This was something that could have devastated the whole of the Bristol Channel a sea that has the second highest tidal race in the World, a sea that performs that incredible feat twice a day. A stretch of water that has a current of water that runs to three knots of speed. A run of water that rises to an incredible 13 meters at Swansea docks. A sea that has a prevailing wind from the West that can blow (and often does and did so many times during this tragedy) severe winds into the channels mouth. All these facts weigh heavily on how this tragedy should never have been allowed to occur. How lucky it was that it did not turn into an environmental catastrophe of unequalled proportion!

This was covered by all the national media bringing home to us every detail as it occurred. The navigation equipment that had been broken for months. No tug boat big enough to pull it free, there was one in the North Sea but when it arrived the Chinese crew could not understand English so someone was brought from the local "Take Away" to translate!! Everyone blames the next one. The buck would not stop. On this morning on Saundersfoot bay I watched as birds and seals were washed ashore. Where Volunteers carried out the task of trying to catch them in there nets. Some succeeding and boxing them to take to the sanctuaries for treatment. People openly wept with dismay at the chased and joy at the caught.

The stain had reached 30 miles south, west and east of the disaster had the weather been worse the whole of the Channel would have been polluted. Things did not happen fast enough, there was no immediate plan for such an event. It should never have been allowed to happen at all.

The verse I sent to a national newspaper hoping to draw attention to the tragedy as many days had gone by and there was too much talking and no positive action. My reply was that they admired my "work" but could not give it space. The weeks that followed carried advertising for, World Wild Life, Friends of the Earth, R.S.P.B, Greenpeace, etc, and many other charities that were breaking their banks to fund their clean up and rescue operation.At no time did I think of it as "work" only as my duty. Duty plays no part in paid advertising. We were very fortunate to have got off so lightly.

The lesson of complacency where our Worlds beauty is concerned cannot and should not be taken for granted. It gives us so much. We should be more involved than eventually being but dust upon its majestic surface. We must work for it now!!!!!!!

WILL IT HAPPEN AGAIN? YES!DEFINITELY!! The oil spill table opposite clearly indicates that.

1.Of the twenty spills listed THREE have been in U.K. waters. A 7/1 probability on a world stage!

2.Of the twenty spills NINE have occurred in European waters. A 2/1 probability on one continent
of a world of five.

THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

When I set about collecting the information for this webpage I was pleased to see that there are a number
of organisations involved with the monitoring of oil spills. Some from the oil industries themselves, some
from the world welfare charitable organisations. We
must acknowledge and support them in their work
and their determination to get double skinned hulls, smaller tankers and port authorities to have a plan at the ready at any cost! (I did not buy my fire extinguisher in the hope that I would use it. Who does?)

This page I have chosen to use as a page to show the beauty of the Welsh coast. .During my research it was evident that the local people of the Pembrokshire area want to put this unforgivable experience behind them. Although I can appreciate that it has cost them dearly in tourism and the "sooner it be forgotten the
better" factor applies to encourage the tourist back, I can only hope that it never is forgotten and that people will visit this area of outstanding beauty to see
how it has managed to keep its splendor in the face of such an appalling tragedy. I am pleased to say that during my searches for information I found a number of students hade chosen this subject for their dissertation. They are the future. They are our beneficiaries. They will take the message forward.

THIS PART OF THE WORLD NEEDS TO BE SEEN!

THIS PART OF THE WORLD IS "SPECIAL!"

TO THE VERSE SEA EMPRESS DISASTER
.