While the 207,000-ton supertanker Marpessa was steaming southward past the coast of Senegal to pick up a load of crude oil from the Persian Gulf, her crewmen were routinely spray cleaning her empty oil tanks with jets of sea water. For no apparent reason, an explosion ripped through the hull, sending the brand-new ship to the bottom. Two weeks later, an oil hold of the supertanker Mactra blew up in the Mozambique Channel; next day a blast blew apart the Kong Haakon VII off Liberia. Last summer there were two more tanker explosions. Scientists and oilmen were at a loss for...
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