Amoco Cadiz, 1978: VLCC grounding off Brittany
The Amoco Cadiz was the VLCC whose grounding off Brittany in March 1978 prompted the move from the Hague Memorandum to the 1982 Paris MoU on port State control.
The Amoco Cadiz was a VLCC that grounded off the coast of Brittany, France, in March 1978, causing a major oil spill. The Paris MoU’s own history records that the casualty occurred just as the Hague Memorandum was about to come into effect, and it moved the European political demand toward a port State control regime covering safety and pollution prevention.
The full article will cover the casualty and its official inquiry, the litigation that followed, and its influence on the Paris MoU and on MARPOL . Every figure will be traced to the official report.