AMOCO CADIZ

In the Matter of:
Oil Spill by the AMOCO CADIZ off the coast of France on
March 16, 1978

"The Maritime Trial of the Century"
Superwreck (1987) by Rudolph Chelminski
Date of Disaster:
March 16, 1978

Deposition Dates
1980 - 1981

Deposition Locations:
New York
Chicago
Los Angeles
Paris
London
Naples
Isle of Ischia
Hamburg
Madrid

It was off the coast of Brittany, France that the Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) known as the AMOCO CADIZ ran aground on Portsall Rocks as a result of severe weather. It split in two, spilling it's entire cargo -- roughly 1.6 million barrels of crude oil - at the time the largest oil spill in history. The 227,000 tons of oil damaged 180 miles of coastline, destroying both a thriving tourist and fishing industry, taking many years and billions of dollars to recover.