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Why Tanker Sank
Aired November 19, 2002 - 14:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: If that tanker, Prestige, loses its entire cargo, the spill would nearly double the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster. That's important to point out. And the Exxon Valdez was, of course, that catastrophe that occurred in Prince William Sound in 1989.
The Exxon Valdez dumped 11 million gallons of crude oil into the Sound. The Prestige was carrying more than 20 million gallons of diesel fuel and went down in the Atlantic off the coast of Spain. Salvage operations estimate that it has lost at least 1.3 million gallons already.
And as we mentioned, that tanker floundered for about six days before it finally broke in two. It was the stern that went down immediately, and the front section, which is still hanging there on the surface. And we are fearing that it will go all the way down, obviously, to the ocean floor, about two miles below.
The question is: What caused this all to happen?
Well, CNN national correspondent Gary Tuchman joins us now with sort of the blow-by-blow as to this disaster in the making -- Gary.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Marty, this is not the first time there has been such an accident, and it won't be the last time. But in the future, such accidents may be a little less serious. And that's because of regulations that have been passed by the United States and the European Union since other disasters like the Exxon Valdez.
And these regulations concern the hulls. Currently, tankers that are out at sea, some have single hulls, some have double hulls. Under the new regulations, by the year 2015, they will all need to have double hulls. The Prestige only had a single hull.
Now, what is a hull? Well, a hull is the steel skin that separates the oil from the water, and just like a double grocery bag or a double garbage bag. You like to have those, because it protects your garbage and your groceries better than a single bag. And that's what a double hull does.
Now, we want to give you a look at a ship that's under construction right now and show you where the hulls are. This is the steel skin that you're looking at on the side. This is the steel skin on the bottom. On the left side of that steel skin is one hull, on the right side of the steel skin is the other hull. If this was a single-hull ship, it wouldn't have the steel skin you're looking at. By the way, this particular ship under construction, if you stood it on the bottom, it would be taller than the Empire State Building. So, that gives you an idea of how big these ships are.
But now, we want to give you a look at the drawing of the Prestige and what the experts at the American Bureau of Shipping think happened in this particular case.
SAVIDGE: There you go.
TUCHMAN: You are looking right now -- this is the front and this is the back. Now, initially, there are 12 separate compartments where the oil was; 20 million gallons of fuel, 1, 2, 3 -- you can see 12 gray compartments. The blue areas here are the ballast spaces. They are left empty to provide balance for the ship.
Now, what happened is they don't know why there was an accident. They don't know what caused the rupture. But there was a rupture, and when that happened, the port side or the right side of the ship flooded right here, where you see the red. The blue side remained empty.
So, it's thought, at this point, the decision was made to flood the other side to provide a balance. So, at that point, it appears the crew flooded the starboard side of the ship. They then had it flooded on the right, flooded on the left, but it did not work. The ship then sank, and that's what happened today. The entire Prestige, 20 million gallons of fuel went under water.
Now, the Prestige was supposed to be decommissioned by the year 2005. Under these new regulations, all ships will have to be decommissioned if they only have one hull by 2015. But the Prestige was supposed to be out of service within three years. Obviously, it's been put out of service prematurely.
Marty -- back to you.
SAVIDGE: All right, Gary Tuchman, very interesting stuff. Thanks very much -- our national correspondent.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired November 19, 2002 - 14:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: If that tanker, Prestige, loses its entire cargo, the spill would nearly double the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster. That's important to point out. And the Exxon Valdez was, of course, that catastrophe that occurred in Prince William Sound in 1989.
The Exxon Valdez dumped 11 million gallons of crude oil into the Sound. The Prestige was carrying more than 20 million gallons of diesel fuel and went down in the Atlantic off the coast of Spain. Salvage operations estimate that it has lost at least 1.3 million gallons already.
And as we mentioned, that tanker floundered for about six days before it finally broke in two. It was the stern that went down immediately, and the front section, which is still hanging there on the surface. And we are fearing that it will go all the way down, obviously, to the ocean floor, about two miles below.
The question is: What caused this all to happen?
Well, CNN national correspondent Gary Tuchman joins us now with sort of the blow-by-blow as to this disaster in the making -- Gary.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Marty, this is not the first time there has been such an accident, and it won't be the last time. But in the future, such accidents may be a little less serious. And that's because of regulations that have been passed by the United States and the European Union since other disasters like the Exxon Valdez.
And these regulations concern the hulls. Currently, tankers that are out at sea, some have single hulls, some have double hulls. Under the new regulations, by the year 2015, they will all need to have double hulls. The Prestige only had a single hull.
Now, what is a hull? Well, a hull is the steel skin that separates the oil from the water, and just like a double grocery bag or a double garbage bag. You like to have those, because it protects your garbage and your groceries better than a single bag. And that's what a double hull does.
Now, we want to give you a look at a ship that's under construction right now and show you where the hulls are. This is the steel skin that you're looking at on the side. This is the steel skin on the bottom. On the left side of that steel skin is one hull, on the right side of the steel skin is the other hull. If this was a single-hull ship, it wouldn't have the steel skin you're looking at. By the way, this particular ship under construction, if you stood it on the bottom, it would be taller than the Empire State Building. So, that gives you an idea of how big these ships are.
But now, we want to give you a look at the drawing of the Prestige and what the experts at the American Bureau of Shipping think happened in this particular case.
SAVIDGE: There you go.
TUCHMAN: You are looking right now -- this is the front and this is the back. Now, initially, there are 12 separate compartments where the oil was; 20 million gallons of fuel, 1, 2, 3 -- you can see 12 gray compartments. The blue areas here are the ballast spaces. They are left empty to provide balance for the ship.
Now, what happened is they don't know why there was an accident. They don't know what caused the rupture. But there was a rupture, and when that happened, the port side or the right side of the ship flooded right here, where you see the red. The blue side remained empty.
So, it's thought, at this point, the decision was made to flood the other side to provide a balance. So, at that point, it appears the crew flooded the starboard side of the ship. They then had it flooded on the right, flooded on the left, but it did not work. The ship then sank, and that's what happened today. The entire Prestige, 20 million gallons of fuel went under water.
Now, the Prestige was supposed to be decommissioned by the year 2005. Under these new regulations, all ships will have to be decommissioned if they only have one hull by 2015. But the Prestige was supposed to be out of service within three years. Obviously, it's been put out of service prematurely.
Marty -- back to you.
SAVIDGE: All right, Gary Tuchman, very interesting stuff. Thanks very much -- our national correspondent.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
