Storm of 1982

Stormy weather is a common thing on the island of Newfoundland in February. On February 15, 1982, I was on an offshore drilling rig on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. The rig's name was Sedco 706. There were two other rigs on the Grand Banks. They were the Ocean Ranger and the Zapata Ugland. The Ocean Ranger was the biggest in the world at that time.

The wind was blowing out of the north at a speed of ninety-seven knots. The average combined seas were eighty-five feet. The time was 7:30 p.m. when the 706 was hit by a sea of one hundred and ten feet. We had to disconnect the wellhead and stop drilling. We had all been sitting in the coffee room when we heard that the Ocean Ranger was having ballast trouble. I heard that they were thinking of evacuating the rig. They sent out a Mayday a few minutes later. By 8:30 p.m., they had cancelled the distress call because they thought everything was under control.

The night went on and the storm didn't weaken. I got off work at 11:30, had a shower, had something to eat, and went to watch a movie. While I was there, a friend of mine came in and said that the Ocean Ranger had just sent out another distress signal. Our radio operator received the Mayday and told authorities. The weather, along with the high seas, and poor visibility, hampered all rescue attempts.

The storm stopped pilots from getting to the airport in St. John's for over an hour. When they finally got in the air, we had lost the Ocean Ranger on radar. When the helicopter arrived, the pilots radioed us and told us it was a massacre. He said all he could see was the lights of their life jackets. With a cry in his voice he said, "I can't do a thing. I can't help them! "He told us that he could see two men but couldn't get down low enough to pick them up. He wanted a supply boat to assist him but the three supply boats were working on getting a life boat on board. They didn't get any life boats on board until the next day.

The helicopter was getting low on fuel. I was part of the refuelling crew. The pilot made four or five tries to land on the Sedco 706 rig. He finally landed and we refuelled the chopper. The pilot and crew were upset and so were we. All I could think of were the people and friends that were on the Ranger. I had worked twenty-six hours and was feeling it. After the helicopter left, I got off work and went to bed. But I couldn't sleep.

After an hour or so, I got up and went to the galley. I found many faces filled with grief, sorrow and a little anger. We couldn't phone home and the radio and TV were saying that one of the rigs had gone down. They didn't say which one. Tony O'Neil walked into the galley and told us that the supply boat had a life boat on board, but none of the seven men that were inside had survived the ordeal. They were part of the twenty-two bodies found over the next few days.

We got to phone home the next day. While I was talking to my girlfriend, she told me that they heard it was the 706 that had gone down. She also said it was good to hear from me but the lump in her throat would stay until I got home. I told my girlfriend that we were pulling up anchors to go to Marystown for repairs. I got to go home for a few days while the rig was travelling to Marystown.

When we arrived in St. John's, we were welcomed by newspaper, TV, and radio reporters from all over the world. Carl, the rig's foreman, stopped to speak to them and he was a good scapegoat for the rest of us. I got in my car and headed for Botwood, thinking of what I was going to say to the parents of my two friends who were lost in the disaster.

When I arrived home, I couldn't go to visit the boys' parents right away. I knew that I had to go so I went the next morning. Everything had happened so fast, and with very little time to think about it, I didn't understand what had taken place. When I arrived at Mr. and Mrs. LeDrew's house, I realized that all the things that I wanted to say to them, I just couldn't. It finally came to me that my two friends were gone forever. It was one stormy ordeal that will stay with me till the end of time.

Every year on February 15, I keep one minute of silence and say a prayer for those who were lost because their spirits will live on forever. God bless the men of the Ocean Ranger disaster.