‘disengage’ mode and that the
ship had not been responding
to the course changes he had
ordered. Nothing short of panic
must have ensued.
Sadly, it was too late. The
feelings of anguish and
helplessness of those on thebridge can only be imagined as
the tanker steamed her last mile,
the perilous reef and rusty red
lightship in full view ahead. At
around 0900 she hit Pollard’s
Rock on the Seven Stones reef at
her full cruising speed of 17 knots,
ripping open six of her tanks and
allowing many thousands of
gallons of viscous, sticky black oil
to escape into the seas, causing
an environmental disaster of
unimaginable proportions and
wedging the vessel amidships,
suffi cient to eventually break her
back. A message of emergency
was issued, and the lifeboat Guy
And Clare Hunter – based at St
Mary’s on the Isles of Scilly –
put to sea with coxswain Matt
Lethbridge in charge.
After attending the Torrey
Canyon for many
hours, the Guy And
Clare Hunter was
relieved by the
Penlee lifeboat, Solomon Browne.
However, just as Guy And Clare
Hunter returned to the safety of
the St Mary’s station another call
was received, requesting that she
return once more to the stricken
tanker. An explosion had caused a
crew member to sustain serious
injuries. Within 10 minutes the
lifeboat, now covered in oil and
with its weary crew aboard, was
on its way back to Seven Stones.
By then the casualty had already
been transferred to a tug, which
was heading to Newlyn harbour.
Finally, the St Mary’s lifeboat was
stood down. In total, the crew ofthe Guy And Clare Hunter had
been at sea for 54 hours, of which
33 had been in continuous watch
by the tanker’s side.Lifeboat designs
In late Victorian times, lifeboats
were either rowing (pulling) or
sail-powered and of self-righting
design. However, stations around
the UK coastline were critical of
the instability of these self-righting
craft, and the RNLI’s naval
architect George Watson was
tasked with designing a new
lifeboat. The silhouette of these
wooden boats remained largely
similar for around 100 years.
A critical characteristic of his
lifeboats was a scalloped centre
to the hull form with a rising sheer
to bow and stern, the prerequisite
being to reduce pitching and thus
give the craft stability. A canoe
stern was added to produce
greater balance.
As development of the internal
combustion engine progressed
the RNLI began research into
installing motor power, the fi rst
being an existing self-righting-type
lifeboat converted in 1904,
followed soon after by three
similar motor-powered lifeboats.
Over the years, with marine diesel
engines bringing more power with
lighter weight, improvements in
facilities for crew and those saved
by the lifeboat, and updates in
navigation and communications,
strides were made in the function
and performance of RNLI
vessels. Modifi cations toLEFT The 974ft supertanker Torrey
Canyon foundered on the Seven
Stones reef on 19 February 1967BELOW LEFT Matt Lethbridge was
coxswain of the Guy And Clare Hunter
lifeboat which attended the disasterBELOW Matt Lethbridge surveys the
wreck of the Torrey Canyon after six
of her oil tanks were ripped openTorrey Canyon hit Pollard’s Rock at
her full cruising speed of 17 knots