Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
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- Jul 11, 2008
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An "angry giant" takes 87 people...!
On February 14, 1982, what was by far the largest oil drilling platform in the world at the time, the 121.5 meter long and 90.7 meter wide "Ocean Ranger" reports that a heavy hurricane is raging around them...:
The artificial island made of steel and concrete is located in a notorious weather corner of the North Atlantic, the so-called "Grand Banks" off Newfoundland, which are considered a very dangerous sea area...:
There, the seabed rises abruptly from a great depth - and the flatter the sea, the higher the waves pile up!
At 7:00 p.m., the "Ocean Ranger" radioed, waves up to 20 meters high were hitting the platform...:
On land, don't worry too much, the oil rig giant was specially designed for the "Grand Banks" - and 20 meter waves are well within the design norm.
However, one wave must have been far larger than the others one of the type, seamen call "monster waves"!
To this day nobody knows exactly how these monster waves, which can reach 30 meters or more in height, are formed.
It is believed, however, that these frightening things are formed from the accumulation of several different waves, which means that the wave flanks pile up higher and higher and are even higher in storms...:
These waves, it is well known, can sweep hundreds of miles across the sea like angry giants, but their true height has never been accurately determined, as they destroy anything capable of measuring them!
However, two shipwrecks that can be traced back to such individual "monster waves" are considered certain:
In December 1978, the German freighter "München" disappeared without a trace in the South Atlantic with its entire crew of 28!
After weeks of searching, only part of the deck cargo...
... an empty lifeboat badly damaged by sea storms...
...found an emergency radio beacon and unused, partly oil-smeared life rafts (which inflate themselves in the water).
The "München" was sunk by a "monster wave" in one short moment...:
This happened so quickly that the ship could not even radio a distress call.
In October 1981, the US-American swordfish trawler "Andrea Gail"...
...on the "Grand Banks" also in a severe storm and disappeared north of Sable Island without a trace! Neither the ship nor the crew of six were ever seen again - except for a life raft, two oil drums, some small debris and an emergency radio beacon (EPIRB) that activates automatically in the water.
It is very likely that the "Andrea Gail" also fell victim to a "monster wave"...
...which was filmed under the title "The Perfect Storm".
In February 2001, a wave at least 35 meters high caught...
...in the South Atlantic the Hapag-Lloyd cruise ship "Bremen"...:
The "monster wave" must have been at least as high as the ship, because it smashes all the windows of the command bridge, floods them, the power goes out - and the ship drifts around in the storm for an hour without a rudder until the power supply is restored.
The "Bremen" lags with a makeshift bridge (without windows)...
...to Ushuaia (Argentina), where the passengers disembark and are flown to HJause.
Around 1:00 a.m. on the night of February 15, 1982, the 46.2 meter high working platform of the "Ocean Ranger" was hit by such a monster wave...:
The force of the wave is so strong that watertight steel doors are smashed to pieces, seawater seeps into the control room and causes a short circuit.
The platform leans dangerously to one side, the power is gone, the pumps cannot be activated to drain the water that has entered...:
We know from radio communications between the "Ocean Ranger" and the US Coast Guard that desperate attempts by the crew to somehow restart the pumps or operate them manually failed.
As the drilling platform tilts more and more to the side, the order is "all hands aboard"!
Now the people on the rig, none of whom are seafarers, panic.
Instead of getting to safety in the plentiful free-fall lifeboats that are virtually unsinkable...
... people just jump into the sea.
All 87 crew members of the "Ocean Ranger" die - there are no survivors.
When the Coast Guard rescue helicopter reached the scene of the accident early in the morning, the following picture presented itself:
The giant oil rig has capsized!
In the next few days, the "Ocean Ranger" will sink to the bottom of the sea. The sea over the "Grand Banks" is so flat at this point and the "Ocean Ranger" so huge that when the sea is calm the remains of the oil rig still stick out of the water today...:
https://figure-mad.com/smf2/index.php?action=reporttm;topic=686.16;msg=154617
On February 14, 1982, what was by far the largest oil drilling platform in the world at the time, the 121.5 meter long and 90.7 meter wide "Ocean Ranger" reports that a heavy hurricane is raging around them...:
The artificial island made of steel and concrete is located in a notorious weather corner of the North Atlantic, the so-called "Grand Banks" off Newfoundland, which are considered a very dangerous sea area...:
There, the seabed rises abruptly from a great depth - and the flatter the sea, the higher the waves pile up!
At 7:00 p.m., the "Ocean Ranger" radioed, waves up to 20 meters high were hitting the platform...:
On land, don't worry too much, the oil rig giant was specially designed for the "Grand Banks" - and 20 meter waves are well within the design norm.
However, one wave must have been far larger than the others one of the type, seamen call "monster waves"!
To this day nobody knows exactly how these monster waves, which can reach 30 meters or more in height, are formed.
It is believed, however, that these frightening things are formed from the accumulation of several different waves, which means that the wave flanks pile up higher and higher and are even higher in storms...:
These waves, it is well known, can sweep hundreds of miles across the sea like angry giants, but their true height has never been accurately determined, as they destroy anything capable of measuring them!
However, two shipwrecks that can be traced back to such individual "monster waves" are considered certain:
In December 1978, the German freighter "München" disappeared without a trace in the South Atlantic with its entire crew of 28!
After weeks of searching, only part of the deck cargo...
... an empty lifeboat badly damaged by sea storms...
...found an emergency radio beacon and unused, partly oil-smeared life rafts (which inflate themselves in the water).
The "München" was sunk by a "monster wave" in one short moment...:
This happened so quickly that the ship could not even radio a distress call.
In October 1981, the US-American swordfish trawler "Andrea Gail"...
...on the "Grand Banks" also in a severe storm and disappeared north of Sable Island without a trace! Neither the ship nor the crew of six were ever seen again - except for a life raft, two oil drums, some small debris and an emergency radio beacon (EPIRB) that activates automatically in the water.
It is very likely that the "Andrea Gail" also fell victim to a "monster wave"...
...which was filmed under the title "The Perfect Storm".
In February 2001, a wave at least 35 meters high caught...
...in the South Atlantic the Hapag-Lloyd cruise ship "Bremen"...:
The "monster wave" must have been at least as high as the ship, because it smashes all the windows of the command bridge, floods them, the power goes out - and the ship drifts around in the storm for an hour without a rudder until the power supply is restored.
The "Bremen" lags with a makeshift bridge (without windows)...
...to Ushuaia (Argentina), where the passengers disembark and are flown to HJause.
Around 1:00 a.m. on the night of February 15, 1982, the 46.2 meter high working platform of the "Ocean Ranger" was hit by such a monster wave...:
The force of the wave is so strong that watertight steel doors are smashed to pieces, seawater seeps into the control room and causes a short circuit.
The platform leans dangerously to one side, the power is gone, the pumps cannot be activated to drain the water that has entered...:
We know from radio communications between the "Ocean Ranger" and the US Coast Guard that desperate attempts by the crew to somehow restart the pumps or operate them manually failed.
As the drilling platform tilts more and more to the side, the order is "all hands aboard"!
Now the people on the rig, none of whom are seafarers, panic.
Instead of getting to safety in the plentiful free-fall lifeboats that are virtually unsinkable...
... people just jump into the sea.
All 87 crew members of the "Ocean Ranger" die - there are no survivors.
When the Coast Guard rescue helicopter reached the scene of the accident early in the morning, the following picture presented itself:
The giant oil rig has capsized!
In the next few days, the "Ocean Ranger" will sink to the bottom of the sea. The sea over the "Grand Banks" is so flat at this point and the "Ocean Ranger" so huge that when the sea is calm the remains of the oil rig still stick out of the water today...:
https://figure-mad.com/smf2/index.php?action=reporttm;topic=686.16;msg=154617
