Divers Prepare To Inspect Tanker

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31333, 1 April 1967, Page 13

Divers Prepare To Inspect Tanker

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

PENZANCE, March 31.

Royal Navy divers stood by today to check whether the three-day air bombardment had burnt all the oil out of the wrecked tanker Torrey Canyon. But they will only go down into the waters on the jagged Seven Stones Rocks if the experts decide it is safe.

The main fear is that some of the 51 tons of high explosive and napalm bombs dropped by jet planes might lie unexplo'ded in or around the wreckage of the tanker. The Home Secretary, Mr Roy Jenkins, heading the battle against the drifting oil threatening miles of British beaches, said last night that the bombing had probably destroyed all oil in the vessel and cleared the surrounding sea.

No more bombing was expected, he added. As Navy and Army men reported successes in the battle to keep further oil off the beaches of South-west England, a new warning was flashed today to beaches in south-east England, some 300 miles away. An R.A.F. plane radioed that it had spotted long oil slicks near two tankers travelling along the English Channel. The aircraft’s crew said

they had photographs of the ships and the oil slicks, one eight miles long and the other five miles long. Coast Guards said they

s would go into action with de- ; tergents if the oil approached ! the popular beaches only a few hours by road from Lont don.