The loss of the Prestige remains one of the most contentious maritime disasters in history due to the fundamental conflict between the Bahamas Maritime Authority’s technical focus on structural failure and the Spanish authorities' emphasis on criminal negligence. While the BMA and international salvors argue that the ship was a victim of a "death march"—where the refusal of a Place of Refuge and the decision to tow the vessel into a North Atlantic storm caused its final breakup—the Spanish Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the Master and owners acted with "environmental recklessness." This judicial pivot, finalized in 2016, sought to bypass international liability caps to access a $1 billion insurance policy, a move that has resulted in a twenty-year legal stalemate between Spanish mandates and English contract law.

In this follow up to the last Podcast 'The Oil Compensation Minefield' Barry describes what happened that fateful night 24 years ago and describes the fallout from one of Europes worst maritime pollution disasters to date.

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