Two days later, the Torrey Canyon began to break up and started leaking her cargo of crude oil. In an attempt to prevent an environmental disaster, the vessel was bombed as well as bombarded with kerosene to burn away the oil.  The attempt to burn the cargo was defeated by the high tides and so the government resorted to dropping napalm in order to reignite the fire. 

It took 1,500 tonnes of napalm and 10,000 gallons of kerosene to sink the ship and partially destroy the cargo but it did not prevent severe environmental damage with oil reaching Guernsey a week after the ship was wrecked and then the French coast. 

In total, about 120 miles of the Cornish coastline and 50 miles of the French coast were contaminated and thousands of seabirds were killed.  In retrospect, it became apparent that much damage was the result of the heavy use of detergents to disperse the oil and the pouring of these dispersants from clifftops to inaccessible coves.  Bulldozers were used to remove contaminants but succeeded merely in digging it into the sand in Cornwall and on Guernsey where it was still visible years later and, even now, some has yet to be removed.