Canada, sinking of oil platform – February, 1982

On 15 February 1982, the Ocean Ranger, the world’s largest semisubmersible oil-drilling rig stationed in the North Atlantic 170 miles east of Newfoundland, Canada, encountered a one hundred mph storm. Storm waves swept over the uppermost deck and the rig began to list. A few hours later, in darkness, it sank and eighty-four lives were lost. All rescue efforts failed. It weighed 16,500 tons and was the largest self-propelled, semi-submersible, offshore drilling unit in the world at the time.

It was launched in 1976 and spent its first three years off the Alaskan coast in the Bering Sea, then was moved to a position off the coast of New Jersey in 1979 where it spent a year before moving again, this time to Ireland. In 1980 it was moved once more, to the Grand Banks, a relatively shallow area near Newfoundland, Canada.