Word: venoil
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Crashing through choppy seas on a misty morning came the four-year-old 330,000-ton supertanker Venoil. It was carrying 250,000 tons of crude oil from the Iranian petroleum port at Kharg Island and was bound for Nova Scotia. At 9:39, the Venoil plowed into another ship. As coincidence would have it, the second ship was Venoil's sister Venpet, traveling in ballast in the opposite direction. Both supertankers had been built at the same yard in Japan at a cost of $28 million each; both were owned by the Bethlehem Steel Corp., and chartered...
...Venoil heaved its bulbous bow into the Venpet's side, leaving a gash 45 ft. deep and 180 ft. long just above the waterline. Both vessels burst into flames. In the Venoil, the fire was luckily confined to the ship's fuel tanks and kept away from its flammable cargo. Even so, flames shot 200 ft. into the air, and the billowing smoke was visible for 15 miles...
...took to lifeboats, but some leaped into the water; all but two were rescued. One of them was plucked out of the shark-infested sea by Harold Mockford, a fearless helicopter pilot who also flew through flame and smoke to save 13 men who had been trapped aboard the Venoil. The rest of the survivors were rescued by two passing British merchant ships...
Once the crews were safe, the biggest question was the extent of oil loss and the damage to sea life. The principal ooze, from the Venpet's fuel reserves, formed an ocean slick six miles long and two miles wide. Fortunately, the Venoil's oil compartments were not punctured; a strong southwesterly wind, moreover, prevented the oil from drifting toward South Africa's coastal holiday beaches 22 miles away...
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