The world’s oceans have been a witness to several maritime accidents, some of which were more catastrophic than others, taking hundreds to thousands of lives. Most of them were caused by human error, negligence or systemic failures. These accidents, however, changed the maritime domain forever as they led to the introduction of international laws that now govern seafaring. The rules and regulations introduced due to cases like the sinking of the Titanic or the famous Torrey Canyon Oil Spill have shaped maritime safety and asked for greater accountability from stakeholders while also focusing on environmental protection.
The Sinking of RMS Titanic & Birth of SOLAS
On its maiden voyage in April 1912, Titanic, which was deemed ‘unsinkable’, hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank, killing over 1500 of the estimated 2224 passengers and crew onboard the ship. The loss was significant and revealed several flaws in maritime regulations of the time. Investigations into the Titanic sinking found that it carried insufficient lifeboats, which were enough for only 1178 people, per outdated regulations based on ship tonnage and not passenger capacity. Titanic had Marconi wireless telegraphy, but its single radio operator was not on duty 24 hours of the day, which led to the ship missing important ice warnings from nearby vessels. If this information might have been conveyed to the bridge, then maybe the collision could have been avoided.
The ship’s crew were not properly trained for emergencies, and when disaster struck, they panicked, and with no clear orders, lifeboats were only half filled, and some overturned before they were lowered into the waters. The ‘women and children first’ protocol also led to underutilisation of the lifeboats. The belief among the passengers and the crew that the ship was one of its kind and unsinkable led to complacency and carelessness on the part of the crew, leading to decisions that might have been avoided if they had been more cautious.
After this accident, there was a global outcry, and in November 1913, a conference on safety at sea was held in London, leading to the adoption of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) in 1914, which remains the most important treaty for maritime safety to this day. SOLAS made it compulsory for ships to carry sufficient lifeboats to accommodate every person onboard. Ships also had to have a 24-hour radio watch so that distress signals and navigational warnings were never missed. It also introduced strict requirements for ship construction, especially regarding the number and the height of watertight bulkheads to prevent rapid flooding and enhance buoyancy in case of hull breach. SOLAS also focused on the need for organising regular emergency drills for crew members of ships to prepare them for any such emergencies.
The Torrey Canyon Oil Spill & MARPOL
Before 1967, there had been oil spill accidents; however, none could compare to the event which unfolded in March when supertanker Torrey Canyon ran aground on the Seven Stones Reef between the Isles of Scilly and Cornwall, England. The tanker was loaded with 120,000 tonnes of crude oil, and when it broke apart, it released a black tide of oil which coated coastlines in the U.K and France, devastating marine ecosystems and coastal communities. When this incident happened, there was no established international protocol for responding to a spill of this magnitude, which led to attempts such as cleanups which did more harm than good, like the decision to bomb the wreck by the Royal Air Force to burn the remaining oil. Due to a lack of proper regulations, questions regarding who was responsible for the spill or who would pay for the cleanup and compensation became complicated legal challenges. At that time, laws emphasised the safety of life and navigation, but the preservation of the marine environment was not a big concern.
Two years later, in 1969, the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage was established, making shipowners liable for oil pollution damage, to a certain limit. However, the most important development was the establishment of The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) in 1973. Modified by the 1978 protocol, it is the most important international treaty regulating pollution from ships. MARPOL brought regulations to prevent pollution by oil, other noxious substances, harmful packaged substances, sewage, and garbage. It set standards for ship design, i.e segregated ballast tanks to prevent the oil mixing with the ballast water, and also laid down the kind of operational process and equipment to minimise the damage. The Torrey Canyon oil spill led to the adoption of the belief that ships must not only be safe for