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On this day in 1982, The Ocean Ranger oil rig capsized, taking the lives of the 84 men aboard. There were no survivors. Here’s what I’ve learned researching the event and it’s sociological impacts over the past year: (thread)
Most Newfoundlanders know this story quite well, but the same is not true for most of Canada, and the true horrors of the disaster are often glossed over.
In 1979, the Hibernia platform was discovered off the shores of the Grand Banks, Newfoundland. For Newfoundland, the control of offshore oil development was a subtext for the pursuit of economic security.
The Ocean Ranger was owned by US company ODECO, whom the government agreed to collaborate with on the basis that they hire Newfoundlanders, bringing new jobs and the possibility of future economic revenue.
They wanted oil money, and they wanted it fast, leading to lack of regulations, risk management, or strongly finessed legality.
When the disaster occurred in 1982, there was still no law in the province which governed the offshore because the federal and provincial governments had not decided whose jurisdiction it was.
ODECO was known to have thought of most of its workers as disposable, especially fixating on working class Newfoundlanders, making fun of them for their accents and lack of education, and using this as reasoning for not caring for their safety.
The men who took work on the rig were willing to risk safety because of how much they needed money to support their families.
On February 14th, 1982, there was a huge snow storm in Newfoundland. This shouldn’t have been a problem for the Ranger, which was supposed to be the “largest and most advanced oil rig in the world.” So what happened?
The Royal Commission on the Ocean Ranger Marine Disaster concluded that:
"Each event and action which contributed to the loss of the ocean ranger was either the result of design deficiencies or was crew-initiated...
"Each event and action which contributed to the loss of the ocean ranger was either the result of design deficiencies or was crew-initiated...
...Because of inadequate training and lack of manuals and technical information, the crew failed to interrupt the fatal chain of events which lead to the eventual loss of the Ranger".
At 1:30am local time, the Ocean Ranger transmitted its last message: "There will be no further radio communications from Ocean Ranger. We are going to lifeboat stations."
Shortly thereafter, in the middle of the night and in the midst of severe winter weather, the crew abandoned the platform. The platform remained afloat for another ninety minutes, sinking between 3:07 and 3:13 local time.
As there were no survivors or recordings beyond that final message, there’s no possibility of knowing what horrors the men experienced that night.
In the 1987 book "But Who Cares Now?: The Tragedy of the Ocean Ranger" , published five years after the disaster by the Ocean Ranger Families Association, a firsthand account of a list which occurred the week prior is described in full:
Families were notified only that the storm had affected the rig, without further explanation. Most found out about the sinking through word of mouth, or on local media. Those who tried to contact ODECO were met with messages that they didn’t know, or to call someone else.
ODECO held a press conference later that day in which they arrived at the podium and read out the names of 84 men presumed missing on the ocean ranger. First hand account from families of victims noted this moment as one of the worst in their entire lives.
People called for a pause in offshore development until they complete the investigation or for demands to not work during winter offshore but which of these where are ignored by the oil companies.
There’s lots of stories of how badly the families of the victims were treated. No financial settlement can compensate for the loss of life.
For first hand accounts and more details into the settlement process, I'd recommend reading first-hand accounts from the families, in books which i'll link at the end of this thread.
Oil companies, especially, liked to argue that these men did not die in vain, because of how the tragedy led to some changes in offshore safety precautions.
This is not true. They knew it was unsafe, they knew proper training was not completed. It didn’t matter, what mattered was speeding the process of oil extraction in order to get revenue as soon as possible, and as cheaply as possible.
There's lots to say about the safety of future off-shore projects, which I can get into on another day. J.D. House's book, The Challenge of Oil, although written in 1985, is more relevant than ever on the social impacts of oil in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
To read more about this, I’d suggest Susan Dodd's The Ocean Ranger: Remaking the Promise of Oil
https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/the-ocean-ranger
Mike Heffernan's Rig: An Oral History of the Ocean Ranger Disaster
https://www.breakwaterbooks.com/books/rig-an-oral-history-of-the-ocean-ranger-disaster/
Lisa Moore's February
And the book I posted from earlier.
https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/the-ocean-ranger
Mike Heffernan's Rig: An Oral History of the Ocean Ranger Disaster
https://www.breakwaterbooks.com/books/rig-an-oral-history-of-the-ocean-ranger-disaster/
Lisa Moore's February
And the book I posted from earlier.
I'll leave you with two things. The first, a poem written by victim Greg Tiller found after his death.
and a poem by Kim Hyesoon which I first learned of in @SarahMDowling1 's class, which is about the Sewol Ferry disaster, which shares many similarities to the Ranger Tragedy. https://mattermonthly.com/2015/03/31/i-want-to-go-to-the-island/
