Tragically Inexperienced: The Ocean Ranger Oil Rig Disaster

Considered "Unsinkable", The Ocean Ranger Oil Platform capsized and sank on Monday February 15, 1982 killing all aboard. A major storm in the North Atlantic Grand Banks off St. John's, Newfoundland triggered a chain of failures that inexperience and design flaws fatally exacerbated.

▶MUSIC: Produced by @Mors

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▶Timestamps:
00:00 Ocean Ranger Radio Call to Mobil Oil
00:34 Background: Semi-Submersible Oil Rigs
00:54 Background: ODECO Oil Company, The Ocean Ranger
04:38 Ocean Ranger Chain of Command - ODECO/Mobil Joint Crew
06:47 Hibernia Oil Fields & The Zapata Ugland and Sedco 706 Platforms
07:20 Storm Headed To Newfoundland, Grand Banks, North Atlantic Feb 14, 1982
08:49 Ocean Ranger Disconnects from Drill at Due To Storm - 6:58pm
09:45 February 6, 1982 - Ballast Valve Opened by Mistake, Platform Nearly Capsizes
11:13 Storm Intensifies to Hurricane Strength, Battering The Hibernia Oil Field
12:31 Portlight in Ballast Control Room Broken, Imploded by Huge Wave - 7:45pm
13:26 Standby/Supply Ships Overhear Ocean Ranger Two-Way Internal Radio Chatter
15:12 Calls Begin from Ocean Ranger to Various Parties, None Sounding Urgent - 8:45pm
16:03 Crew Cuts Power & Air to Ballast Control - 9:00pm
16:47 How Did The Ocean Ranger Oil Rig Sink?
18:27 Non-Urgent ""Distress"" Calls To Colleagues From Ocean Ranger Begin - 1:00am
21:41 Rig Suddenly Abandoned Just Before Seaforth Highlander Arrives - 1:30am
23:25 Seaforth Highlander Arrives On Scene, Rig Still Afloat - 2:11am
23:52 Lifeboat Spotted by Seaforth Highlander - 2:21am
27:12 Supply Ship Boltentor Approaches The Oil Rig, Finding No Survivors - 2:45am
27:43 Ocean Ranger Oil Rig Capsizes and Ultimately Sinks - 3:00am
30:05 Exhaustive, Years Long Investigation - Newfoundland Mourns - ODECO/Mobil Stonewall
30:34 RORO Cargo Ship Mekhanik Tarasov Sinks in Same Area Due to Storm - 5:00am
30:57 The Ocean Ranger is Refloated and Dumped Deeper at Sea
32:02 In Memoriam...

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▶ A B O U T
Hey, I'm Sam! Child of the 80s turned Parent, Traveler, & Bumbling/Stumbling Nostalgic, Sentimental Creator. With a background in Logistics & Supply Chain Management, Industrial Robotics and a passion for Workplace Safety... half the time I know about 50% what I'm doing!

▶ C O N T A C T M E

#Maritime #OilDrilling #YourSafetyMatters

[BrickImmortar]

Thanks for watching and hope you're good!

[GeneralJackRipper]

_"None of the crew were experienced enough to protest this action."_
My very first day at flight school, my instructor informed me that no matter how much experience someone has, never let them kill you.

[Pretzie]

Can everyone just agree that calling something "unsinkable" is like the most perfect application of "what could possibly go wrong?"

[shadowman]

I worked in the oil fields for 15 years myself, and have been involved in 2 rig blowouts, road out 1 hurricane and been involved in countless bad weather situations. These companies refuse to stop drilling until it’s too late on most occasions. I was drilling for a company I won’t mention and we took a kick. I pulled off bottom and started circulating like you are taught to do. The company man called the rig floor wanting to know what the hell I was doing. I told him our pits was taking mud so, well control 101, I was circulating the gas out. Very long story short, because I refused to go back to drilling I was fired from this particular drilling company. They don’t care about human life, only $$$$

[sharrpshooter]

That has to be one of the most soul crushing death imaginable: You somehow got a lifeboat out from the listing rig, you've been taking heavy damage and barely kept it afloat, but you see one of the supply ships and after shooting off flares they come towards you! They pull up side by side and tie the lifeboat to the ship, your feet from being saved, only for the lifeboat to capsize and for the supply ship not to be able to do anything because of the conditions, they throw out lines and ones right in front of you, but as you reach out for it time slows down, and it gets harder and hard to reach for it before you fall unconscious.
They made it so far, only to die right at the end

[taniastreet]

This is still hard for me to watch, my dad died on this rig in 1981, I was 14, the rig went down February 14-15 we didn’t get our dad until May, it was horrible, we were lucky he wasn’t locked in a casket, we could see our dad! he didn’t look the same! I miss him so much! My heart goes out to all the family’s that lost a loved one on this rig!

[MegaMesozoic]

It's always tempting fate to declare any sea-going vessel as 'unsinkable'.

[evamiller]

I’ve noticed emergency calls being made on a private line to a company rep on shore instead of a public call to the coast guard as a reoccurring issue in these maritime disasters. It’s crazy, and I think really speaks to the culture at a number of these companies

[fonhollohan]

I had a friend of mine that work on that rig and he wasn't on that particular shift when it had capsized. He suffered massive depression and ptsd from losing all of his coworkers. He was traumatized from what happened. It tormented him for a long, long, time. Pure negligence is an understatement. I cannot believe they didn't even provide immersion suits for these men. Sickens me, what these greedy bastards did to cause the loss of all these men's lives. Horrific to say the least.

[cdnsk]

An acquaintance of mine was the ballast engineer when the Ocean Ranger was moved from India to the USA. He said the ballast controls were very crude & had to be manually controlled for days at a time. He was so disturbed he quit. However after the rig was sited off Newfoundland, he was contacted to come back to work as ballast engineer on the rig. He was living in Chile at the time and was sitting in the airport waiting for his flight to Canada, when he was advised the rig was lost. He was shaken, having just missed out on drowning in the accident.

[Lainy_Donlon]

This video literally brought me to my knees. I shared it with my siblings and 6 cousins who were also devastated because they saw their fathers last moments alive on tape. Never before have we, the children of a father and an Uncle who lost their lives that night on the Ocean Ranger seen the graphic images of what took place during that storm. We've heard sheltered stories. What our mother's thought was enough to tell us. My uncle was found with the lifeboat but my dad remains missing at sea. Never any closure. I'm fighting back the tears so I can see to type this. I'm so overwhelmed, sad, mad and confused. I was 12 years old when this happened and I'm 52 now. I thought I had learned the magnitude of the disaster when I was in my 20's but I was mistaken. A delayed Mayday? They should've been evacuated off that rig on the 6th when the rig listed for the first time. When apparently something was wrong. My father was on there then. My father went 28 days on and 28 days off. He was supposed to come home on the 18th. It sank on the 15th. The day before when it was listing they should have gotten those men off that rig especially knowing a bad storm was coming. I don't understand any of it. The root of evil is the love of money. I think that is true of the company that had disregard for the safety and well-being for the crew of the Ocean Ranger.

[antongrahn]

For me, the story of the lifeboat hits the hardest. So close to rescue, yet so so far. Major respect for the efforts of the Highlander crew.

[jackflash]

I worked on the Zapata Ugland for a few months.
Nice rig.
I also worked on another rig for Zapata. This rig was off the coast of Florida. We evacuated for a hurricane. once it had passed, I, being the Electrician, was on the first helicopter to return to the rig. When we arrived at the location, the rig was gone. Not a single sign of it as far as we could see. Due to being in a small helicopter we had to return to the airport for fuel. As we made our way back to the rig area after refueling, Coast Guard let us know that they found the rig. It was 12 miles away from the original spot. The hurricane had so much power that it broke 7 of the 8 anchor cables and drug the 8th anchor (40, 00 lb anchor) the 12 miles. We landed on the rig as it was getting dark. I had to get the emergency generator going so we could have some lights. We did an inspection of the rig and saw where the anchor cables had wrapped around the marine riser and sheared it off. Looking at the recording barometer you could see where the eye of the hurricane passed over the rig twice.

[btakesa]

I was involved in blow out and fire on an offshore rig. The platform supervisor did not stuff around, when blowout was going to happen, he ordered 103 men to evacuate immediately, which they all did and were safe. Four of us stayed on board as crucial personnel to do what we could to save the rig. She blew out and caught on fire, we were saved by choppers. The crux of the thing is to act quickly, even if it turns out to be a false alarm and costs some dollars, the men were saved. You do not wait, act early no matter what the bosses feel like on shore. You only have one life.

[sixstringedthing]

Must have been so frustrating and sad for the responding crews... braving the wind and the freezing waves only to be unable to get survivors out of the water in the very short time before they were no longer survivors. Heartbreaking.

[edwardfinn]

As a young man
I worked offshore on one of the two other drilling rigs that survived that storm.
I knew about 10 of the victims personally, including Jack Jacobson the Mobil drilling foreman, that’s his voice where he says “get the people off the rig”.
He was a fine man.
This event still haunts me and upsets me even today 40 years later.
This YouTube video gives a good description of the details of the disaster.
The event is well remembered in Newfoundland and every year there is a memorial church service on the Anniversary of this disaster,
That service is very well attended.
I pray for them,
I hope they Rest In Peace..
Edward Finn

PS Other, immediate Contributing factors to the disaster
besides the seawater in the control panel were:
1. There were 4 massive chain lockers - cylindrical tanks open at the top- at deck level
These were un monitored and filled with water from waves and spray, adding to the list.
2 . The ballast control pumps were located in the stern of the pontoon,
When the RANGER took the initial list she tipped down by the bow, elevating the pumps higher then the ballast tanks
these pumps lost suction in a condition called Net Positive Suction Head, NPSH. So the ballast control system
was ineffective because the pumps were essentially ‘air-locked’ and not able to pump water ‘uphill’
3 . Weather conditions were horrendous, 90 knot winds, 50 ft seas, and a snowstorm, making working or standing on deck difficult to impossible
Lastly, the USA Coastguard conducted and investigation into the incident, their 150 page written report is still available on line.
I need a drink.

[EZALAS]

I was blessed to have the opportunity work as a young Exploration Geologist with Sohio-BP in San Francisco. I had experience drilling oil wells in the famous Prudhoe Bay in the Arctic which was amazing. My manager assigned me to get some offshore ocean drilling experience in 1984 on the Doo Sung drilling rig, the sister-ship of the Ocean Ranger. We were drilling in the North Pacific shelf off the Alaska Peninsula. I was 32 then and this was my first offshore assignment. I flew from San Francisco to Anchorage to Dutch Harbor and spent the night. Then I boarded a massive helicopter dressed in a full-body red survival suit should we need to crash land in the freezing ocean. When the helicopter lands on the rig, you step out onto a platform that is like 120 feet above the ocean surrounded by nets in case you would stumble and fall from the wash of the rotor blades. Within a few days after boarding, a monster cyclonic storm hit us in the middle of the night. I was wakend in my private stateroom when it was rocking back and forth. The cabin walls were moving at roughly at 45 degree angles. The groaning sounds of metal twisitng and straining during the storm was truly frightening. Like sounds you only hear on monster movies. At that moment I surely thought the drilling rig was sinking. I quickly dressed in the darkness (not easy in the violent shaking) and headed to the main control room. I was a fit, athletic guy who earned 9 letter in high school sports, yet I could barely walk upright down the hallway to the stairwell. The ship was rocking that violently. Our "tool pusher" or manager in charge of the drill ship was a bright engineer from Malaysia who spoke with a perfect British Accent. The dude was totally chill when I got down into the control room. He very matter-of-factly told me everything was under control and that he had pulled up the drill pipe assusmbly off the bottom of the sea bed. We were just going to ride out the storm. The storm was massive: winds over 100 knots steady and waves routinely hitting 57 feet. At this time the tool pusher told me about the Ocean Ranger disaster while we drank strong coffee at 3:00 a.m. in the morning. He said that the Doo Sung was built in Korea and he said it was the sister-ship of the Ocean Ranger. To be honest, the last thing I wanted to hear at that moment was a story of a very similar drilling ship sinking in an ocean storm in which all hands onboard died. So, in an effort to put a positive spin on things, I quipped, "Clearly there have been some major safety systems and structural design improvements made to the Doo Sung after the Ocean Ranger disaster." The Indian engineer looks me straight in the eye and with a deadpan expression then says, "Not really." I'm not really sure why - maybe I was still in a mild state of shock - but I asked if it would be OK for me to go on deck, outside, and witness the massive storm taking place. I'm not really that brave and certainly not reckless. The engineer said - in the British tradition of understatement - "Sure Eric, " but he added, "be very careful because if you go oveboard there is no chance for a rescue." So I bundled up in every piece of clothing I had with me and made my way to one of the outer doors on the upper decks of the vessel. I strategically selected a door on the leeward side of the storm's wind direction. Picture a steel door on a battleship in John Wayne WW2 movie and you can visualize what the door looked like. So I unfasten like twelve steel latches and slowly and carefully open this outer door. My goodness! The howling, screaming sound of the wind was - in a word - frightening. It was unworldly, metallic even - like something out of a scene from the Alien movie when they landed on that planet in the middle of a storm. I now have a vague sense of what it must be like to experience a tornado. My first priority was not to accidently lock myself out on the deck. That would have been insane. Once I had that figured out, I bravely ventured out alone and stood on the leeward protected railing facing the ocean. Long horizontal icicles had formed everywhere. It was crazy. Icy sleet was blowing past the deck superstructure at amazing speed. Now the drill ship deck has high powered flood lights all over the place so you could really see the sleet whizzing past. The sky and water were like ink; I couldn't even tell that we were on the water. Of course the entire structure is moving up and down - sometimes violently - like a damn carnival ride. It took me a few minutes to calm down, let my adrenaline levels get back close to normal, and relax a bit. Trust me - I'm holding onto the railng so tight that my knuckles under my gloves were surely white. Being in the middle of this storm was just incredible. I realized that I was nothing; a meaningless nothing out in the middle of this ocean at night. If our vessel sank there was absolutely no hope, no chance of survival. After a few minutes my eyes began to adjust to the darkness. I noticed something in my peripheral vision that seemed to be moving up and down in the water. It was sea gulls! Hundreds of birds - maybe a thousand - had decided to sit out the storm on the leeward side of the ocean's surface partially protected by the Doo Sung. I could now see the storm swells moving under the ship's giant legs. Their size was unthinkably massive. If we had to evacuate the vessel during that storm trying to drop the lifeboats with swells that massive would have been nearly impossible. If you missed dropping the boat to the precise top of the swell, your lifeboat might experience a 150 foot free fall - a drop few would survive. The storm eventually passed; we made it. I did my two weeks onboard and was happy - releaved is more accurate - to return safely to my wife Jacquelyn waiting for me at our home in Walnut Creek, CA. Few can say they know what it was like for the crew of the Ocean Ranger on that fateful day in February 15, 1982. But I have a small idea of their fear and the bravery it took to face the ocean during that storm. They are all in my prayers now.

[ShipNavigator]

I worked on the Zapata Ugland when the Ocean Ranger sank. I was next on the list to be transferred to the Ocean Ranger before it sank. My good buddy Derek Holden died that early morning. One year later to the day, we experienced another massive storm. Drilling stopped, all anchors were released then we rode out the storm. I continue to work within the Marine Industry, never forgetting that tragic morning.

[davidturner]

This wasn't just incompetence, it was astronomical stupidity and complacency of the company management. I doubt there is any corporation on this planet that hasn't sacrificed it's workers in the name of profit at one time or another.

[davidblank]

I worked on the Sedco 709, the first dynamically positioning rig, built in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The attitude of the chain of command alway gave me great distress. The rig manager who lived ashore had contempt for the rig superintendent and vocalized it. It was obvious he had a god complex. The captain admitted that he was only there for his ticket and complained how he had no authority despite his years of experience. He also was treated with contempt. I had no experience or training whatsoever when I was left alone in charge of the mixing and mud room tanks on night shift. Accidentally left a seawater valve open to long which lightened the drill mud. The driller at the time realized my incompetence to accomplish the task when he said, “you have idea what questions to ask do do!” Of course I didn’t, how could I? Training was nonexistent. Was happy to be out of the business after three years. Seeing other marine disaster videos and knowing the attitudes surrounding seafaring my wife and I would never go on a cruise ship. Thousands of people who know nothing about ships and the ocean and crew members minimally trained even under the best of circumstances is a recipe for disaster. No thanks!!!