The Betelgeuse incident, also known as the
Betelgeuse or Whiddy Island disaster, occurred on 8 January 1979, at around 1:00 a.m., when the
oil tankerAn oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil. There are two basic types of oil tankers: the crude tanker and the product tanker. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crude oil from its point of extraction to refineries...
Betelgeuse exploded in
West CorkWest Cork in south-west Ireland, lies in Ireland's largest county, County Cork. The area is actively promoted as distinct from other areas of the county, such as the more populated northern or eastern parts of the county, as well as the more urban area of Metropolitan Cork. Those from this quite...
,
IrelandIreland is a country in north-western Europe. The modern sovereign state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned on 3 May 1921. It is a parliamentary democracy and a republic...
, at the offshore jetty of the
Whiddy IslandWhiddy Island is an island off Bantry Bay, Ireland. It is approx 3.5 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. As late as 1880 it had a resident population of around 450, mainly engaged in fishing and small-scale farming...
Oil Terminal, due to the failure of the ship's structure during an operation to discharge its cargo of oil. The tanker was owned by
Total S.A.Total S.A. is a French oil company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and production to power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing, and international...
, and the oil terminal was owned and operated by
Gulf OilGulf Oil was a major global oil company from the 1900s to the 1980s. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth-largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the so-called Seven Sisters oil companies...
.
The explosion and resulting fire claimed the lives of 50 people (42 French nationals, 7 Irish nationals and 1 United Kingdom national). Only 27 bodies were recovered. A further fatality occurred during the salvage operation with the loss of a
DutchThe Dutch people are the dominant ethnic group of the Netherlands.Dutch people, or descendants of Dutch people, are also found in migrant communities world wide, notably in Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and the United States....
diver.
Background
During the 1960s, developments in the pattern of oil transportation indicated that it would soon become most economic to move oil between the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and Europe using Ultra Large Crude Carrier (ULCC) vessels. These vessels were so large that they would not be able to enter most of the older ports on the
Atlantic OceanThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
,
North SeaThe North Sea is a marginal, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf. The Dover Strait and the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north connect it to the Atlantic Ocean. It is more than long and wide, with an area of around...
and
English ChannelThe English Channel is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest, to only in the Strait of Dover...
coasts.
Accordingly, it was judged appropriate to build a new oil terminal in Europe capable of handling the largest vessels that were planned. The intention was that oil coming from the Middle East would be off-loaded at this terminal and then stored for
transshipmentTransshipment or Transhipment is the shipment of goods or container to an intermediate destination, and then from there to yet another destination....
to European refineries using smaller vessels. The closure of the
Suez CanalThe Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened on November 1869, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigating around Africa...
in 1967 as a result of the
Six-Day WarThe Six-Day War of June 5-10, 1967 was a war between the Israel army and the armies of the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The Arab states of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria also contributed troops and arms. At the war's end, Israel had gained control of the...
reinforced the economic viability of this scheme. Oil shipments had to come round the
Cape of Good HopeThe Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of South Africa. There is a very common misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa and the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, but in fact the southernmost point is Cape Agulhas, about...
, thus avoiding the vessel size constraints previously imposed by the canal.
In 1966, the
Gulf OilGulf Oil was a major global oil company from the 1900s to the 1980s. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth-largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the so-called Seven Sisters oil companies...
Corporation identified
Whiddy IslandWhiddy Island is an island off Bantry Bay, Ireland. It is approx 3.5 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. As late as 1880 it had a resident population of around 450, mainly engaged in fishing and small-scale farming...
in
Bantry BayBantry Bay is a bay located in County Cork, southwest Ireland. The bay runs approximately 35 km from northeast to southwest into the Atlantic Ocean...
, Ireland, as being the most suitable site for the new terminal. Whiddy Island offered a long, sheltered deep-water anchorage. Furthermore, it was well away from any major population centres and shipping lanes. Construction started in 1967 and the terminal was completed in 1969.
The onshore facility included a "tank farm", consisting of two tanks for
ballastBallast is used in sailboats to provide moment to resist the lateral forces on the sail. Insufficiently ballasted boats will tend to tip, or heel, excessively in high winds. Too much heel may result in the boat capsizing. When sailing vessels carried cargo, it was at times necessary to sail to a...
, two for bunker fuel oil, one for diesel oil and twelve crude oil storage tanks, each capable of holding 81,280 tonnes, bringing the total capacity to approximately 1.3 million tonnes of oil. The offshore facility comprised an island type
berthThe term berth is used to describe or a location in a port or harbour used specifically for mooring vessels while not at sea .-Locations in a Port:Berth is the term used in ports and harbors to define a specific location where a vessel may be...
(known colloquially as the "jetty") 488 metres (1,600 ft) in length, approximately 396 metres (1,300 ft) from the shore. The jetty was commonly described as "a massive concrete structure" and access to it was only possible by boat. It was claimed that the jetty was capable of accommodating vessels of up to , although no such vessels existed at that time.
The construction and operation of the terminal transformed the economy of the Bantry area. In 1968, the tanker
Universe Ireland went into service for Gulf. At this was the largest ship in the world. It was intended to use this vessel mainly to move oil between
KuwaitThe State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab emirate bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south and Iraq to the north and west. The greatest distance from north to south is 200 km and from east to west 170 km . The name is a diminutive of an Arabic word meaning "fortress built near water." It has a...
and Whiddy Island. It was the first of six such tankers planned for use by the company. The opening of the terminal was celebrated in the Clancy Brothers song
Bringin' Home the OilBringin' Home the Oil is an Irish-themed sea shanty written in 1969 by Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers as the theme for a two-minute long television commercial for Gulf Oil as part of their sponsorship of NBC News coverage of the US space program and the national political conventions in...
which was used as the theme for a 2 minute Gulf Oil TV commercial.
The terminal was very successful for the first five years of operation, but then events began to move against it. The Suez Canal reopened and the economics of ULCCs began to appear less satisfactory than had originally been anticipated. Shipping goods in the form of infrequent but very large loads involves engaging more idle capital in the form of stock than the alternatives. Also, the process of transshipment is costly. The whole economic basis of the Whiddy terminal was incompatible with the "just-in-time" approach to industrial management which was being widely adopted at the time. That apart, the late 1970s saw a levelling-off in demand for oil as the result of both economic recession and a rise in the price of oil. All these circumstances caused a fall in the utilisation of the terminal to a level below that which had been planned for. Thus, by the late 1970s, the local Gulf operating company (Gulf Oil Terminals (Ireland) Ltd) was struggling to maintain the viability of the terminal. The company was forced to undertake a number of cost saving measures.
The incident
On 24 November 1978, the
Betelgeuse left
Ras TanuraRas Tanura is a city in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia located on a peninsula extending into the Persian Gulf...
in the
Persian GulfThe Persian Gulf, in the Southwest Asian region, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. Historically and commonly known as the Persian Gulf, this body of water is sometimes controversially referred to as the Arabian Gulf by most Arab states or simply The...
bound for
LeixoesLeixões is located 4 km to the north of Douro River mouth, in the parish of Leça da Palmeira, Matosinhos municipality. It is near to the city of Porto, at 41°11'N latitude and 8°42'W longitude. Leixões seaport is one of Portugal's major seaports.-Leixões Sport Club:Leixões Sport Club, or simply...
,
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
with a full cargo of crude oil. Built in 1968 by
Chantiers de l'AtlantiqueChantiers de l'Atlantique is part of the South Korean STX Shipbuilding Group and one of the world's largest shipyards, based in Saint-Nazaire, France...
in
Saint-NazaireSaint-Nazaire , is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.The town has a major harbour, on the right bank of the Loire River estuary, near the Atlantic Ocean. The town is at the south of the second-largest swamp in France, called "la Brière"...
, France, the vessel was registered by
Total S.A.Total S.A. is a French oil company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and production to power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing, and international...
at
Le HavreLe Havre is a city in north-western France situated on the right bank of the mouth of the Seine River as it flows into the Bay of the Seine in the English Channel. It is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region. The inhabitants of the city are called Havrais or...
, France.
Originally the
Betelgeuse was to call at
SinesSines is a municipality in the district of Setúbal, Portugal, with a total area of 203.0 km² and a rapidly growing population of 13,531 inhabitants. It is located at the centre of the Alentejo coast and part of the St. Vincent and Southwest Alentejo Coast Natural Park.The present Mayor is...
,
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
, to lighten the load of the ship, but poor weather conditions prevented the vessel from entering the harbour. Plans were further frustrated at
LeixoesLeixões is located 4 km to the north of Douro River mouth, in the parish of Leça da Palmeira, Matosinhos municipality. It is near to the city of Porto, at 41°11'N latitude and 8°42'W longitude. Leixões seaport is one of Portugal's major seaports.-Leixões Sport Club:Leixões Sport Club, or simply...
, where a ship had run aground across the harbour entrance, preventing the
Betelgeuse from berthing there to discharge her cargo. The
Betelgeuse was then instructed to sail for
Whiddy IslandWhiddy Island is an island off Bantry Bay, Ireland. It is approx 3.5 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. As late as 1880 it had a resident population of around 450, mainly engaged in fishing and small-scale farming...
, Ireland.
The
Betelgeuse first put in at
VigoVigo is the largest city in Galicia, Spain, located in the province of Pontevedra.It has a population of 295,703, with an extended metropolitan population of 468,654, making it the 14th-largest metropolitan area of Spain. Vigo is the largest city in Spain which is not a provincial...
, Spain to change some of her crew, and then sailed for
Whiddy IslandWhiddy Island is an island off Bantry Bay, Ireland. It is approx 3.5 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. As late as 1880 it had a resident population of around 450, mainly engaged in fishing and small-scale farming...
on 30 December 1978. During the passage the vessel encountered heavy weather in the
Bay of BiscayThe Bay of Biscay or the Cantabrian Sea is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea...
and after reporting a leakage of oil was instructed to head towards
BrestBrest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in north-western France.Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, Brest is an important seaport and naval base. The 1999 census recorded 303,484 inhabitants of the Brest metropolitan area, while the...
, France at reduced speed. However, the origin of the leak was discovered and stopped. The vessel proceeded on its original planned course, arriving in
Bantry BayBantry Bay is a bay located in County Cork, southwest Ireland. The bay runs approximately 35 km from northeast to southwest into the Atlantic Ocean...
on 4 January 1979.
By 8 p.m. on 6 January 1979, the
Betelgeuse had completed berthing at the offshore jetty. At 11:30 p.m. the same day, the vessel commenced discharging its 114,000
tonnesThe terms "Tonnage" and "Ton" have different meanings and are often confused. Tonnage is a measure of the size or cargo capacity of a ship. The term derives from the taxation paid on tuns of wine, and was later used in reference to the weight of a ship's cargo; however, in modern maritime usage,...
of mixed Arabian crude oil, which was expected to take about 36 hours. A number of the crew went ashore while this was in progress and the wife of one of the officers joined her husband on the vessel.
At about 1:00 a.m. (evidence on the precise time conflicts) on Monday, 8 January, a rumbling or cracking noise was heard from the vessel, followed shortly by a huge explosion within its hull. The force of the explosion was seen to blow men from the jetty into the sea. Local residents reported seeing the
Betelgeuse engulfed in a ball of fire a few moments later. A series of further explosions followed, breaking the vessel in half. Much of the oil cargo still on board ignited and this generated temperatures estimated to exceed 1,000 °C. The concrete unloading jetty crumbled and firefighters, arriving on the scene from several neighbouring towns, were unable to get near the vessel. The firefighters concentrated their efforts on preventing the fire from spreading to the tanks of the storage farm and on containing the oil spillage. Local families living on the island fled for their lives.
About 12 hours after the explosion the
Betelgeuse sank at her moorings in of water (with her stern becoming completely submerged), which largely extinguished the main body of the fire. In spite of this, rescue workers were not able to approach the wreck (the bows of which was still above water) for two weeks due to clouds of toxic and inflammable gas surrounding it. After two weeks, it was possible to start recovering bodies from the wreck and pumping off the remainder of the oil cargo that was still on board.
The aftermath
The incident became known variously as "the
Betelgeuse incident", "the
Betelgeuse disaster" or "the Whiddy Island disaster". Gulf and Total executives commonly referred to "the
Betelgeuse incident". Military and civilian personnel were mobilised from all over Ireland to deal with it. The incident was the subject of agonised debate in the Dáil. One
TDA Teachta Dála is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower chamber of the Oireachtas of Ireland. The official translation of Teachta Dála is Deputy to the Dáil, a more literal translation isAssembly Delegate...
noted that there had been earlier incidents at the Whiddy Island terminal and questioned whether Gulf's status as a major employer had made the authorities reluctant to enforce a rigorous inspection regime.
The Irish government appointed a tribunal to investigate the incident, presided over by
Justice Declan CostelloDeclan Costello is an Irish jurist and former politician from the Fine Gael Party, who served as a Teachta Dála for twenty years, as Attorney General for four and a High Court judge for another twenty years before his retirement. Educated in University College Dublin, he was an auditor of the UCD...
. This tribunal took a year to hear evidence and prepare a 480 page report. The report indicated three main factors that had contributed to the incident:
- The poor condition of the Betelgeuse for which its operator, Total S.A.
Total S.A. is a French oil company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and production to power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing, and international...
, was to blame. Immediately before the incident, the vessel's hull and tanks were cracked, corroded and leaking. The 11-year-old vessel had been worked hard and was at the end of its service life.
- Incorrect unloading sequences and ballasting which resulted in the buoyancy of the hull becoming uneven and the hull therefore strained. Lack of crew training or knowing malpractice were possible explanations. Total was held largely to blame for this. However, given that all the personnel involved in the unloading had died in the explosion, it was difficult to be certain as to what had happened.
- Inadequate and poorly maintained fire fighting and rescue systems both on the vessel and on the jetty. Gulf and Total were held jointly to blame for this. A combination of human failings and financial constraints were the immediate causes.
It was determined that a faulty unloading operation had unbalanced the vessel, causing it to break its back and thereby rupturing several empty ballast tanks. Vapour from the ruptured tanks had escaped into the vessel and exploded in a fireball. However, the Costello tribunal's findings were never accepted by Total:
Total drew attention to the unexplained absence from his post of the Gulf employee whose duty it was to supervise the unloading from the on-shore control room. The individual concerned had left the control room some time before the trouble started (see below) and his absence may have contributed to a lack of urgency in responding to events. Exactly what happened that night has never been established beyond doubt.
All the crew on board the ship at the time of the incident (41 in total) are believed to have died, although not all the bodies were found. In addition, one visitor to the ship (an officer's wife) and eight terminal workers were killed. Initial efforts to contain the fire were hampered by a lack of organisation and poorly maintained fire fighting equipment at the terminal. The Bantry fire brigade spent some time waiting at the town pier for a launch to take them onto the island. The terminal's own fire engine would not start. Firefighters had to break into the terminal's main depot in order to access equipment (much of which did not work) and materials.
There was some controversy over the exact timing of events and the response of the terminal management to the disaster as it unfolded. Some local residents claimed that there was anything up to 5 minutes between the audible structural failure of the vessel and the time at which the initial explosion happened. If this were so, the opportunity to attempt an evacuation had been missed. However, the terminal management insisted that the explosion had almost immediately followed the structural failure:
No escape from the jetty or the vessel was possible in the absence of rescue boats, given that there was no fixed link from the jetty to the shore. However, all concerned praised the initiative and courage of the firefighters and rescue workers.
A Dutch salvage firm, L Smit & Co, raised the
Betelgeuse in four sections. The first section (the bow) was towed out to open water, offshore, and scuttled. This measure attracted protests from the fishing community, so two further sections were sealed up and towed to breaking yards in Spain for disposal. A fourth section was broken up locally. During the salvage operation, the life of a diver was lost. The last section was not removed until July 1980. Local fishing grounds were badly contaminated and a clean-up was not finally complete until 1983.
The costs of salvage, clean-up and compensation are believed to have totalled around US$120 million. That included compensation paid by Total to Gulf. Most of the relevant costs were paid by insurance companies and all the various claims and counter-claims were eventually settled out of court. Gulf never reopened the terminal and a feasibility study in 1985 showed that it no longer had any potential use in international oil trade. In 1986, Gulf surrendered its lease on the site to the Irish government. The government used the terminal (after carrying out a limited refurbishment) to hold its strategic oil reserve. Initially, oil movement to and from the terminal was carried out by road. In 1990, at the time of the first Gulf war, an improvised repair was carried out to the jetty to allow an oil tanker to offload at the terminal on a one-off basis. In 1996 an unloading buoy was installed and this has been used since that time.
A number of memorial services have been held to commemorate anniversaries of the incident. The most recent of these was on the 25th anniversary in January 2004. Relatives of the victims joined with local residents in a special service held at St Finbarr’s Church in
BantryBantry is a town on the coast of County Cork, Ireland, located on the N71 route at the head of Bantry Bay. The Beara peninsula is to the northwest, with Sheep's Head also nearby, on the peninsula south of Bantry Bay....
. A memorial sculpture, incorporating the ship's bell which was recovered from the wreck, has been erected in the hillside graveyard overlooking the harbour. The bodies of two unidentified casualties from the incident are interred nearby.