Dead Ahead: The Exxon Valdez Disaster Dead Ahead: The Exxon Valdez Disaster Dead Ahead: The Exxon Valdez Disaster is a 1992 movie depicting the "Exxon Valdez" oil spill disaster off the coast of Alaska. Directed by Paul Seed, it stars Christopher Lloyd, John Heard, Rip Torn and Michael Murphy. Most of the film was shot in Vancouver, Richmond and Steveston, British Columbia, but it also utilizes archival film clips of the actual disaster and cleanup efforts. On March 24, 1989, the "Exxon Valdez" oil tanker struck a reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska. It was the worst oil spill of its time, releasing over of crude
History of the oil tanker engines, as opposed to the older steam engines. The "Vandal", the first diesel-electric ship, was capable of carrying 750 long tons of refined oil was powered by three diesel motors. The larger "Sarmat" employed four 180 h.p. engines. The first seagoing diesel-powered tanker, 4,500 ton "Mysl", was built by Nobel's competitors in Kolomna. Nobel responded with "Emanuel Nobel" and "Karl Hagelin", 4,600 long ton kerosene tankers with engines. The 475 ft., 7-masted schooner "Thomas W. Lawson", built in 1902, was the largest purely sail tanker ever built. It carried coal, and oil in barrels from Texas to the East Coast