The Amoco Cadiz oil spill took place on 16 March 1978, when the oil tanker Amoco Cadiz, owned by the American petroleum company Amoco, ran aground on Portsall Rocks, from the coast of Brittany, France. The vessel ultimately split in three and sank. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimates that the total oil spill amounted to 220,880 metric tonnes of oil which amounts to over 58 million gallons or 256.2 million litres, making it the largest oil spill of its kind at the time. Sequence of events En route from the Persian Gulf to Rotterdam, The Netherlands, via a scheduled stop at Lyme Bay, United Kingdom, the oil tanker Amoco Cadiz, owned by the US-based petroleum company Amoco, encountered stormy weather with gale conditions and high seas while in the English Channel. At around 09:45, a heavy wave slammed into the ship's rudder, resulting in loss of control from the helm. This was later found to be due to the shearing of threaded studs in the ram steering gear, causing a loss of hydraulic fluid. Attempts to repair the damage and regain control of the ship were made but proved unsuccessful. At 10:20, Amoco Cadiz messaged that she was "no longer manoeuvrable" and asked other vessels to stand by, and a call for tugboat assistance was issued later at 11:20. The German tug Pacific responded to Amoco Cadiz at 11:28, offering assistance under a Lloyd's Open Form. It arrived on the scene at 12:20, but because of the stormy sea, a tow line was not in place until 14:00, and broke off at 16:15. Several attempts were made to establish another tow line and Amoco Cadiz dropped anchor in an attempt to halt its drift. A successful tow line was in place at 20:55, but this measure proved incapable of preventing the tanker from drifting towards the coast because of its huge mass and storm Force 10 winds. At 21:04 Amoco Cadiz ran aground the first time, flooding its engines, and again at 21:39, this time ripping open the hull and starting the oil spill. Her crew was rescued by French Naval Aviation helicopters at midnight, and her captain and one officer remained aboard until 05:00 the next morning. At 10:00 on 17 March the vessel broke in two, releasing its entire cargo of of oil, and broke again eleven days later from the buffeting of high