March 16, 1978- a supertanker wreck happened off the coast of Portsall, France. The ship was called the Cadiz. The ship was 65 meters longer than the Titanic and was able to carry up to 25,000 tons of oil. The cause of the ship wreck, a malfunction in the ships mechanisms, mainly the steering, caused the ship to drift toward the rocky coast and finally crashing around 9:45 a.m. The ship was owned by an American company, Amoco, but was run by a mostly Italian crew. Amoco was sued for $1.5 billion dollars in coastal damage by the French. About 68 million gallons of oil was spilled when the ship began breaking in half after a failed attempt by two German tug boats tried pulling it. 230 miles of coast was polluted by the crash. As many as 20,000