June 27, 2019 • 29 mins
Offshore rigs explore and drill for black gold, manned by dedicated men and women. Listen to Episode 16 and learn about the devastation on a state of the art oil rig that brought tragedy to shore.
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Music: "Humbled in a Battle" by Antti Luode (http://anttismusic.blogspot.com)
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Follow us on Twitter @UntimelyPodcast
Music: "Humbled in a Battle" by Antti Luode (http://anttismusic.blogspot.com)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello listeners, this is your hostLynn. I would like to thank you
for tuning in today for our newepisode. But before we begin, I
would like to let you know thatnext week there will be no new full
length episode because of the fourth ofJuly holiday, but still tune in as
there may be a mini episode readyand waiting for you on Thursday. Again,
thank you for listening. Now onwith the show. As an amateur
(00:34):
photographer, Lloyd brought his camera everywhere. From time to time he'll see a
shot worthy opportunity and he's glad tohave his equipment ready to aim and click.
By trade, Lloyd was Semitic.His head is filled of life saving
and urgent care situations, from tryingto save a severed hand to taking care
of people with a sudden bout offood poisoning. In all his years a
(00:59):
Semitic, he has met countless peopleand helped many of them as well.
In the nineteen eighties, Lloyd washired as a metic in an oil rig.
Now, this was entirely new tohim since he mostly worked on the
mainland, but working in a rigor oil platform was good and honest work.
He leaves the shore and gets transportedto the floating structure and spends twenty
(01:22):
one straight days at sea. Lloydwas on duty from six pm to six
am, ready to help anyone inneed. On top of his metic duties,
he also operated the radio control room, which allowed crew members to get
in touch with their families and lovedones on land. Both a metic and
radio operator, Lloyd has witnessed manyof life's highs and lows experienced by the
(01:46):
crew members while away on the job. During downtimes, Lloyd continued his passion
for photography. He would focus amarine life or the aver changing sky.
Since the oil rig was run privately, cameras were technically not allowed, but
in Lloyd's case, he was givena bit of leeway by the company to
(02:07):
take photos of and inside the rig. Mostly he would take random photos of
the crew at work or while atrest. Lloyd was also the welcoming committee
for the rig, giving greenhorns atour of the place or getting them some
much needed supplies. Lloyd also loanedout books from his personal collection. He
(02:27):
knew everyone on that rig and theyknew him. After one of his twenty
one day shifts on the rig,he was transported back to shore for a
quick leave. As much as heloved his work on the rig, it
was great to be home, evenfor a short while. But four days
later, Lloyd will receive some devastatingnews. He would soon find out that
(02:51):
the photos he took of the crewand the rig will one day be the
only ones left for their loved onesto cherish. You are listening to Untimely,
a podcast about events from recent orearlier history that resulted in untimely fatalities
and damages in its way. I'myour host, Lynn. The oil and
(03:15):
gas industry has had its moments ofgreatness and failure. The efficiency of its
technology and their global impact is remarkable, and the unfortunate effects in nature are
the opposite. On the other hand, these experiences have propelled the industry to
new and higher standards of technology,safety, and policies. In this episode
(03:38):
of Untimely, will visit a stateof the art oil rig that suffered severe
and catastrophic damages which shocked the industryand continue to be mourned by a small
community in Canada. Otico or TheOcean Drilling and Exploration Company was a drilling
(04:02):
company founded in nineteen fifty three byAldin Laboard and John Hayward. Hayward holds
the patent on a submersible drilling barge, which will become the main bread and
butter of Outico. After receiving alarge sum of money from various investors,
including Charles Murphy of Murphy Oil,the company builts its first oil rig in
(04:24):
the shipyard at New Orleans, Louisiana. With the demand for oil drilling and
exploration moving at its peak, Thefirst rig built was contracted to Shell,
one of the largest oil companies inthe world. Many other rigs and types
of rigs emerged after this, includingthe semi submersible oil drilling unit. Let's
(04:46):
talk about what exactly is a semisubmersible unit. Well, in a few
words, it is basically a floatingplatform, but in more than a few
words, it is a marine vesseldesigned to keep stability and have mobility on
the surface of any deep water likeseas or oceans. The platform is kept
afloat by pontoons or holes that arefully submerged in water, but even south
(05:10):
the weight distribution if or when thewater becomes a bit too rough. The
entire unit is a whole, canbe moved to different locations and when it
has chosen an area to stay in. Four anchors or more are moored to
the sea or ocean floor. Soin nineteen seventy six, Mitsubishi Heavy Industry
of Japan was contracted to build asemi submersible mobile drilling unit by Otko.
(05:34):
The specific type of unit ordered wasa MODU or a mobile offshore drilling unit,
in which in addition to the basicsemi submersible parts, the rig has
a control room, an oil drilloffices, and living quarters which included a
kitchen, common areas and individual sleepingareas. There is a helipad to transport
(05:55):
workers on and off the rig andrafts ready to deploy at any time.
This constructed unit was named the OceanRanger, and here are its specifications.
It is ninety six feet or onehundred and twenty one meters long, two
hundred sixty two feet or eighty meterswide, and three hundred thirty seven feet
or one hundred three meters high.When it was built, it had twelve
(06:18):
anchors weighing at forty five thousand poundsor twenty thousand kilograms, and its full
weight was about twenty five thousand tons. It got two decks that house a
maximum of one hundred people. TheOcean Ranger was kept on the surface with
two one hundred twenty two meters orfour hundred feet long pontoons that rested twenty
(06:40):
four meters or seventy nine feet belowthe surface. The pontoons had sixteen tanks
that stored ballast water, fuel,oil, and drill water. There were
eight watertight vertical columns attached to thepontoon that connects to the hull. The
four outer columns contained chain lockers tostore the anchor chains. Leading to the
(07:01):
chain lockers were deck openings from theupper deck for ease of access. As
you can imagine, this rig wasmassive moving The rig was two times thirty
five hundred horsepower DC electric motors providingpropulsion to two steerable nozzles backed up by
seven thousand horsepower. And if you'restill with me, all the numbers I
(07:23):
just mentioned translate to three things.It's big, strong, and fast.
The thirty five story high, fiftymillion dollars structure had a six bed hospital,
a movie theater, a restaurant,and a recreation room. One crew
member described being aboard the Ocean Rangeras like being in a big hotel in
(07:44):
the middle of the ocean. Oncelaunched, the rig was certified and approved
to operate under unrestricted ocean operations.This means that the Ocean Ranger was built
to last any type of water conditions, including one hundred knot winds or one
hundred ninety kilometers per hour and withstandone hundred ten feet or thirty four meter
(08:05):
waves, and can drill as deepas twenty five thousand feet or seventy six
hundred meters. According to OTKO,at that time, the Ocean Ranger was
the largest and state of the artsemi submersible oil rig in the world.
The rig was then leased out toMobile Oil for ninety three thousand per day
for three years. The Ocean Rangerexplored the coast of Alaska for oil in
(08:30):
nineteen twenty six and traveled twenty twofive hundred kilometers or a little under fourteen
thousand miles to Ireland and eventually reachingthe Grand Banks of Newfoundland in November nineteen
eighty. The island of Newfoundland ison the eastern side of Canada. Considered
a part of the province of Newfoundlandand Labrador. The island is the sixteenth
(08:54):
largest in the world and is richin history dating back to US early as
Paleo Eskimo inhabits called the Dorset culture. Several expeditions by European settlers followed,
including the Icelandic Viking leaf Ericson ineleven hundred and Genuese navigator Giovanni Cabao or
John Cabot in fourteen ninety seven.The island is one hundred and eight thousand,
(09:16):
eight hundred and sixty kilometers squared orforty two thousand, thirty square miles,
and is influenced by English, Irish, Scottish, French, and the
First Nation's indigenous peoples of the mcmac. Saint John's is Newfoundland's most populous metropolitan
area, with over twelve suburbs.Located in the most eastern part of the
(09:39):
island. Saint John's is also theoldest city in Canada because of its location,
Newfoundland's economy is mainly based on itsnatural resources. This includes fishing and
underwater petroleum. Further off the southeastcoast is a set of naturally occurring raised
underwater plateaus called the Grand Banks.The Grand Banks is one of the world's
(10:03):
most popular and bountiful fishing areas.The shallow water and warm Gulf stream makes
the Grand Banks an ideal place formarine plants and animals. Since the nineteen
sixties, the demand for oil hasled companies to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.
Exploration of the area near the GrandBanks resulted in the discovery of Hibernia,
(10:24):
an oil field approximately three hundred andfifteen kilometers are one hundred ninety six
miles east southeast of Saint John's.The Hibernia oil Field is the world's largest
oil platform and produces millions of barrelsof oil in any given year. Multiple
oil companies own the rights to explorein drill specific wells from the Hibernia oil
(10:45):
Field with the use of mobile offshoredrilling units or motives, and to boost
the local economy further. The Provinceof Newfoundland and Labrador insisted that rigs which
operate in the Grand Banks hire skilleddomestic workers. One of these mobile offshore
drilling units exploring and drilling oil inthe Hibernia field was the Ocean Ranger.
(11:09):
They said that the winter of nineteeneighty two was something to behold. Meteorologists
even called this the ten to twelveyear storm. That type of winter storms
coming their way, only occurring everyten to twelve years. In the early
days of February, at least twofeet of snow was dumped in the Newfoundland
area and made its way to theeast to the south. Storms from the
(11:31):
Gulf of Mexico wrecked its way towardsthe north until it reached Newfoundland and Labrador.
The inclement weather was categorized as SeaStorm eight, where waves were about
fifteen meters or fifty feet in heightwith inconsistent intervals in steep slopes. Along
with the high and short waves cameseventy not gale forest winds. Somewhere in
(11:54):
the Hibernia oil field above well jDash thirty four was the Ocean Ranger.
The rig was about one hundred andseventy five miles away from the city of
Saint John's, where it has beenstationed for at least a year and a
half. At that time, therewere eighty four crew members on board,
led by the barge master. Mostof the crew were employed by Odiko Drilling,
(12:16):
while the rest were contracted from severalagencies. On February sixth, nineteen
eighty two, the wind gusts fromthe storm caused the rig to list on
its side. The barge master orderedthe radio control operator to contact the coast
Guard. Thankfully, the rig wasable to withstand the list and continued to
(12:37):
operate through the storm. Days later, some of the crew members of the
Ocean Ranger were transported back to themainland for a shift change. There were
two other rigs located near the OceanRanger, said Coast seventy six and Zapata
Jugland. The rigs are in constantcommunication with one another, reporting any issues
(12:58):
that each are. All of themmay have or use each other screws and
equipment if any assistance were needed.By Valentine's Day, the winds picked up
to one hundred miles per hour andbattered everything in its way. The storm
made its way from the south ofNewfoundland and turns to the Grand Banks.
(13:20):
The Ocean Ranger pulled its drill bitoff the seafloor, but did not ultimately
bring it up closer to the platform. Around seven pm local time, said
Co seventy six reported a rogue wavethat hit their rig, causing some damage
on the platform and the loss ofa life raft. Not long after,
the Ocean Ranger reported the same experienceto the shore base in Saint John's.
(13:45):
A colossal wave about twenty meters orsixty five feet high crashed over the rig
and destroyed the porthole in the balustroom. The porthole was wide open to
the storm and seas, which causedwaters to rush in and circuited the panels.
Even with the rigs ability to withstandthe waves and high winds, the
(14:07):
flood caused the platform to list onits side. Ocean Ranger contacted other rigs,
including said Cost seventy six, andreported that because of the short circuit,
the valve inside the ballast control roomwas opening and closing by itself.
As a temporary solution, the crewtook rods which were a part of the
ballast control system, inserted it inthe valve to close and provide stability to
(14:31):
the rigs since seawater started to flood. Little do they know this action caused
the exact opposite. All the rigsin the area never ceased communication through radio,
The crew of the Ocean Ranger washeard over the air, seemingly calm
and unalarmed with the current weather outside. Attending the evening, the Ocean Ranger
(14:56):
reported a successful cleanup of broken glassand water most like from the porthole that
was damaged. For several hours,all rigs were unhigh alert but maintained business
as usual, with normal radio trafficin between. In the meantime, the
waves reached over fifty feet tall andthe winds were measured at one hundred knots.
(15:18):
It was about one o'clock in themorning of the following day when a
drilling foreman radioed the Mobile Shore Officeis Saint John's. We're listing badly and
we need to get the people offthe rig, and that's about it.
The Ocean Ranger was listing at eightto ten degrees on its sport side.
The foreman requested that their supply vesselMVC Fourth Highlander to head over near the
(15:43):
Ocean Ranger to assist. In amatter of nine minutes, an emergency TALICS
was sent to the Coast Guard,reading we are experiencing a severe list.
Unable to correct the problem. Weare in the middle of a severe storm
at that time twelve degrees. Requestassistance asap. The Mobile Offshore Office received
(16:07):
another radio from the same foreman sayingthat they may not be able to hold
the rig. The foreman also informedthe office that if they do not send
any rescue helicopter soon the crew willbe doomed. About one minute later,
the foreman, though his voice wasclearly agitated, calmly asked the office to
(16:29):
send out a may day for therig. The distress signal was sent immediately.
It was one fourteen in the morningwhen the foreman sent this chilling message
from the Ocean Ranger. There willbe no further radio communications from Ocean Ranger.
We are going to lifeboat stations.That message was the final time that
(16:55):
anyone would hear from anybody on therig. By the time rescuers, both
at s in the air, arrivednear the Ocean Rangers location, it was
way too late. The storm hadprevented the rescuers to deploy safely. Two
hours later, the location signal lightemitted by the largest and strongest oil rig
(17:15):
in the world, stopped blinking.The state of the art and fast Ocean
Ranger sank slowly in the cold darkdawn of February fifteen, nineteen eighty two.
All eighty four crew members perished.Fifty six were from Newfoundland, fifteen
from the United States, five fromAlberta, four from Ontario, three from
(17:40):
Nova Scotia, and one from Montreal. On land. Lloyd Majors woke up
on the morning of February fifteenth learningabout the capsizing of the Ocean Ranger.
He felt a slight chill of hisspine. He was just on the Ranger
four days ago for a shift chain. Lloyd received a call from the office
(18:03):
asking him to come down to SaintJohn's, inside a building by the waterfront,
he was given the task of identifyingthe bodies of his colleagues. Even
after spending his days a semetic thiswas more personal and at times became too
overwhelmed that he had to step backand get some rest at a nearby hotel.
But as the days rolled by,he was asked to return again to
(18:26):
the makeshift more to identify more.Later he will be asked to testify about
his experience on the rig. Lloydwill give up his time on the rig
and join the Canadian Coast Guard soon. Years later, he donated the photos
he took well on the rig tothe rooms provincial archives in Saint John's.
(18:48):
Many of these photos were the lastones taken of the crew before the tragedy.
Aboard said Co seventy six was OwenMyers, a weather forecaster. When
he was asked about what happened,he remembers, we did not have anything.
We didn't have all the survival suitslike they have now. We had
nothing, you know, I meanyou were just going to go out in
(19:11):
the Atlantic Ocean. I mean theseawater temperature was negative one point two degrees
celsius. I think there was evidencethat only a handful of the crew members
were either able to jump off theplatform or was thrown off by the listing
rig to the cold sea waters.There were conflicting reports about what time the
(19:33):
search and rescuers reached the ocean Ranger'slocation. Some say the helicopters got there
at two thirty in the morning,while others say at four. But what
was clear was that several smaller boatsin the era tried to help out.
Between February fifteenth to the twentieth,search teams were only able to recover twenty
(19:53):
two bodies, two life boats,and six life rafts from the massive rig.
Everything sank down the bottom of theAtlantic. It was determined from the
autopsies that the twenty two bodies sufferedhypothermia and drowned. The other sixty two
were never found. The families ofthe eighty four crew members were obviously devastated.
(20:18):
The close knit communities in the SaintJohn's metropolitan area were never the same,
with many bodies remaining unrecovered. Theheartache remains. Otico and its partners
paid out reparations to the families individually, which total to twenty million dollars.
The company was then bought up byanother corporation in nineteen ninety three. A
(20:44):
Royal Commission was tasked to investigate thistragedy. The US Coast Guard also initiated
a subsequent inquiry, but because theOcean Ranger was registered in the United States,
other agencies that assisted in the inquiryincluded the National Transportation and Safety Board.
The purpose of the investigation by theRoyal Commission was to answer three questions.
(21:07):
One why do the Ocean Ranger capsizeand zinc? Two why was none
of the crew saved? And threehow can other similar disasters be avoided.
The timeline of the accident that ledto the capsizing was as follows. The
fifty foot wave crashed over the rigand shattered a porthole in the ballast control
(21:29):
room. This porthole allowed water toenter the room, which was supposed to
be maintained dry at all times,the ballast control malfunctioned or appear to malfunction
and short circuit. The crew thoughtthat manually opening the valve would stabilize the
malfunctioning ballast, and this caused therig to list or tilt forward. The
listing flooded, the chain lockers inthe front corner support columns that list even
(21:53):
further, and as if the floodgot worse and worse, the ballast pumps
were not able to function incorrectly andcaused the rig to capsize eventually. In
both reports, it was concluded thatthe cause of the accident was not due
to one specific reason, but acascade of problems, all of which could
(22:15):
mostly have been prevented. Besides thesevere weather conditions, the inquiry found problems
in the rigs design flaws, mechanicalissues, and human error, which was
the result of improper training. Thedesign flaws and mechanical issues included the inability
of the ballast control room to easilyshort circuit, and the chain lockers were
(22:38):
not water tight and quickly succumbed toflooding. This also included all portholes,
which were made of thin glass andshattered way too easily. The rig also
lacked proper safety protocoling equipment. Fromthe account of Owen Myers of Saidco seventy
six, there were no survival suitsavailable for any crew members, and the
(23:00):
lifeboats were found to be ill equippedto endure severe weather. Although the supply
vessel NVCA Worth Highlander was readily available, there was no protocol on its distance
to the rig. At the timeof the Ocean Rangers request to deploy the
vessel, the Sea fourth Highlander waseight miles away and did not make it
(23:21):
in time to help with the distresscall, but what became evidently hazardous for
human errors. The two year inquiryconcluded that there was a noticeable lack of
approved and formal training for many ofthe jobs on the rig, mostly new
hires learned on the job and onthe fly. Another example is the lack
(23:45):
of standard and required training for thecrew members assigned inside the ballast control room.
If you recall, the ballast controlroom became a critical area in the
rigs capsizing. The commission reported thathad the crew left the valve loan and
shut off the power in some ofthe areas of the ballast control panel,
the rig would have never listed,the crew was not adequately trained to use
(24:10):
the life saving equipment on board.Of course, the blame does not end
there. Regulatory agencies and companies werealso criticized. At that time, there
were three government bodies supposedly managing theoffshore and drilling industry. The Canadian federal
government was represented by COGLA or CanadaOil and Gas Lands Administration, the provincial
(24:36):
government through the NLPD or Newfoundland LabradorPetroleum Directorate, and the United States Coast
Guard. One finding was that therescue helicopters were ill equipped to operate in
severe weather conditions and that each oneon hand was at least twenty years old.
These helicopters did not have long rangedistance fuel tanks that made it impossible
(25:00):
to reach certain distances for search andrescue. At that time, both COGLA
and NLPD thought that Orico, therig's owner, followed United States Coastguard regulations
which included proper safety training and structuralstability, while the US Coastguard did not
verify compliance of the rig itself.Basically, not one of these three agencies
(25:26):
check on one another. There wasalso a territorial standoff between CGLA and NLPD
for ownership of the offshore drilling industrythat made following any regulation quite confusing and
hastily enforced. The committee in theend listed one hundred and thirty six recommendations.
In July nineteen eighty five, theCanadian government acted on ninety of one
(25:51):
hundred and thirty six immediately. Oneof the major changes was to create a
single agency to oversee the offshore drillingindustry instead of three governing bodies. The
Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore PetroleumBoard or c NLPB was created to implement
and execute strict regulations for offshore drillingunits. The provisions included proper structural design
(26:18):
appropriate for North American and Atlantic watersand an elevated ballast control room. The
ballast control systems were made to beless complicated and easier to manage. Life
vests and boats were increased in numberto match the number of personnel on board.
Most importantly, safety and industry standardizedtraining for all jobs on the rigs
(26:41):
were required before even stepping on one, Each crew member will have to prove
that he or she went through theregulated training without exceptions. Further research into
eer or escape, evacuation and rescuefollowed and advanced technology to improve the industry
to avoid any more tragedies. Overa year after the loss of lives on
(27:07):
the Ocean Ranger, a decision wasmade to move the rig to deeper waters.
Since the Grand Banks was considered shallowwaters. It was deemed as safety
hazards for other rigs in the areathat may accidentally come near the sunken ring.
But while it was being moved toa new location, a sudden explosion
occurred and killed two divers on duty. While the investigation of the explosion was
(27:33):
happening, another diver was killed unexpectedlyon the grounds of Newfoundland's Confederation Building.
Sits a memorial dedicated to the crewof the Ocean Ranger. Every year,
on the anniversary of the tragedy,students, families and the community near Gonzaga
High School in Saint John's, Newfoundlandholding an hour long masts to remember the
(27:57):
victims. Five of the victims weregraduates of the school. Many of the
sons and daughters of those who diedare now well in their adult lives,
but the loss will never leave theirhearts. During the ceremony, a former
crew member of the Ocean Ranger laterwreath at the foot of the altar.
(28:18):
Two students lit up one candle foreach name during the mass. While candles
were being lit, reading the namesof all eighty four crew members was Lloyd
Major. Thank you for listening tothis episode of Untimely. Let us know
(28:47):
what you think of this episode.Also, if you want to suggest topics,
send us a note at Untimely podcastat gmail dot com. I know
that there are thousands of podcasts outthere, and I thank you sincerely for
choosing a timely. Connect with uson Twitter at Untimely Podcast. We'd love
to hear from you.
Hello listeners, this is your hostLynn. I would like to thank you
for tuning in today for our newepisode. But before we begin, I
would like to let you know thatnext week there will be no new full
length episode because of the fourth ofJuly holiday, but still tune in as
there may be a mini episode readyand waiting for you on Thursday. Again,
thank you for listening. Now onwith the show. As an amateur
(00:34):
photographer, Lloyd brought his camera everywhere. From time to time he'll see a
shot worthy opportunity and he's glad tohave his equipment ready to aim and click.
By trade, Lloyd was Semitic.His head is filled of life saving
and urgent care situations, from tryingto save a severed hand to taking care
of people with a sudden bout offood poisoning. In all his years a
(00:59):
Semitic, he has met countless peopleand helped many of them as well.
In the nineteen eighties, Lloyd washired as a metic in an oil rig.
Now, this was entirely new tohim since he mostly worked on the
mainland, but working in a rigor oil platform was good and honest work.
He leaves the shore and gets transportedto the floating structure and spends twenty
(01:22):
one straight days at sea. Lloydwas on duty from six pm to six
am, ready to help anyone inneed. On top of his metic duties,
he also operated the radio control room, which allowed crew members to get
in touch with their families and lovedones on land. Both a metic and
radio operator, Lloyd has witnessed manyof life's highs and lows experienced by the
(01:46):
crew members while away on the job. During downtimes, Lloyd continued his passion
for photography. He would focus amarine life or the aver changing sky.
Since the oil rig was run privately, cameras were technically not allowed, but
in Lloyd's case, he was givena bit of leeway by the company to
(02:07):
take photos of and inside the rig. Mostly he would take random photos of
the crew at work or while atrest. Lloyd was also the welcoming committee
for the rig, giving greenhorns atour of the place or getting them some
much needed supplies. Lloyd also loanedout books from his personal collection. He
(02:27):
knew everyone on that rig and theyknew him. After one of his twenty
one day shifts on the rig,he was transported back to shore for a
quick leave. As much as heloved his work on the rig, it
was great to be home, evenfor a short while. But four days
later, Lloyd will receive some devastatingnews. He would soon find out that
(02:51):
the photos he took of the crewand the rig will one day be the
only ones left for their loved onesto cherish. You are listening to Untimely,
a podcast about events from recent orearlier history that resulted in untimely fatalities
and damages in its way. I'myour host, Lynn. The oil and
(03:15):
gas industry has had its moments ofgreatness and failure. The efficiency of its
technology and their global impact is remarkable, and the unfortunate effects in nature are
the opposite. On the other hand, these experiences have propelled the industry to
new and higher standards of technology,safety, and policies. In this episode
(03:38):
of Untimely, will visit a stateof the art oil rig that suffered severe
and catastrophic damages which shocked the industryand continue to be mourned by a small
community in Canada. Otico or TheOcean Drilling and Exploration Company was a drilling
(04:02):
company founded in nineteen fifty three byAldin Laboard and John Hayward. Hayward holds
the patent on a submersible drilling barge, which will become the main bread and
butter of Outico. After receiving alarge sum of money from various investors,
including Charles Murphy of Murphy Oil,the company builts its first oil rig in
(04:24):
the shipyard at New Orleans, Louisiana. With the demand for oil drilling and
exploration moving at its peak, Thefirst rig built was contracted to Shell,
one of the largest oil companies inthe world. Many other rigs and types
of rigs emerged after this, includingthe semi submersible oil drilling unit. Let's
(04:46):
talk about what exactly is a semisubmersible unit. Well, in a few
words, it is basically a floatingplatform, but in more than a few
words, it is a marine vesseldesigned to keep stability and have mobility on
the surface of any deep water likeseas or oceans. The platform is kept
afloat by pontoons or holes that arefully submerged in water, but even south
(05:10):
the weight distribution if or when thewater becomes a bit too rough. The
entire unit is a whole, canbe moved to different locations and when it
has chosen an area to stay in. Four anchors or more are moored to
the sea or ocean floor. Soin nineteen seventy six, Mitsubishi Heavy Industry
of Japan was contracted to build asemi submersible mobile drilling unit by Otko.
(05:34):
The specific type of unit ordered wasa MODU or a mobile offshore drilling unit,
in which in addition to the basicsemi submersible parts, the rig has
a control room, an oil drilloffices, and living quarters which included a
kitchen, common areas and individual sleepingareas. There is a helipad to transport
(05:55):
workers on and off the rig andrafts ready to deploy at any time.
This constructed unit was named the OceanRanger, and here are its specifications.
It is ninety six feet or onehundred and twenty one meters long, two
hundred sixty two feet or eighty meterswide, and three hundred thirty seven feet
or one hundred three meters high.When it was built, it had twelve
(06:18):
anchors weighing at forty five thousand poundsor twenty thousand kilograms, and its full
weight was about twenty five thousand tons. It got two decks that house a
maximum of one hundred people. TheOcean Ranger was kept on the surface with
two one hundred twenty two meters orfour hundred feet long pontoons that rested twenty
(06:40):
four meters or seventy nine feet belowthe surface. The pontoons had sixteen tanks
that stored ballast water, fuel,oil, and drill water. There were
eight watertight vertical columns attached to thepontoon that connects to the hull. The
four outer columns contained chain lockers tostore the anchor chains. Leading to the
(07:01):
chain lockers were deck openings from theupper deck for ease of access. As
you can imagine, this rig wasmassive moving The rig was two times thirty
five hundred horsepower DC electric motors providingpropulsion to two steerable nozzles backed up by
seven thousand horsepower. And if you'restill with me, all the numbers I
(07:23):
just mentioned translate to three things.It's big, strong, and fast.
The thirty five story high, fiftymillion dollars structure had a six bed hospital,
a movie theater, a restaurant,and a recreation room. One crew
member described being aboard the Ocean Rangeras like being in a big hotel in
(07:44):
the middle of the ocean. Oncelaunched, the rig was certified and approved
to operate under unrestricted ocean operations.This means that the Ocean Ranger was built
to last any type of water conditions, including one hundred knot winds or one
hundred ninety kilometers per hour and withstandone hundred ten feet or thirty four meter
(08:05):
waves, and can drill as deepas twenty five thousand feet or seventy six
hundred meters. According to OTKO,at that time, the Ocean Ranger was
the largest and state of the artsemi submersible oil rig in the world.
The rig was then leased out toMobile Oil for ninety three thousand per day
for three years. The Ocean Rangerexplored the coast of Alaska for oil in
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nineteen twenty six and traveled twenty twofive hundred kilometers or a little under fourteen
thousand miles to Ireland and eventually reachingthe Grand Banks of Newfoundland in November nineteen
eighty. The island of Newfoundland ison the eastern side of Canada. Considered
a part of the province of Newfoundlandand Labrador. The island is the sixteenth
(08:54):
largest in the world and is richin history dating back to US early as
Paleo Eskimo inhabits called the Dorset culture. Several expeditions by European settlers followed,
including the Icelandic Viking leaf Ericson ineleven hundred and Genuese navigator Giovanni Cabao or
John Cabot in fourteen ninety seven.The island is one hundred and eight thousand,
(09:16):
eight hundred and sixty kilometers squared orforty two thousand, thirty square miles,
and is influenced by English, Irish, Scottish, French, and the
First Nation's indigenous peoples of the mcmac. Saint John's is Newfoundland's most populous metropolitan
area, with over twelve suburbs.Located in the most eastern part of the
(09:39):
island. Saint John's is also theoldest city in Canada because of its location,
Newfoundland's economy is mainly based on itsnatural resources. This includes fishing and
underwater petroleum. Further off the southeastcoast is a set of naturally occurring raised
underwater plateaus called the Grand Banks.The Grand Banks is one of the world's
(10:03):
most popular and bountiful fishing areas.The shallow water and warm Gulf stream makes
the Grand Banks an ideal place formarine plants and animals. Since the nineteen
sixties, the demand for oil hasled companies to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.
Exploration of the area near the GrandBanks resulted in the discovery of Hibernia,
(10:24):
an oil field approximately three hundred andfifteen kilometers are one hundred ninety six
miles east southeast of Saint John's.The Hibernia oil Field is the world's largest
oil platform and produces millions of barrelsof oil in any given year. Multiple
oil companies own the rights to explorein drill specific wells from the Hibernia oil
(10:45):
Field with the use of mobile offshoredrilling units or motives, and to boost
the local economy further. The Provinceof Newfoundland and Labrador insisted that rigs which
operate in the Grand Banks hire skilleddomestic workers. One of these mobile offshore
drilling units exploring and drilling oil inthe Hibernia field was the Ocean Ranger.
(11:09):
They said that the winter of nineteeneighty two was something to behold. Meteorologists
even called this the ten to twelveyear storm. That type of winter storms
coming their way, only occurring everyten to twelve years. In the early
days of February, at least twofeet of snow was dumped in the Newfoundland
area and made its way to theeast to the south. Storms from the
(11:31):
Gulf of Mexico wrecked its way towardsthe north until it reached Newfoundland and Labrador.
The inclement weather was categorized as SeaStorm eight, where waves were about
fifteen meters or fifty feet in heightwith inconsistent intervals in steep slopes. Along
with the high and short waves cameseventy not gale forest winds. Somewhere in
(11:54):
the Hibernia oil field above well jDash thirty four was the Ocean Ranger.
The rig was about one hundred andseventy five miles away from the city of
Saint John's, where it has beenstationed for at least a year and a
half. At that time, therewere eighty four crew members on board,
led by the barge master. Mostof the crew were employed by Odiko Drilling,
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while the rest were contracted from severalagencies. On February sixth, nineteen
eighty two, the wind gusts fromthe storm caused the rig to list on
its side. The barge master orderedthe radio control operator to contact the coast
Guard. Thankfully, the rig wasable to withstand the list and continued to
(12:37):
operate through the storm. Days later, some of the crew members of the
Ocean Ranger were transported back to themainland for a shift change. There were
two other rigs located near the OceanRanger, said Coast seventy six and Zapata
Jugland. The rigs are in constantcommunication with one another, reporting any issues
(12:58):
that each are. All of themmay have or use each other screws and
equipment if any assistance were needed.By Valentine's Day, the winds picked up
to one hundred miles per hour andbattered everything in its way. The storm
made its way from the south ofNewfoundland and turns to the Grand Banks.
(13:20):
The Ocean Ranger pulled its drill bitoff the seafloor, but did not ultimately
bring it up closer to the platform. Around seven pm local time, said
Co seventy six reported a rogue wavethat hit their rig, causing some damage
on the platform and the loss ofa life raft. Not long after,
the Ocean Ranger reported the same experienceto the shore base in Saint John's.
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A colossal wave about twenty meters orsixty five feet high crashed over the rig
and destroyed the porthole in the balustroom. The porthole was wide open to
the storm and seas, which causedwaters to rush in and circuited the panels.
Even with the rigs ability to withstandthe waves and high winds, the
(14:07):
flood caused the platform to list onits side. Ocean Ranger contacted other rigs,
including said Cost seventy six, andreported that because of the short circuit,
the valve inside the ballast control roomwas opening and closing by itself.
As a temporary solution, the crewtook rods which were a part of the
ballast control system, inserted it inthe valve to close and provide stability to
(14:31):
the rigs since seawater started to flood. Little do they know this action caused
the exact opposite. All the rigsin the area never ceased communication through radio,
The crew of the Ocean Ranger washeard over the air, seemingly calm
and unalarmed with the current weather outside. Attending the evening, the Ocean Ranger
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reported a successful cleanup of broken glassand water most like from the porthole that
was damaged. For several hours,all rigs were unhigh alert but maintained business
as usual, with normal radio trafficin between. In the meantime, the
waves reached over fifty feet tall andthe winds were measured at one hundred knots.
(15:18):
It was about one o'clock in themorning of the following day when a
drilling foreman radioed the Mobile Shore Officeis Saint John's. We're listing badly and
we need to get the people offthe rig, and that's about it.
The Ocean Ranger was listing at eightto ten degrees on its sport side.
The foreman requested that their supply vesselMVC Fourth Highlander to head over near the
(15:43):
Ocean Ranger to assist. In amatter of nine minutes, an emergency TALICS
was sent to the Coast Guard,reading we are experiencing a severe list.
Unable to correct the problem. Weare in the middle of a severe storm
at that time twelve degrees. Requestassistance asap. The Mobile Offshore Office received
(16:07):
another radio from the same foreman sayingthat they may not be able to hold
the rig. The foreman also informedthe office that if they do not send
any rescue helicopter soon the crew willbe doomed. About one minute later,
the foreman, though his voice wasclearly agitated, calmly asked the office to
(16:29):
send out a may day for therig. The distress signal was sent immediately.
It was one fourteen in the morningwhen the foreman sent this chilling message
from the Ocean Ranger. There willbe no further radio communications from Ocean Ranger.
We are going to lifeboat stations.That message was the final time that
(16:55):
anyone would hear from anybody on therig. By the time rescuers, both
at s in the air, arrivednear the Ocean Rangers location, it was
way too late. The storm hadprevented the rescuers to deploy safely. Two
hours later, the location signal lightemitted by the largest and strongest oil rig
(17:15):
in the world, stopped blinking.The state of the art and fast Ocean
Ranger sank slowly in the cold darkdawn of February fifteen, nineteen eighty two.
All eighty four crew members perished.Fifty six were from Newfoundland, fifteen
from the United States, five fromAlberta, four from Ontario, three from
(17:40):
Nova Scotia, and one from Montreal. On land. Lloyd Majors woke up
on the morning of February fifteenth learningabout the capsizing of the Ocean Ranger.
He felt a slight chill of hisspine. He was just on the Ranger
four days ago for a shift chain. Lloyd received a call from the office
(18:03):
asking him to come down to SaintJohn's, inside a building by the waterfront,
he was given the task of identifyingthe bodies of his colleagues. Even
after spending his days a semetic thiswas more personal and at times became too
overwhelmed that he had to step backand get some rest at a nearby hotel.
But as the days rolled by,he was asked to return again to
(18:26):
the makeshift more to identify more.Later he will be asked to testify about
his experience on the rig. Lloydwill give up his time on the rig
and join the Canadian Coast Guard soon. Years later, he donated the photos
he took well on the rig tothe rooms provincial archives in Saint John's.
(18:48):
Many of these photos were the lastones taken of the crew before the tragedy.
Aboard said Co seventy six was OwenMyers, a weather forecaster. When
he was asked about what happened,he remembers, we did not have anything.
We didn't have all the survival suitslike they have now. We had
nothing, you know, I meanyou were just going to go out in
(19:11):
the Atlantic Ocean. I mean theseawater temperature was negative one point two degrees
celsius. I think there was evidencethat only a handful of the crew members
were either able to jump off theplatform or was thrown off by the listing
rig to the cold sea waters.There were conflicting reports about what time the
(19:33):
search and rescuers reached the ocean Ranger'slocation. Some say the helicopters got there
at two thirty in the morning,while others say at four. But what
was clear was that several smaller boatsin the era tried to help out.
Between February fifteenth to the twentieth,search teams were only able to recover twenty
(19:53):
two bodies, two life boats,and six life rafts from the massive rig.
Everything sank down the bottom of theAtlantic. It was determined from the
autopsies that the twenty two bodies sufferedhypothermia and drowned. The other sixty two
were never found. The families ofthe eighty four crew members were obviously devastated.
(20:18):
The close knit communities in the SaintJohn's metropolitan area were never the same,
with many bodies remaining unrecovered. Theheartache remains. Otico and its partners
paid out reparations to the families individually, which total to twenty million dollars.
The company was then bought up byanother corporation in nineteen ninety three. A
(20:44):
Royal Commission was tasked to investigate thistragedy. The US Coast Guard also initiated
a subsequent inquiry, but because theOcean Ranger was registered in the United States,
other agencies that assisted in the inquiryincluded the National Transportation and Safety Board.
The purpose of the investigation by theRoyal Commission was to answer three questions.
(21:07):
One why do the Ocean Ranger capsizeand zinc? Two why was none
of the crew saved? And threehow can other similar disasters be avoided.
The timeline of the accident that ledto the capsizing was as follows. The
fifty foot wave crashed over the rigand shattered a porthole in the ballast control
(21:29):
room. This porthole allowed water toenter the room, which was supposed to
be maintained dry at all times,the ballast control malfunctioned or appear to malfunction
and short circuit. The crew thoughtthat manually opening the valve would stabilize the
malfunctioning ballast, and this caused therig to list or tilt forward. The
listing flooded, the chain lockers inthe front corner support columns that list even
(21:53):
further, and as if the floodgot worse and worse, the ballast pumps
were not able to function incorrectly andcaused the rig to capsize eventually. In
both reports, it was concluded thatthe cause of the accident was not due
to one specific reason, but acascade of problems, all of which could
(22:15):
mostly have been prevented. Besides thesevere weather conditions, the inquiry found problems
in the rigs design flaws, mechanicalissues, and human error, which was
the result of improper training. Thedesign flaws and mechanical issues included the inability
of the ballast control room to easilyshort circuit, and the chain lockers were
(22:38):
not water tight and quickly succumbed toflooding. This also included all portholes,
which were made of thin glass andshattered way too easily. The rig also
lacked proper safety protocoling equipment. Fromthe account of Owen Myers of Saidco seventy
six, there were no survival suitsavailable for any crew members, and the
(23:00):
lifeboats were found to be ill equippedto endure severe weather. Although the supply
vessel NVCA Worth Highlander was readily available, there was no protocol on its distance
to the rig. At the timeof the Ocean Rangers request to deploy the
vessel, the Sea fourth Highlander waseight miles away and did not make it
(23:21):
in time to help with the distresscall, but what became evidently hazardous for
human errors. The two year inquiryconcluded that there was a noticeable lack of
approved and formal training for many ofthe jobs on the rig, mostly new
hires learned on the job and onthe fly. Another example is the lack
(23:45):
of standard and required training for thecrew members assigned inside the ballast control room.
If you recall, the ballast controlroom became a critical area in the
rigs capsizing. The commission reported thathad the crew left the valve loan and
shut off the power in some ofthe areas of the ballast control panel,
the rig would have never listed,the crew was not adequately trained to use
(24:10):
the life saving equipment on board.Of course, the blame does not end
there. Regulatory agencies and companies werealso criticized. At that time, there
were three government bodies supposedly managing theoffshore and drilling industry. The Canadian federal
government was represented by COGLA or CanadaOil and Gas Lands Administration, the provincial
(24:36):
government through the NLPD or Newfoundland LabradorPetroleum Directorate, and the United States Coast
Guard. One finding was that therescue helicopters were ill equipped to operate in
severe weather conditions and that each oneon hand was at least twenty years old.
These helicopters did not have long rangedistance fuel tanks that made it impossible
(25:00):
to reach certain distances for search andrescue. At that time, both COGLA
and NLPD thought that Orico, therig's owner, followed United States Coastguard regulations
which included proper safety training and structuralstability, while the US Coastguard did not
verify compliance of the rig itself.Basically, not one of these three agencies
(25:26):
check on one another. There wasalso a territorial standoff between CGLA and NLPD
for ownership of the offshore drilling industrythat made following any regulation quite confusing and
hastily enforced. The committee in theend listed one hundred and thirty six recommendations.
In July nineteen eighty five, theCanadian government acted on ninety of one
(25:51):
hundred and thirty six immediately. Oneof the major changes was to create a
single agency to oversee the offshore drillingindustry instead of three governing bodies. The
Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore PetroleumBoard or c NLPB was created to implement
and execute strict regulations for offshore drillingunits. The provisions included proper structural design
(26:18):
appropriate for North American and Atlantic watersand an elevated ballast control room. The
ballast control systems were made to beless complicated and easier to manage. Life
vests and boats were increased in numberto match the number of personnel on board.
Most importantly, safety and industry standardizedtraining for all jobs on the rigs
(26:41):
were required before even stepping on one, Each crew member will have to prove
that he or she went through theregulated training without exceptions. Further research into
eer or escape, evacuation and rescuefollowed and advanced technology to improve the industry
to avoid any more tragedies. Overa year after the loss of lives on
(27:07):
the Ocean Ranger, a decision wasmade to move the rig to deeper waters.
Since the Grand Banks was considered shallowwaters. It was deemed as safety
hazards for other rigs in the areathat may accidentally come near the sunken ring.
But while it was being moved toa new location, a sudden explosion
occurred and killed two divers on duty. While the investigation of the explosion was
(27:33):
happening, another diver was killed unexpectedlyon the grounds of Newfoundland's Confederation Building.
Sits a memorial dedicated to the crewof the Ocean Ranger. Every year,
on the anniversary of the tragedy,students, families and the community near Gonzaga
High School in Saint John's, Newfoundlandholding an hour long masts to remember the
(27:57):
victims. Five of the victims weregraduates of the school. Many of the
sons and daughters of those who diedare now well in their adult lives,
but the loss will never leave theirhearts. During the ceremony, a former
crew member of the Ocean Ranger laterwreath at the foot of the altar.
(28:18):
Two students lit up one candle foreach name during the mass. While candles
were being lit, reading the namesof all eighty four crew members was Lloyd
Major. Thank you for listening tothis episode of Untimely. Let us know
(28:47):
what you think of this episode.Also, if you want to suggest topics,
send us a note at Untimely podcastat gmail dot com. I know
that there are thousands of podcasts outthere, and I thank you sincerely for
choosing a timely. Connect with uson Twitter at Untimely Podcast. We'd love
to hear from you.
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