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.
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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!
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How did you post this comment before the video came out? Is that something KZheadrs can do on their own videos?
@John Thomas What? The dude is into architecture and his name's a recognizable play on "Brick and mortar". Your critique makes no sense. 🤷🏻♂️
Your content really shows how much effort care and passion you put into the subject matter. You're one of the best in this genre. A model to the kind of man I want to be when I graduate through university. As an environmental science student these kind of disasters fascinate me. I would love to hear an insight into how you read further into these topics, how you build a timeline of events (do you make a flowchart to help visualise it?) Especially taken written work and turning it into a vid. Many thanks Toby :)
Also how do you make these diagrams/animations you show in videos. Also where did you learn to edit and make vids like this? Apologies for the many questions, very interested in what you do.
When can we expect part 2 on the Sewol ferry to be released?
_"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.
Exactly that’s why there signs all over the place over the mirrors that say this person is responsible for your safety
yep, that's the first thing you learn in healthcare. as uncomfortable as it is to speak up to someone in a supervisory position, it can save lives.
I think what the narrator meant was that no one present knew what they were doing, as in they literally didn't know that the course of action they took was a wrong one and possibly the one that cemented their death, not that no one was allowed to speak up due to lack of seniority
I got the same speech. Don't sit there in silence while we die haha
@@ctdieselnut Also partly responsible for the Tenerife airplane runway collision. No one was willing to object to the Captain, since he had a trillion flying hours and was essentially the face of the entire airline (his photo was even used in their magazine ads). Said Captain proceeded to make a series of poor decisions (due mostly to being under tight time constraints and facing the possibility of heavy punishments due to new labor laws) that ended up killing about 800 people, with the other two co-pilots making only the most minor of objections in the lead-up to the tragedy and saying NOTHING in their final moments.
Can everyone just agree that calling something "unsinkable" is like the most perfect application of "what could possibly go wrong?"
I assure you sir she will sink it's a mathematical certainty!
Tempting fate
Notice how everything that is called unsinkable ends up sinking? Any vessel given that label is a death trap in my mind...
I feel like the SpongeBob meme where the fellow yells "How many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man?!" everytime something is described as unsinkable. Don't do it.
If you state that it’s impossible for something to happen, someone or something is going to go out of its way to prove that it can indeed happen. It’s like some eldritch force of punishing hubris is being invoked.
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 $$$$
Yeah because their dammed asses are not on the bloody rig. Thats why they have big mouths to silence any safety action taken by the crew. There has to be better regulations in place to safeguard the lives of these people on the rigs. No question asked.
You did the right thing my man 🍻
@@joeruiz4010 compensating workers families is a small price to pay compared to oil profits
Why they need killed
GLAD YOU GOT OFF!!!!!!!! IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY!!!!!1 DAMN SHAME!!!!!!
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
Like when the ferry in South Korea sunk, they were on the phone with the government and with their corporate office and didn't bother rescuing the hundreds of kids that could have been saved
is it that they'd rather kill people than damage their reputation, then damaging their reputation more in the process
Same with the El Faro... the ship is listing at 20+ degrees taking on water in a freakin hurricane and the captain is trying to talk to a QI (qualified individual) on shore rather than getting the coast guard and every other available vessel to haul ass to them or at least get the word out.
@@toasterhavingabath6980 Damaged reputations only happen when they get put on blast for it, which I wish happened more often out of necessity. Just look at Shell and what they did to Nigeria and what total lack of any consequences there where for it. Every oil spill on US soil makes national headlines, but monthly spills in a third world country gets shoveled under the rug.
It's always tempting fate to declare any sea-going vessel as 'unsinkable'.
It's a idiotic fantasy.
Next gen anti ship warfare
How about the Titanic. "Not even God can sink this ship"...We all know the tragic end of that story...
Yeah I definitely would not get on an "unsinkable" ship....no thanks!
Yup, Mother nature just sees that as a direct challenge to her superiority.......
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!
Sorry for your loss
I’m sorry for your loss. It’s sad that it’s now 2022 and these oil companies still feel human life is expendable versus them making money.
This must be very emotional for you. Greatest sympathies. May your Dad rest in peace
Sorry for your loss
May he rest easy now, I'm sure wherever he is will be eternally sunny and peaceful. ❤️
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.
Capitalism is a bitch, yet here we all are, dancing to her tune.
So sorry, to hear this!! x
My heart breaks for him, sorry that he had to experience such a loss. 😢
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
@Hernando Malinche Did you not watch the video? The Ocean Ranger had no survival suits.
That part of the video brought me to tears…
@Hernando Malinche Listen to the video next time lmao.
@Hernando Malinche Watch the video. Had no survival suits on board
Idiot or Troll?
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.
How did you get the logo by your name? I’d join the KZhead membership but there’s no JOIN button in the app?
@@Syclone0044 It should be near the channel's name and the subscribe button.
Its truly sad
Not knowing anything about this tragedy, I assumed once that lifeboat got to the support ship those men would be saved but they were not. That must have been heartbreaking for the crew of the support ship to actually see the faces of the men you’re trying to save, thinking they are so close to safety, then capsizing and drowning.
In the U.K. North Sea Sector every oil installation is required to have an ERRV (Emergency Response and Rescue Vessel) within 5 nautical miles. I’m astounded that other countries do not have the same arrangement.
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.
That’s so terrifying, good thing he wasn’t on. So sad for the workers and the families of those killed
what a small world
The irony is that as Ballast Engineer, he may have been able to stabilise the rig in the storm and prevent the controls from being turned back on, and would certainly have killed the idea of forcing the valves open.
Why was it in India? It was constructed in Japan
Sighted out there and narrowly missing demise!
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.
That part absolutely broke me. They were so close to being rescued. I can't put into words the anger I feel that these poor people didn't have the suits onboard to protect them from the weather in an emergency.
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.
Wow your comment is remarkable to say the least. I am glad this video was able to finally give you more information, tragic that it came so much later, you have my deepest sympathy.
@@Syclone0044 I need to watch it again because I'm sure I missed some other important things due to crying uncontrollably. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing. I'm afraid to watch it again and afraid that if I don't I'll never know. This is so hard for us. I want to thank whoever was able to take those tapes from the first vessel to arrive, the Seaforth Highlander and fix them so that the world could see what happened to them. Whomever you are, you have my upmost respect and I would love to shake their hand or hands. Thank you for your kind words.
Very sorry for your loss, but what footage from the disaster are you talking about? There was no pictures or footage from the actual event in the video, it’s mostly b role and examples of what he’s talking about. Serious question, not trying to be a dic*
@@st.peterunner8758 they said graphic images not footage.
@@Mike_Dubayou there’s no graphic images shown either
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.
Well said
Was it too much to close the rams and choke it back and flare it?
@@justin-os4xp If only we could have, how we tried and tried, but in an extreme emergency things happen that prevented us from achieving that procedure, and a decision was made to save these men. We did not stop trying, all were saved. Rest assured once back on shore appropriate action was taken against personnel that got us into such a drastic situation. Mistakes and faults happened, bosses and bankers do not like to lose money, lessons learned and I pray that it can never happen again. I was never so scared in my life, we had a job to do and we gave it our best shot. It's not like saying shit happens and get on with it, people were at fault, and they paid a heavy price. Thanks for your good question.
@@btakesa what exactly happened to cause a blow out like that? Ive never had a blowout get away from me.
@@justin-os4xp Justin limited to what I can say due to litigation still going on. Happened in Middle East. Regulations not followed. BOP controller box was not wired correctly. On BOP stack the shear ram could not cut the drill pipe correctly, could not seal because ram was off centre. Tool Pusher was out of his depth for this type of drilling, High pressure (surface in excess of 8000psi) high volume. A lot of corruption, political involvement led to this chain of events. In an ideal world your remedy is correct, but in this case to much self interest, corrupt and misguided armed personnel. Taking short cuts and not following safety protocols, inferior products, API rules ignored. You have been in the game and you know you do not get between the bosses and there bankers and there bottom line To these men, men are nothing, if you lose some suck it up, just do not hurt the bottom line.
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.
You are a brave soul. God Speed.
Wow! RIP to your mate, Derek.
Dang, you're still working out there? So you're definitely getting close to retirement possibly? Just curious bc that was 39 years ago or so.
Glad you're safe and RIP Mr Holden. Could you tell us what its like being onboard during a storm of this magnitude?
I flew all over the world working contracts for PHI, Air Logistics, and Bristow from 1973 to 2012. Loved working with you guys, read my comment up above!
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.
Wow 😮. Got to respect Mother Nature. The fact the rig went through that and stayed afloat is mind boggling. You’d have to be concerned about metal fatigue throughout the rig though.
Fascinating!
Wow! 12 miles. That's crazy. And dragging a 40,000 pound anchor. I'm surprised it stayed afloat
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 KZhead 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.
Mr. Finn first I want to apologize for just getting to read your comment. So many were coming in and KZhead not notifying me. It would do me a great deed if you could tell me where to go exactly to find the USA coastguard report so I can read it as well. You see, my father worked in the ballast control room. They tried to blame those men but my father was an excellent electrician and he would have stayed with that rig until all hope was gone. That’s the kind of man he was. He left behind a wife and 6 children. We were looking so forward to him coming home. His birthday was on the 21st. I had made a homemade streamer that said Happy Birthday and had it hanging across our doorway. Anyway, I would really appreciate anything you could do to help me. Your friend, Michele
Absolutely terrifying for the crew to be caught up in those circumstances and be so helpless, too. You scripted this thoroughly and expertly. Tragic story told well.
Great thanks for spoiling the ending video! Did you also scream out "Vaders lukes father' to the crowds waiting for the second showing of Empire strikes back? LOL
The crew is not completely innocent though, they also the reason this happened due to their lack of training and proper reactions
@@faizalf119 So if I don't train you properly that means any mistake is your fault and not mine? Man, there's a lot of companies who would love you as an employee.
@@krashd They treat the rig listing so casually. Like they don't even realize they're in the point of no return. Even normal people will realize to send more maydays.
@@Phoenixesper1 ~ 😄🤣😂 Well, that's your own dang fault for reading the comments first! Haha!🤦🏼♀️
"The Odeco company also considering it 'unsinkable'." OH GODDAMNIT.
With as many seafaring people having superstitions, I have no clue who would have step foot on that thing after reading that. They probably only got staff because it was pre-internet so no one likely read that anyway.
You would think after all this time, people would realize you don't do that. Mother Nature sees such statements as a challenge....
Honestly, I mean are people still doing that?
@@jonotto1997 The hubris of mankind
Where have we heard *that* before? Harland and Wolff, eh?
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.
Thanks for your post. Really tells it.
Can you please rewrite the story, but this time be a little more descriptive?
Thanks so much for telling your story. It really will add to the imagery for all who read it. I am so glad you had the courage to go outside on the deck in the midst of the storm. That act probably changed you in some ways and likely caused you to appreciate your life and your family even more.
@@heli-crewhgs5285 😂
Wow, that's some fantastic writing! For some reason I can't get enough of tales of storms at sea and there's something about the Atlantic oil rigs that just calls to me.
Can't imagine the sound, the dark, the cold, the waves and the last thoughts of those brave crew members. May they all rest easy.
How terrible for the crew of the supply ship. They risked their lives to save the survivors they managed to find only to lose them all at the last second.
.. to go from thinking you saved the lives of 10 men to see them taken away in a blink at the last second. Would definitely sit heavy on the strongest of us.
Cruel but far preferable to the fate of those about to be rescued when the raft capsized.
@@ernestogasulla7763 No sh!t Sherlock..
I was an engineering geologist for Exploration Logging, a Baker Hughes subsidiary assigned to work on the Ocean Ranger in 1979 and 1980 offshore New Jersey. ExLog, as we were known, had been contracted to log wells as they were drilled, sampling drilling mud, monitoring gases, fluids and cuttings. It was our job to monitor for and document all aspects of the drilling including any shows of oil or natural gas. I had sought out getting assigned to that job because it was the largest, safest and most modern rig in the world at that time. I happened to be at sea on a research expedition in Feb 1982, having gone back to work for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution after my 3 year stint in the oil and gas industry. One of the deck hands on the research ship came up to me one day in mid-February and said: "Didn't you work on the Ocean Ranger?" - He remembered having seen my tee-shirt with the Ocean Ranger logo on it. He let me know it had been lost with all hands the previous day. Shockingly tragic.
Wow… that had to be one painful way to learn… I hope you didn’t have any friends aboard at the time…
Was picturing tree logging out in the north atlantic.
Thanks for sharing
You mentioned Woods Hole... I was working as a Union Blacksmith in 2009 at Ladish Company in Cudahy, Wisconsin, when we forged 2 gigantic titanium ingots into pancake form, then drove a giant curved die into the preform to obtain a ½ spherical shape, we did this twice, to rebuild the crew sphere on "Alvin" the submersible, which Bob Ballard used to find the sunken Titanic. It was very cool being on the Blacksmith crew who operated the massive press to Forge the titanium for Alvin. Never been to sea, just out on Lake Michigan, you must have had some interesting times with Woods Hole! Cheers!
The sentence ‘above the law’ chilled me to my soul. Profit above all. Even to the end, the secrecy to keep the company (lawyers fought even the investigation) from liability, doomed them all. Federal governments are too complacent with oil companies. Each rig needs federal regulatory personnel on board. My heart goes out to all those who lost loved ones in this tragedy that did not have to occur.
I've lived in both Texas and Louisiana and the government and community pretty much do whatever to protect the oil companies, regardless. I grew up in and still live on the Gulf coast, but in other states, and the environmental damage is one thing no one ever talks about. The safety of the crew- eh, they'll be fine. Can't stop drilling. Every second they're not drilling is money not going into their pockets. They really don't care how many people or species of animals/plants/marine life die off.
Yes. The impression I get is that of those countries considered "Western" or "developed", this phenomenon is especially bad in those like the USA where corporate contributions to political campaigning have limited constraints/oversight, and lobby groups are allowed what we might consider undue influences on legislative decision making? It's essentially a form of corruption.
Really what doomed them all was the control room crew going “I wonder what these brass things lying here do? Let’s try sticking them in all the holes”
@@mommy2libras and yet Texas is about to surpass California in renewable energy.
It's way darker, the oil companies represent interests from groups of people who operate above the law and dictate what countries do or don't do. For example, Zapata oil had deep connections to the bush family and CIA
I'm a captain of a deep sea tug. This video was excellent. Great detail and explanation. Unfortunately, a lot of this same shit still happens today
Wow so fascinating this is sooooo interesting to me.
I grew up in St. John's. One of my best friends was often quiet about why his dad wasn't around. We hung around the Avalon Mall, and suddenly around his 18th birthday, he was in the mall with his mom on this big kinda shopping spree. He was in a good mood, but still kinda reserved about it. Turns out his settlement had been released to him on his 18th, his dad having died on the Ocean Ranger. Was pretty brutal to find out, but made sense why he didn't really talk about it. He never had a chance to know his dad, nor did his dad ever get a chance to meet him, as his mom was still pregnant with him when it happened. Anyway, good video.
80 feet waves sounds like pure nightmare fuel.
💯
With the mist off of them freezing instantly. Just....really no. Horrifying.
Be aware, that is not the height of the biggest waves in a storm like that. Been there, fantastic people out on the Grand Banks, hard as nails too.
Its generally thought that every 3rd or 4th wave in a set is the largest. 80ft is the AVERAGE wave height, not the highest wave height. To think there's waves that can easily be 100+ feet (and that's not a myth) is scary in and of itself. People don't realize the power of wind driven water, especially when it's an unobstructed fetch with 90+ knot winds for several days.
@@robdog1245 around the south pole there's no land to obstruct it so such waves and storms are pretty common.
I spent 18 years working on offshore oil rigs in the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, North Atlantic west of the Shetland Islands, off Sable Island, the Flemish Pass and the Grand Banks. The Grand Banks was the most terrifying place to be offshore. In a storm you're looking up at a mountain of water coming at you then it breaks and you're on top of a mountain looking down into an abyss.
Did you happen to encounter any freak or rogue waves?
@@jasonmarquez5776 idk if he would still be alive
Terrifying.
@jasonmarquez5776 During a storm out there, they're all massive but I don't recall any being super giant compared to others. When swells from the deep water hit the grandbanks, they get amplified and rise up. The area where Ocean Ranger sank is only 80 meters deep. That's 300 km offshore too.
I was programme director at VOCM at the time. I came into work at 6am and the newsroom told me of this unsinkable rig that had sunk. This tragedy tore the heart out of the province as just about every family had been affected by the disaster. Like most businesses, we mobilized everything we had and did what we could to help the families of the missing. I saw first hand the recovery efforts of those drawn from the ocean and the toll it had taken. This was one of the worst days in Newfoundland history. The community response was unprecedented and showed the true spirit of those hardy folks
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.
Deepwater Horizon comes to mind. Greed caused that tragedy
And this is a fuckn shame when did money become worth more than a person's life 😕. Fuck that if my I feel something is unsafe its a no go for me
To big corporations.....money has always been more important than the working man's life.
I would wager that some executive decisions were the root cause and a large public relations effort to blame it on dead man that can't defend themselves.
That is exactly what they tried to do. My father and Uncle died that night on the Ocean Ranger. My dad spoke about how unsafe it was on the rig on many occasions, even using the nickname they made for it, "Ocean Danger". During the wrongful death suit after, Odeco tried to blame their own men for the sinking. It was disgusting to say the least and when OSHA testified about the 2 out of 3 lifeboats not working and no life suits to accommodate the men and all the other safety infractions along with Mitsubishi design flaws with the portholes being too low and too close to the control panel etc. It shut Odeco up so fast they were ready to settle out of court. Our lawyers could show that their overall monetary gain came at the cost of their safety and that they failed to get those men off that rig when they sent out a Mayday on the 14th, one day before sank. Even though they fixed it, they should have evacuated until they knew what was causing the rig to list. It had also listed for some unknown reason on February 6th as well. They ignored that Mayday too.
I'm more and more impressed with the ambience you bring to your openings, on top of the outstanding content itself. Each one really brings home the situation in just a few moments.
ye
Yes the ambiance is perfect and the reason i stopped watching History or Discovery chan programs because of the over hyped and over dramatized naration and presentation style. They do that to keep persons with little or no attention spann tuned in....
After 45 seconds I had to stop and subscribe.
@@MrJesusdoesntsave 😄👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
@@paulramsey8187 my god same. I am sick to death of that crap. It speaks VOLUMES that history channel has been eclipsed by so many youtube amatuers.
As a Canadian who enjoys reading about shipwrecks and Canadian history, very little of this disaster is widely known. I’d heard about it in two books, both titled “Canadian Disasters” but this was as much a maritime tragedy as Edmund Fitzgerald, Princess Sophia or the Empress of Ireland. Really excellent video mate.
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!!!
I worked in the oilfield from 1981 to 1986 and spent time on a rig in that area. I remember that event. Very tragic. They waited too long to declare the emergency and lacked proper training. The only training I remember was practicing donning the safety wet suit and boarding the life raft.
Donning the wet suit.
Nature strikes back...always. Sad story. Why they put the communication so far low in their ship?
@@jayjaynella4539 thanks! : )
@@Critical-Thinker895 You can't be that critical of a thinker or you would know that Google can easily tell which word they meant to use due to the context in which it was used. Now go beat up on your little brother.
Did you experience any serious storms? I worked on fishing boats and it's hard to get across to landlubbers what a 60' wave actually looks like - how massive it actually is, how the sea just heaves with an enormous amount of power (and it roars, loudly, as the waves some crashing down on one another) and leaving even the largest ships like nothing more than a cork floating around at the mercy of its temper, how the water turns jet black, and for as far as you can see it's nothing but these huge waves... It was always so exhausting working in those conditions!
It might be a good idea for engineers to stop saying that the vessels they designed are “unsinkable”. It appears to be a jinx of sorts😏
You have a point
Lol I just thought the same thing
Engineer: my dinghy is unsinkable. Someone far away: Get the harpoon.
Amen. “Unsinkable” should be avoided at all costs, along with “absolutely fireproof” and “the war will be over by Christmas.”
I had the same thought. If it floats it can sink.
I was an engineer officer in the British Merchant Navy for around 13 years prior to being assigned in 1984 to one of my company's offshore drilling rigs. On joining, it rapidly became clear that the culture on a rig was entirely different from that onboard a ship and that most of the personnel were quite unprofessional in their attitude to safety or following operational guidelines etc. Fortunately, my company being an old well established shipping company, had a tradition of professional operations so those of us who transferred from the deep-sea fleet were able to gradually encourage and impose more professional standards upon the other members of the technical and marine crews (the drilling department were a different kettle of fish though). Supported by the shore-based staff, this enabled a change in attitude both to expectations of technical knowledge and attitude to operational issues such that fairly soon, all relevant personnel were properly competent in their duties. Having said that, maintaining standards to the required high level required constant vigilance by the senior personnel. Long story short, the engineers and electricians made damn sure that we fully understood ALL systems onboard, including the ballast control system, and also that ALL Ballast Control Room Operators damn well knew and understood how they should be operating their systems. This was certainly not the case at the time I joined that first rig!
I worked supply boats for 26 years. I started in 93 and after watching this video it seems like safety concerns had improved only slightly. Not until the Deepwater horizon disaster did every aspect of safety get overhauled and safety itself was moved up the ladder of importance to the very top. Great video.
How can I get on one? Been in the mid/north Atlantic fishing half of my life.
I was at the beach for a church youth group when an oil container about the size of a fridge washed up on shore while we were swimming. Turns out it had been ejected from the Deepwater Horizon and was leaking crude oil where we were swimming. They got a tractor and pulled it into the surf and we got yelled at for trying to keep swimming around 50 yds down the beach. Guys in hazmat suits showed up and they started examining the thing. It was wild
"Valves opening and closing on their own." Did anyone else get the chills hearing how he delivered that line?!? Each video more terrifying than the last! I'm ashamed to say I thought I understood the details of this disaster but I certainly didnt. It seems so easy to say "They were asking for trouble with that control room so close to the water line". I think that may be a bit harsh. This was a crazy storm and a once in 50 year event. Lessons were certainly learned here and I think offshore crews are safer but I'd be willing to wager that the companies practice the same "internal reporting" practices. That hasn't changed. Chilling video Sam! Well done!
Sadly, 50 year events are now almost commonplace throughout the oceans. Even the occurrence of so-called 'rogue' waves (waves far above the considered 'standard' height) are now regularly seen at sea, and the Grand Banks is a prime area for them
@@russellfitzpatrick503 That's the number 1 reason you will never catch me on a drilling platform or an oil rig! I've got this terrible fear of ya know.... dying
I wonder If the valves were opening and closing or if only rhe display was shorting and flickering making it look like it was. Then the crew decides to mess with the valves and screw it up further. Amazing they don't have a couple specialists just for that given hr amount of money involved. Not like they can't afford it.
@@etherealrose2139 I thought the same about the control panel. But, in either case, it's downright terrifying! I think you're probably right that they decided to try and "fix" it on their own. What I don't understand is why. They would've known that pulling the power and compressed air from the control room would force every valve closed. Why jam those rods into the solenoids unless you were absolutely certain what the result would be?!? That is what I find just insane.
@@etherealrose2139 Probably the valves were activating, from my understanding of the schematic of the panel in the USCG report. While the red (closed) and green (open) lights were not "talk-backs" from position switches on the valves themselves, the same relay that controlled the lights was also controlling the solenoid valves via a separate contact. Another contact was used to latch the relay on or off since the on and off switches were pushbuttons. This is a big assumption: if the failure was in the lighting contacts alone, the green and red lights in the pushbuttons would likely come on at the same time, which would not happen when operating normally. I assume this would make the operator suspicious that it was an indication failure and not say that the valves were opening and closing themselves. If the relay was actually turning on and off, the lights would switch from red to green normally. If water had gotten into the "open" buttons and conducted enough to activate the relay's coil, the valves would "open themselves" but not ever "close themselves" since the relay was latched. This doesn't fit the evidence, so there is something I'm missing here. Thanks; I was curious about this and your post motivated me to dig into it deeper.
I was 4th engineer on a CP ship heading for Montreal. The storm was terrible. Our boat actually went backwards one day. We were 30/40 kms from Ocean Ranger. No way to help. Two big boats went down around that time. 114 dead. Our London office told us to go faster.
What is CP? Impossible to go Ocean Ranger for help?
@@jimmyuk007 CP is Canadian Pacific and I assume it were one of CPs submarines a container ship in winter you were lucky if the decks were clear of water in the winter, these ships have one prop and a steaming speed of around 15 knots in relative calm seas in 80 foot waves is 24 meters the CP would just be trying to keep steerage in those seas and winds and would be impossible to have gone to any ones aid, unlike the rig support vessels wich would have the same power if not more than the cargo ship with two screws
@@mikestead3804 incredible, only two commas in all of that
@@RichPianasOilPump incredible, never knew someone could be so insufferable.
@@RichPianasOilPump Onya Einstein.
Not ashamed to say I shed more than a few tears hearing of the crew in the lifeboat coming so close to salvation, only to be swallowed by the sea. Thank you for calling this what it was: an absolute tragedy.
We had a horrible oil rig accident in Norway in 1980 too, the whole installation just flipped over,up side down in extreme weather. Very few survivors..😢
They towed the pontoon/sponson all that was left of that one into Stavanger harbour right all the way in and left it. i was there on exercise with NATO, visiting Stavanger quite a few times when I eventually realised what I was looking at from the other side of the fiord "end" from the harbour [where on a Saturday(?) you can "go pick your cod" from a tank full] .. Anyway it was one of those moments when your hackles rise. That primitive human response as you suddenly get a sense of scale, even from that distance, of the size. And it's the realisation of just how insignificant a human being would be exposed to those same conditions. RIP. EDIT The Alexander L Kielland. There are YT vids out there . Another horror story. Also is a story in the book "North Sea Tigers".
I worked on a semi-sub in the late 70s/early 80s, looked exactly like the Ranger, only smaller I think total crew 70, in the North Sea. I was offshore when the Alexander Keilland went down, we shut down drilling when it got to Force 7 Gale, Keilland was in the Ekofisk, 200 odd miles south of us, a fatigue crack finally gave way under the pressure from the storm, it capsized. 123 men died. Many of us were crowded in the radio shack to listen the radio traffic. We had to form a human chain to pass the radio op back into the accomodation block, he was in his 60s, the wind and the swells, never seen anything like it, hurricane strength winds in the North Sea and the whole lifting and waves smashing into the frame you felt through your feel, a crash then trembling and humming of the steel. When you are out there and the weathers up you are seriously freaked out, when we stopped drilling the pulse that normally passes through the rig stopped, it does during normal operation but only for the shortest possible time. Your description brought it all back - I know how these poor guys must have felt. Really well done
I was on the SEDCO 700 that night, driller off shift at midnight, the radio room description is exactly the same!
@@johngreydanus2033 Was on the Atlantic 2, we just got towed down form the Thistle, and were off one of the Forties platforms, had been there for a mere 2 days when the wind really got started!!!
I recently watched the Kielland Rig disaster on the ravens eye channel, absolutely horrendous. I´d only heard of the Alpha piper before & now the ocean ranger. No wonder my brother has to undergo such rigorous safety training.
They were soooo close to rescue. That’s so heartbreaking. Especially since nobody got to live. I can only imagine being on the rescue boat thinking “holy shit we found em, they are right here we can save them!” Then boom...watching dozens of men die right before your eyes...
Yeah that shit would fuck you up for sure
Exactly. Depending on your level of compassion for your fellow man it had to be devastating. Everyone realizes that profit before safety is common for large corporations.
I can even imagine being the men in the lifeboat, you survived the rig listing and got a life boat out, got found and thought you were gonna make it out alive only to die inches away from safety
The rescue stations on workboats are very hard to man in rough weather - nothing but exposed. A cargo net goes a long way [if equipped], and in heavy weather probably the only way to go - a [one at a time] ladder can't provide for a half dozen at a time. How to use one if you are the unfortunate? The very first handhold you can - grab it. If the vessel rolls away at first, just hang on... it will come back and dip you again. When it does, use the boost of floating to get the next fewer handholds up - now worry about a foothold, and you can begin climbing.
Stories like this are worth keeping in mind when hearing deregulation arguments from industry and politicians, and promises that they can be trusted to operate responsibly because it's in their best interest.
The sad part is, aside from the design flaws, the sequence of events wouldn't have been prevented if there was more regulation at the time. It's rather apparent that certain men with certain authority had egotistical traits that prevented work from being done safely. You can regulate all the training that you want for example but it still takes a single manager or foreman's cooperation to apply that training to the subordinates. I work in aerospace. Despite how insanely regulated that industry is (and for good reason mostly), it's still only as good as it's willing practitioners. I've seen botched FAA audits because the FAA auditor is... I don't know... paid off? In Aero, there's nothing more frightening than FOD and yet FAA audits can seemingly just skip over requiring the enforcement of all rules whenever the money gift is big enough. And no matter how much training one has, if the working culture simply doesn't take it seriously and with pride, you'll still get FOD related errors that are from human action. All the time. I see it, all the time. Add more government and spending more government money never fixes the inherent problem of CULTURE. The Government is just as corruptible as any greedy business and I never understand why people are always asking for MORE and MORE Government, whenever you're own government has done nasty shit often WORSE than these corporations have. The USG for example has covered Nuclear Weapons disasters and even covered up a FOD problem caused by a company one time - literally protecting the company from the public's knowledge. So yeah... Ask for more regulation... but do so with caution. Laws on paper do fucking nothing if no one follows it - including the Government.
So well done. I can't believe the Highlander almost saved that lifeboat, only to lose it. Fantastic narration. Great job.
I had a good friend from St. John's and I've read about this since it first happened. This is absolutely the clearest and most complete review of this disaster I've seen. There are longer ones out there and ones that cover other material but they way you cover all the technical stuff and still keep it at 30 minutes is impressive. The graphics are crystal clear too.
A good family friend climbed onto the last helicopter to leave the Ocean Ranger. He worked as a trouble shooter for Mobil.
@@jaquigreenlees Glad he made it. Very sorry for those that didn't and their families.
@@angelachouinard4581 yeah, he told me about the thing he did for oil companies, I would never want to work for them. welding patches on pipes with crude oil flowing through them, 60 feet above shark infested waters? just an example of the idiocy they were getting away with.
@@jaquigreenlees kinda sounds fun,
I could have watched 4 hrs of this. Your telling of these tragic events is always so respectful and informative. Thank you for your content!
Same here....
Agreed !!
I'm from St. John's Newfoundland and this had happened before I was born, but everyone knows about this horrific disaster... Seeing the Rig just flip like a cork in a puddle on the news (every year or so they have a memorial moment for the lives lost) still makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Totally terrorizing. RIP. PS. Everyone needs to remember, that you can call this inexperience all you like, but companies that own these rigs will %100 forfeit your life for the sake of their money. No questions asked, no second thoughts.
I really love how you presented things in a way that wasn’t making an assumption that members of the crew made bad judgements, we’re just plain stupid, or were negligent. You rightly highlighted the fact that these men had no training for this situation and that it was not for their lack of trying that things happened.
How conscious are you when you cannot grasp a rescue line due to the cold and hypothermia? That sounds like a terrifying and imminent death you're forced to face and you can't save yourself
About 10 or "moderate to severe" on the Glasgow Coma Scale, which would feel like you were very drowsy or drugged, you would realise you need help but you would be incapable of doing it yourself because you wouldn't be able to concentrate enough to climb or hold on to something and you would just want to sleep and hope someone helps you.
@@krashd One of my buddies technically "died" after falling into freezing cold water in shit weather and it taking us a while, due to conditions to circle around and haul him back on the boat. His heart had stopped and if it wasn't for the auto-inflating pfd he was wearing, his rain gear would have dragged him way under for sure. We started CPR the second we hauled him on deck.. And it must have just not been his time to go, because it worked and we got him back (which people who are familiar with CPR can tell you, isn't usually the outcome). The coast guard was able to airlift him off with a helicopter (absolutely love those guys, seriously, the United States Coast Guard are amazing people) and get him to a hospital in time for him to make a complete recovery. No permanent brain damage or any other permanent ill effects. When we eventually talked about it a couple months later, he said the panic and feeling of freezing only lasted a little while, maybe a minute or two. Then once his body began to shut down, he said he didn't really feel anything anymore.. He was aware of what was happening, but just didn't care. The last thing he says he remembers is an oddly peaceful feeling, just like falling asleep when you're really exhausted, and as he went lights out he swears to this day he heard the sound of violins.... Really scary stuff. Still gives me the chills just typing this. He's got 4 kids now, years later, and thank God, a normal, boring, non dangerous job.
Sorry, massive comment incoming; I have some idea of this, if it might be interesting/helpful at all: It's not just neurological, but vascular; Your blood vessels contract when you get cold enough, and of course, your muscles and brain both rely on blood flow for oxygen in order to function. When you get cold, or even just get a cold shock, this can cause pretty severe vasoconstriction (cold + body = restricted blood flow = less oxygen to function with + sensation (nervous system) shock acutely or over time = fucked). You can be relatively conscious, or you can be instinctively grasping/panicking to save yourself, but intentional or unintentional actions are both impeded if your fingers can't grip because they have no functional circulation or sensation. You can also, of course, be experiencing cognitive issues as well, not just due to the physical factors, but psychological ones as well; No matter how poorly or how well anyone is trained, we can't override certain instinctual behaviour responses, and those responses will vary from person to person based on a lot of different factors. So I can't say 100% for sure, but for what it's worth, I happen to have both Raynaud's Syndrome (circulation issue made worse by extreme temperatures) and POTS (which means I'm personally prone to syncope/fainting/cognitive issues/etc.)-- So I have similar issues in the cold, where I can be thinking relatively normally, but I can't hold shit or really feel my hands or feet at all, my face goes numb very quickly, etc. and my thinking feels like it slows down or moves "out of time", if that makes sense. It sucks pretty fucking bad sometimes, and I've actually shut down due to cold before (very gradually passed out after about 30 seconds of being exposed to snow without many, many layers on in an effort to get to my mailbox without gearing up with two pairs of gloves etc., which was my own fuck up); I can say it's weird. Like your brain freaks the fuck out once it goes "oh shit it's bad that our blood feels like air drying spackling paste" and it's either 1) I just pass the fuck out from a standing height and wake up in the hospital or 2) I gradually feel shit going wrong, but my brain is like, well, I mean we're gonna try to catch ourselves as we go down, but if we don't, then we don't. We're gonna try, but don't waste energy stressing about shit right now. That's because the brain is trying to conserve energy. Thinking takes a lot of energy, and your brain is going "oh shit" trying to manage both psychological stress (stress = consumes energy) as well as physical factors (in the case of those in this incident, swimming/trying to shout/etc. are all high energy consuming actions). So at that point, I'm willing to make a fair guess and say it was probably similar (although of course nowhere near comparable in terms of circumstances etc. and everyone is individually different in regards to this stuff); They were acting possibly even panicked on the outside, but on the inside, you just sort of feel like slowing down, and your brain/body is literally unable to devote the energy or focus to any of that. You're aware shit's going badly, but your brain and body go, no, we can't deal with that shit right now on top of everything else. I've literally gotten to the top of stairs, actively realised I was about to pass out and fall down those stairs and likely get seriously injured or possibly die from the fall, and while I did my best on a sort of autopilot to not let that happen, I was simultaneously like, well, can't think about this shit right now. So internally, there's some dissonance between that and anything a person may outwardly appear like to anyone else. I've also had hypothermia, and it was very much the same sensation, for me at least, in that situation as well. (Let me know if that explanation made sense, this is a weird thing to try to explain.)
I had this happen in water in winter. You can see the rope,and the edge of the ice.but you can’t do anything about it. Slow motion.
@@blackhawks81H Thank you for this story. This is what I come to the comments for.
I hate that most of these people died because of corporate greed, greed held by people that weren’t even on that rig. There’s a lot i could say about this but i’ll go too far deep down a rabbit hole. The idea that nobody on the rig knew how to operate the ballasts absolutely stuns me. No words there. Also wanted to say, you have really outdone yourself with graphics. I watched this last night before bed and the waves and ship simulations are extremely realistic. This was a fantastically done, well informed video. Love your content Sam! Have a great week and thanks again for the video.
And personal greed working for a fossil fuel company . Everybody in that industry is scoffing at the till , and now we know they knew the causes of the climate emergency then thats where words fail me .
During the sinking of the Alexander Kjelland, the foreman of the neighboring rig refused to throw in life rafts to survivors, because he thought it was "a waste of money". He also did not want to cease operations, and even tried to stop workers who were attempting to pull survivors out of the water using cranes. It boggles the mind.
Capitalism baby. Not the first people to die for other peoples greed. And wont be the last.
@@baronvonlimbourgh1716 Don't be daft. "Other" people's greed, arrogance, incompetence, and corruption are universally intrinsic. It sure isn't caused by capitalism. While parasitic CEO's, boards, and mid-management power wannabes are obvious problems, their unfettered equivalents in communist/socialist arenas are infinitely worse. Corruption and coverups are everything, oppression and scapegoating a way of life.
@@kallehalvarsson5808 Thanks for bringing that up, had studied reports of that disaster long ago. Bloodcurdling. Please provide references for your accusations of the foreman, none of the reports mentioned any of that.
I worked in the North Sea for 7/8 years on rigs that where thankfully fixed to the sea bed. However I did suffer some pretty bad seas and storms. I was always thankful I have never been sent to a semi or a jack up. Also worked on Piper Bravo for quite some time and just being in the field is a sobering experience.
This video brings back memories. I was working on the twin semi-submersible vessel to the Ocean Ranger, the Ocean Rover, which at that time was involved in drilling operations off the coast of Venezuela. I was working as a production test engineer performing some testing on a well that had just been completed. I had my equipment set up in an office space adjacent to the radio room and would overhear any radio communications. The previous day before the sinking of the Ocean Ranger, I heard that some of the ODECO personnel mention that the Ocean Rover was experiencing some difficulties with a storm and were trying to contact them. The following day after it was finally announced that the Ocean Ranger had gone down, many of the ODECO personnel were in shock, as many of them had friends and family working on the rig. I spent many years working offshore in many parts of the world, and when we encountered a major storm, the thoughts of what had happened to the Ocean Range would always be in the back of my mind.
human greed, incompetence, and people covering their ass. how much has been lost to them? A helluva performance on this one guys! Better than a tv network could put out. you created the mood expertly. Congrats and God bless
Unsinkable? Off the newfoundland Coast? Sounds familiar but where have I heard that one from?
I've had hypothermia twice (go, Canada!) so I know how quickly it comes over you. Those men who fell in the water wearing only their work clothes were numb after 30 seconds, unconscious after a minute or so. If there is such a thing as a painless death, that's it. (Edit: that came across a bit hard. What I meant to say was that those waters have always been treacherous, and they all should have had the necessary training. Couldn't pay me enough to work a rig in winter.)
I don't see it as hard or harsh. I find it comforting to know that there was little to no suffering. Just numbness followed by a sense of peace.
Except that your skin feel's like it's on fire, sending you into further panic. Goodness gracious.
I couldn’t imagine it being painless. living in Australia I don’t know what cold really is, but when I do get really cold I get violent shakes and my body stiffness up, every muscle. It’s not a good feeling.
@@knutz7 With the water and temperatures experienced in this region you skip "being cold" and pretty much instantly go to being numb. You don't feel the cold and the pain until you start warming back up. As you get closer to death the experience actually becomes more pleasant. One of the few deaths I've nearly experienced that I can look back on and say "that wouldn't have been a terrible way to go". I would rather freeze than drown, that's for sure. Drowning is fucking painful.
it fascinates me just imagining the terror of that moment when you finally submerge in the dark and painful water. I hope those men found peace in their final minute or so
This is a gut wrenching story. I often times get frustrated with what I feel like or overdramatic safety coordinators. Stories like these help remind me of how important safety is and how culture is one of the most important things about any safety program.
As someone who enjoys getting sucked into a great documentary, I absolutely love the way that this documentary is detailed, broken down, and explained; especially with computer animation to help visualization. I was, after instantly being convinced to become a subscriber, scrolling through you library of videos. I have to say that i can't wait to watch more. In a world where video shorts and soundbites are dominating the airwaves, know that these full length documentaries, as well as the work that goes into them, is greatly appreciated. I also am an avid reader who falls into Wikipedia wormholes. I have found some fascinating stories about, among other things, disasters which I had never knew happened. From environmental disasters, mining disasters, seafaring disasters, and even disasters such as the Loveboat disaster and the "pea soup" fog that blanketed cities during winters and essentially necessitated governmental changes like bringing forth the EPA. While the documentaries are awesome in themselves, I believe the way you give insight into why the things happen, is the real treasure. You, through your documentaries, have the opportunity to expose and educate people to a vast amount of information that shares some knowledge in many subjects. Keep up the good work.
From first hand experience on the law making side of this, I can tell you the saddest thing about this is the fact that the regulations were updated just enough to reduce risk for the operating/managing company and most importantly the oil companies. Vessel regulations and standards are the only thing that truly matter to these companies. That vessel is their bottom line and will constantly be improved to reduce potential for failed safety inspections that cost them millions in profit from lost production days. They take care of their money maker the vessel and the crew assigned are highly expendable and they don’t care about operations as long as the vessel is operating. There are still two separate lines of command amongst the crew which Interfere with sound safety decisions and required training. minimal changes to merchant Mariner regulations resulted from this. Just enough to establish the required training and service that must be evaluated and endorsed on a license of the sea credential. It’s all for show. To meet import/export jones act requirements and vessel inspection and manning requirements governed by the coast Guard. There are still two separate and conflicting sides on the vessel that have different priorities but ultimately serve as a means to ensure profit. Shore operators still exist and have zero requirements for merchant Mariner training and MUST be contacted by the master in charge which removes their operational authority and experience if they actually have any beyond their endorsement for ballast control operator barge supervisor etc. even lifeboat training and improvements have only minimally improved safety for the life of the crew on the vessel. Because abandoning the vessel is the absolute last option for them based on company requirements driven by greed. And the greed reaches far into the governing agencies fiscal budget - it’s blatantly obvious that regulators have implemented the bare minimum to say they did yet operational risk remains and is governed by local policy that does not have the force of law behind it and probably never will. Even the vessel’s country of registration is manipulated in a way that avoids extra cost and increases profit. Not to mention allows loopholes in vessel safety and manning requirements that are clever enough to remain outside of regulatory reach by U.S. laws and international laws as well. Truly anchored in extreme corruption. At the cost of all these precious lives. Risk is high for the crew on a nice sunny day with some trained mariners on board because these things are huge and just walking around can be hazardous. Simply loved the report on this as well as knowledge of vessel and crew req.
Thanks for your post. It is very insightful. There is so much big money in this business. And whenever that is the case, there is corruption and a lack of concern for safety despite “Safety First” and whatever other slogans they display.
_"Vessel regulations and standards are the only thing that truly matter to these companies."_ Spoken like a true bureaucrat... Anyway, something about this statement rubs me the wrong way. First off, it's wrong. Companies obviously care about profits, which they shoud and you also alluded to. Also, Companies also hate to lose money, and it is this fear of loss which gives them massive incentive to prevent loss, death and tragedies such as these. Obviously, this company didn't want to lose this expensive rig. Having said all this, you aren't entirely wrong. Companies do follow the law for the most part and it didn't seem as if they totally ignored regulations here. In fact, it was mentioned in this video that one of leaders on board was specifically there to comply with regulations, the one who had poor training in ballast and was just there to oversee some ship functions, I believe. The problem with regulations or rules in general, is that it's very easy to get into the mindset of a bureaucrat, which is *"Rules are everything, results are nothing."* Better to be focused on specific goals or if they have rules, they create their own as opposed to rules forced upon you by others. I think one is more likely to follow a rule made themselves as to one imposed. Anyway, the problem with regulations is that they can never be perfect and you can get into a routine, where you just blindly follow the rules, as opposed to thinking about what your actually trying to accomplish. Another thing to keep in mind, is that if someone is already imposing rules upon you, you might simply adopt their rules, even if they are *not* as demanding as the rules you might make yourself. If the company had total control over which personnel could be aboard this rig, as opposed to having to comply with whatever regulation led them to having an untrained leader aboard, would things have gone differently? I certainly don't have all facts or know all the regulations, but I say it's a fallacy to trust too much in regulations. Having too many rules can be confusing and you could end up with the mindset of a bureaucrat, where you end up accomplishing very little or even making things worse. Top down control from an outside source is seldom a good idea.
Thank you for your comment. I really appreciate your input. Very informative.
I was in a drill crew for sixteen years. I worked on both 706 and Ugland in later years. I did not know this part of their story in detail. In later years I moved over to a safety advisor position and had another ten years offshore. Thank you for sharing and explaining the sequence of events. (incidentally, on at least one of the two other rigs the ballast control was located at that level in the leg as were many other rigs of that time).
How much did you make as an offshore safety guy, I bet it's pretty good money
Very unfortunate series of events that did not have to occur. My dad died in '94 to the river/ocean and I still miss him like it was yesterday. Thoughts and love go out to those that lost someone in the horrible event.
Sorry to hear that. Wish you all the best & godspeed!
Top notch coverage. As a former field hand of the oilfield, I thank you for your thorough research and fantastic presentation. What the men in the field go through is intense, and we are all taught to listen to those in charge when things go badly. this is a clear case of things going badly and inexperienced leadership. Excellent video.
Thank YOU so much for these wonderful, well-researched and edited chronicles of these tragedies, because they are an amazing sense and insight on how we learned from our tragic errors. I apologise for being so quiet over the past few months. I have a lot of logs to watch and comment on with your channel and so many other wonderful friends. I look forward to watching each one! Your dedication to providing an outstanding level of sophistication that takes me back with immense respect and appreciation. Thank you so much for this and your other testimonies. I’m honoured for being introduced to you and your enduring determination to teach us all! Thank you, dear friend. X
I've worked on two rigs in the past couple years and even I learned several things from this video. You definitely did good research ! Your understanding of the ballast control is impressive. Well done! Edit - I suspect there is some corporate foolery involved with sending a mayday request. Mobil likely didn't allow for a distress call without approval.
Because people send distress calls all the time just because they're out of chocolate pudding, we can’t have that.
Good point , would never have thought of that
First thought that came to mind. That type of micro-managing structure is frightfully common in heavy industry. Image protection and mid-manager job justification (as in pretending to have any) are first and foremost.
Oh absolutely. This story has corporate damage control written all over it. Makes you wonder how many close calls went unreported over the years.
@@disklamer I highly doubt that in a storm such as that their not asking for pudding!!! I cannot stand comments like these!!!
I remember the phone ringing at home in the wee hours of the night and how my father was after the call. It was only 48 hours prior to that night that he was there and boarding a helicopter to take him back to land… Thank you for creating this documentary!
Wow the visuals and the atmopshere they bring are amazing. The carefully crafted scenes with the waves, life raft, platform, clouds/fog and rain.. outstanding. I also really like the pacing and the fact there's no random pauzes where some music is louder while some stock footage is shown, like some channels really like to do.
this is the definition of pure nightmare. very chillin. 40 years later the souls lost are not forgotten. a very respectable way of reporting.
That was just amazing, thank you for the amazing work. I am Canadian and the Ocean Ranger tragedy was a major part of the media for at least ten years after the disaster. Getting to the truth was an a massive undertaking, with both companies doing everything they could to stonewall the hearings. Eventually the Government of Canada got positively medieval on them and the truth came out. Hibernia was supposed to be a massive windfall of jobs for Newfoundlanders but after the Ocean Ranger disaster, few wanted to do it.
This is the part I find most frustrating about many disaster investigations! 😔 If (as in this case) the industry in question has developed an entrenched culture of cut-throat competition and of circumventing legislative oversight, most company C-suite executives and primary shareholders really feel no incentive to help facilitate post-accident forensic investigation? It clearly contributes to industry-wide safety improvements, but they may in fact actively obstruct regulatory bodies' attempts to find the truth, out of concern any final conclusions might lead to changed industry safety standards (increased cost, reduced obscene profit, oh no!) And of course in worst cases, they may be trying to dodge the firm's potential prosecution for malfeasance? I feel like the aviation industry, although not perfect, have done better than extractives re. sharing vital safety info & decrying firms who actively try to hinder investigation? (Although definitely still plagued by the recurrent problem of cost-cutting = safety issues alas!)
I also remember when the Hibernia was being built and when it became ready. I kept up with it because it was supposed to the next largest offshore oil rig. Ever since my father was killed on the Ocean Ranger, that’s how I see it. The name Hibernia was like tattooed on my brain because the Ocean Ranger sank in the Hibernia field. It’s number 5 now as being the largest offshore rig in the world. I couldn’t fathom anyone wanting to go to work on it. Come to find out for me, an American, hardly anyone knew about the Ocean Ranger disaster except families because my mom’s brother was on there too, and our friends. I thought, this is a tragedy in itself. Thank you for your comment.
Just found this channel and I'm on this insane mission to hear all of these amazing videos from BI. I love his chill voice, insane amount of research and no frills / drama way of story telling. Thank you for existing my friend, you are much aprpeciated!
You narrated that amazingly well, but the description of the battle with the lifeboat was just heartbreaking. I found myself saying "C'mon, c'mon" under my breath, even though it was clear from the earlier descriptions of the inquest that no-one survived. RIP to all those brave souls 💔
Having just graduated from HS in '82 in the US, I barely remember this tragic story as I lived on the west coast. I'm so glad I found this channel and can get quality story-telling, facts, and with heart. Channel subscribed. If there is an afterlife, and a merciful god, I hope the 1,500+ souls that perished from the 'other unsinkable' ship of the north atlantic were allowed to welcome these 84 into the great beyond...
"The Odeco company also considering it 'unsinkable'." Everyone who knows a bit about maritime history: "Ah shit, here we go again."
Does 20 lifeboats rig a bell 🔔 for a ship designed to hold 3,500 souls
The name "Ocean Ranger" holds a lot of emotion in Newfoundland and Labrador even to this day. It happened a few years before I was born, but I was still very aware of the story and what went wrong just by growing up in the province.
I thank all of you in St. John’s for keeping their memories alive. I’ve been 3 times. My legal name is Michele and I was deemed the first American to come to a service there. I found out later that my Uncle’s children went to the 1st memorial service that was held after their deaths. They probably didn’t know because I surely didn’t. Anyway, thanks again 🙏🏻 it’s a beautiful church and the people there are so kind.
I need to say THANK YOU for making an effort of visualization that goes beyond the usual mix of stock video. This is such a well researched documentary.
As a Newfoundlander, thank you so much for pronouncing Newfoundland correctly. You'd be surprised how rare it is to hear. This was a great documentary, too. A great example of corporate crime close to home. No industry should be above the law, especially when you're trusting in the conditions of Newfoundland weather and the Atlantic Ocean to keep your employees from disaster. You've got a new subscriber today, my friend. Again, awesome stuff man.
You guys make a great dog!
I'm from St. John's, to this day this is still a big story here, nobody here will forget how and why this happened. One of the big reasons our next platform was a gravity based structure that actually is embedded in the sea floor.
Hi Scott, I’m curious about this structure in the ocean. Is it visible from Middle Cove beach area? That’s where I always went to look out. I found a perfectly heart shaped rock that rolled up to my feet while I was standing there. It was Valentine’s Day and I was there my very first visit from America. They’re so incredibly kind there. It was and is a beautiful memorial service and I would like to thank you and everyone there for keeping their memories alive. God Bless you all 🙏🏻❤️
I absolutely love this idea!!!
I realize this comment comes a year late and will most likely never be noticed, but I have to echo the previous comments of many other Newfoundlanders - the amount of research that went into this had to have been phenomenal. I was only 10 or 11 at the time, and didn't know anyone on the rig personally, but everyone knew someone who knew someone, and the whole province was devastated. For any Newfoundlanders alive at the time, no other disaster hits as close to home or is better known than the "unsinkable" Ocean Ranger. Which makes it so extraordinary that there are bits of this story - new pieces of the puzzle - that I hadn't even known before. I can't imagine how heartwrenching it would be to hear everything in such depth, including new details after all this time, for those who did lose loved ones. No wonder the emotions and pain came rushing back all over again as several of them describe in their comments. My heart goes out to them. I had one of your videos pop up in my algorithm recently that I decided to check out and was impressed with the content, the detail, the flow, and the quality. When I noticed this one had been covered, I had to click it, and I now I'm even more impressed. Amazing work! You sealed the deal for me when you actually pronounced Newfoundland correctly! 😮 To you, that might sound like such a small detail, and to anyone else reading the comments who aren't from here, it probably seems like a strangely specific and ridiculous thing to latch onto, but believe me, it's so rare - almost nonexistent outside of Newfoundland & Labrador - that you can't help but REALLY notice it and remember it. It immediately jumps out at you. 😊 Anyway, thanks for all the thought, time, and effort that you clearly put in your videos. You've gained a new subscriber.
Informative & well-written! The narration & illustrations can help anyone without knowledge of maritime terminology grasp the technical issues that led to this tragedy. As horrible as this event was, I really appreciate that the narrator didn't trail off w personal feelings & opinions. Incompetent leadership, due to inadequate training & experience, along with massive design flaws, sealed the fate of so many lives. Very sad, indeed.
Weird...just realized that although I'm aware of oil rigs not being connected to the ground I never thought about how precise drilling is even possible on an object floating on water. Will look that up after this clip.
And it is today that I learned that oil rigs are actually floating .
@@sorestedhebytheTumtumtree there are some fixed ones but many depths there's just no feasible way to make a solid structure.
Shallow draft monohull drillships these days, especially for scientific drilling, like the JOIDES Resolution and JAMSTEC’s Chikyu are capable of stationary drilling operations and utilize GPS, computer control, and multiple thrusters to keep within small tolerances above the drill target. Platforms are obviously preferred for longer term operations. However, the drill strings themselves are flexible, and both the ships and platforms move, and the strings are required to move with them.
From the rig they use a Drilling riser connected to the BOP that it's connected to the Wellhead. Also a fun fact on the new rigs don't use anchors they actually use thrusters and GPS buoys on the floor
It's called Dynamic Positioning. They have typically 4 propellers that use computer systems to keep exact position by wind sensors, motion sensors, gyro compasses, which provide the information to the computer to keep the vessels position given environmental elements working against them. DP was created the late 1950's. I'm a pilot of an offshore tug and have many friends who are DP officers.
What an incredible video. Skillfully produced and obviously dedicated to uncovering the real details, which were probably sought at great expense of time and perseverance. Your productions are a selflessly given gifts to those of us who treasure truth based on facts, instead of 'facts' that serve someone's agenda. Thank you FTBOMH.
I did not know these were not stationary and could move under their own power. I learn new things I never knew before from each of your videos!
You are a heavy hitter that really surprises with your content being many times better than channels with significantly more subscribers. I hope your channel continues to grow, thanks for your hard work and for proving that it can indeed always be done better. Cheers/
Having done my time on gas compression rigs in the North Sea I can appreciate how terrified the crew were in that storm on The Ocean Ranger, they were victims of incompetent management and their own inexperience. I was certainly glad to pay off that job for the last time, knowing I would not be going back again (my own decision) an inherently dangerous job. RIP to all those lost at sea.
This might as well be your best episode to date! Thank you for putting so much work and constantly delivering top quality content. 💚
Wow, I am super impressed with this channel. The amount of information explained, the editing, the voice over, everything. Well done! I am always looking to learn something in videos like this. The attention and explication of details definitely did that for me.
Thank you for not using up talk, and thank you for all the research you put into each of your vids. They are actually pretty enjoyable to sit thru
Lack of resilience in chain of command. Splitting the rig & drill operations .. Too cold to be doing that stuff in those temps & sea swells. Great doco level coverage
Tragic . I finally met my family in Southern Harbour, Newfoundland. I watched oil rigs come and go way out on the ocean from my uncle's house with a coastline view. I can't imagine the horror these poor souls endured! Shameful how to most were untrained. They should have been evacuated long before storm even hit! Rip to those who perished.
Thank you 🙏🏻
Crazy presentation man. What a story. Never fuck with the ocean.
It hurts to realize, the men on the lifeboat thought that they were just about to be saved... That must have been a horrible feeling, seeing the rescuers right in front of you, but hypothermia is about to kill you.
Showed this to a friend who works at similar offshore rigs. He said you explained it very well.
This was so incredibly well done and extremely anxiety inducing! ✨
Starting immediately with descriptions, diagrams, and how it works. Bravo.
What an absolutely horrific story. Incompetence on an epic scale! Thanks so much for sharing.
Outstanding production! I've watched everything I could on to this disaster. Your production is by FAR better than anything I have seen. It is big budget production level content. Thanks so much for putting this together. Looking forward to checking out your other content. I work in the air medical industry in safety and always appreciate learning from things that went wrong.
A relative of mine was sitting in a helicopter at St. John's Intl. ready to fly out to relieve the Ranger crew when they got the news she capsized! Perfect job pronouncing Newfoundland!
My father was waiting to be picked up. It’s strange how Gods hands have a way to stop someone from losing his life to choosing to take another’s path. I’m so happy for your relative I truly am. It wasn’t his time 🙏🏻 it was my Dads. I know he is right up there with God. That’s what get me through this. God bless you and your friend. Thank you for sharing.
Dude, I just discovered this guys channel and his dedication is uncanny. You know so much about maritime activities I feel inadequate.
Thank you for this report. I remember when this happened. I was 10 living in Nova Scotia and I remember it being on the news. Being a maritime province with a lot of sea faring activity it was reported on for several days. I'd heard there was a ballast control problem due to water intrusion but not of the training failures. Sad to know that after they cut off power and air to the control system with all the valves shut they might have rode out the storm. Also didn't hear about the salvage divers who lost their lives. Tragic events.
This and the Piper Alpha are two good reasons why I have spent my career in onshore ops. At least if something happens at an onshore rig you don't have to contend with the ocean to escape location... Nowadays the regulations are far tighter than they once were, but accidents and corner cutting still happen and people still lose their lives needlessly. I'm reminded of the Pryor Trust disaster in OK just four years ago where a blowout killed five righands. The job is dangerous, period, and safety is highly dependent on the culture of the individual operating or service company. Thank you for covering this. Your commentary is respectful and well researched and I wonder why in the world you don't have more subs.
These videos are some of the highest quality I've ever seen on subjects like these. Any subject or video really. It's really impressive. 2nd time watching this
Wow this video and it's visuals and your dark but soothing voice combined with background ambient music created a masterpiece for me, and those amazing ocean shots with clouds are just 😵😵