it was not very pretty

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prestige_oil_spill

On November 13, 2002, one of the ship's twelve tanks burst during a storm off Galicia, in northwestern Spain. Fearing that the ship would sink, the captain called for help from Spanish rescue workers, with the expectation that the vessel would be brought into harbour. However, pressure from local authorities forced the captain to steer the embattled ship away from the coast and head northwest. Reportedly after pressure from the French government, the vessel was once again forced to change its course and head southwards into Portuguese waters in order to avoid endangering France's southern coast. Fearing for its own shore, the Portuguese authorities promptly ordered its navy to intercept the ailing vessel and prevent it from approaching further.
With the French, Spanish and Portuguese governments refusing to allow the ship to dock in their ports, the integrity of the single hulled oil tanker was deteriorating fast and soon the storm took its toll when it was reported that a huge 40-foot section of the starboard hull had broken off, releasing huge amounts of oil.
At around 8:00 AM on November 19, the ship split in half, and sank completely that same afternoon releasing over 20 million gallons of oil into the sea. The oil tanker was reported to be about 250 kilometers from the Spanish coast at that time. An earlier oil slick had already reached the coast. The Greek captain of the Prestige, Apostolos Mangouras, was taken into custody, accused of not co-operating with salvage crews and of harming the environment.
64,000 tons of fuel oil were spilled in the incident.
After the sinking, the wreck continued leaking oil. It leaked approximately 125 tons of oil a day, which polluted the sea bed and contaminated the coastline, especially along the territory of Galicia. The affected area is not only a very important ecological region, supporting coral reefs and many species of sharks and birds, but it also supports the crucial fishing industry. The heavy coastal pollution forced the region's government to suspend offshore fishing for six months.

:rotfl::rotfl:

Look who's on the floor polish again........

And NO, the money was only resting in my account!!!

I remember that one. There was quite an uproar here in Greece at that time, what with all the accusations flying around. Was it the captain's fault or was it the fault of the neighboring countries' authorities for not helping secure the situation early enough and so on, a couple of reporter's with pretty good shows that usually cover warzones like siera leone and iraq actually did a show about it as well.

Although to be honest, some accounts of old sailors of the Greek merchant marine would be more interesting to our crowd here, since they contain information about wartime convoys and the U-boat danger. There was one guy who said that they didn't worry that much about subs, since it was more or less a matter of luck who they'd target first among similat tonnage vessels and then the escorts would force them under. He said they were mostly worried about timing the riding of the waves, since a fully loaded tanker could possibily break in half if it received a wave hit mid-deck :o