Today is Sunday, July 19th, 2020.

On this day in 1797, the very large crude carrier Atlantic Empress collided with another VLCC the A.G.

Captain.

The wreckage spewed roughly 280,000 tons of oil into the Caribbean Sea.

The ecological impacts are still unknown.

Welcome to today and true crime, a parcast original. Due to the graphic nature of today's crimes,

listener discretion is advised. Extreme caution is advised for listeners under 13.

Today we're covering the crash of the Atlantic Empress and the Aijian

Captain to protect the privacy of the crew members will tell the story using a

lightly fictionalized Aijian Captainmate, who will call Leonidas.

Let's go back to the Caribbean Sea on July 19, 1979, shortly before 7 PM.

Leonidas shivered and pulled his rain jacket tighter over his neck.

He hated storms at sea, and that night storm was a doozy, marked by claps of thunder, blinding flashes of lightning,

and the non-stop deluge of pouring rain. Worst of all, inclement weather made Leonitis's job that much harder.

He stood on the sodden deck, watching the sea rage around him.

He scoured the horizon for any sign of a rocky reef, a beaming flash from a

lighthouse, or, God forbid, another vessel. But on nights like this, with such low visibility, Leonidas doubted he'd spot any obstacles before it was too late anyway.

As if the dark thought had brought bad luck, Leonidas heard shouting.

Somewhere on deck, the second officer, Piscopiano's Christos,

yelled that there was another ship ahead.

The Aijian captain was on a collision course.

Leonidas repeated Christos message, running across the deck and waving his hands to get

...