"Unsinkable" - The Ocean Ranger Oil Rig Disaster 1982 

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Literally every time someone calls a ship or rig “unsinkable”, it’s basically fated every ship and rig to drown

Lesson learned: Never ever label something unsinkable because it will end up sinking in no time.

I’m convinced that if someone claimed their ship is “hypersinkable” and gave it a weak name “glass” or “eggshell” that it’ll never sink.

You have a structure out in the ocean with a room full of essential electronics, and you fit a porthole? Really sensible.

hey Dark History, have you ever thought about doing a collaboration with Brick Immorter? i think it would be a great idea if you did ship disaster videos like this together, just an idea though i would like to see it

I’m from Newfoundland and I remember hearing of the people who died on the Ocean Ranger, decades later our economy is still completely dependant on these oil rig workers, so much respect

Whenever I hear that something is called 'unsinkable', I always think: "Did we learn nothing from the Titanic??"

Murphy's Law always pops into my head when I hear unsinkable, fireproof etc. If something CAN go wrong, it WILL go wrong.

Holy crap. I've never heard about this. That literally is a tragic disaster.

First rule of disaster: Never, never ever call a thing unbreakable, undestroyable or unsinkable. There will be always a person or circumstance to proof, that it´s not.

Imagine getting in a lifeboat and seeing a rescue vessel and thinking you survived only to die trying to board the rescue vessel. I hope all those guys families got taken care of for life.

Many of we older Canadian petro front-line men remember this tragedy every valentines day

new rule: NO ONE is allowed to call a vessel unsinkable. because CLEARLY, the ocean takes this as a challenge

Humans: "It's unsinkable." Nature: "And I took that personally."

Rule #1: if it can float, it can sink.

Note to self: Never set foot on anything declared unsinkable.

Just a note: whike you stated that 'everyone' was surprised that the Ocean Ranger had sunk, it's nickname was The Ocean Danger. Not many people who actually worked out there were surprised.

I remember when this tragedy happened 40 years and here in Newfoundland we still carry memorial service for the 84 souls lost at sea. One more thing a tragic footnote when the call went for help one of the responders was a Soviet fishing vessel but it was sunk in the same storm that sank the Ocean Ranger with most hands lost at sea. 😢

How can you blame the victims when it's finally admitted at the end that poor design and lack of training were at fault?

They ALL died 😢 ...even the last bunch that held out...how sad

It really seems like "unsinkable" and "worlds largest" just never end well

We should stop calling things unsinkable, because especialy these sink

Them: "unsinkable" Everyone: "oh no"

How many times do I have to tell you old man, calling something "unsinkable" will be fated to sink?

It seems that lifeboat designers never anticipate how to launch them while the ship is under adverse conditions

I have heard things about this tragic event for years. Thanks for putting it all together. I got out of the military in 1968 and worked for a company in Morgan City, Louisiana doing two way radio installation and repair work for companies on and offshore for about two years. I visited many of ODECO's floating rigs either doing work for them or the oil company leasing the rigs. I always liked ODECO and had a good rapport with their management. The two way radios were their way of communicating with the shore and boats working the rigs. I did this for two years before going to work for a pipeline company doing the same type of work. I was even trained on how to prepare and use the same type of lifeboats that were on the Ocean Ranger. They were meant to be used in case of a well blowout rather than bad weather. I always wondered about the ability to disconnect the cables once the lifeboat was in the water. On the Ocean Ranger when they pulled the drill pipe and stored it in the derrick they made the rig more unstable. Had they not pulled the drill pipe the storm would have dragged the rig and the upwind anchors downwind. This probably happened to some extent. They could control the slack in the anchor cables in normal weather to stay centered over the well site. On the rigs I visited the anchors and ballast were controlled in a wheel house type of room above deck. You could look out much like being on a big ship. I thank the good lord for looking out for me. During my time working in the Gulf of Mexico I was on two rigs that had blowouts, fought a fire on one rig by myself for 20 minutes before I could get help, fell off a rig once, road two boats in bad weather that almost sunk, rode on a helicopter that had the engine quit and weathered two hurricanes in place before Camille put a stop to that. I eventually went back to school and got two engibering degrees and a masters in education. I am now 76 years old and retired.

I like what Mark Twain said about an expert: "Just some guy from out of town." When "experts" say a vessel is "unsinkable," it's sinkable.

The ocean seems to take any vessel called unsinkable as a personal challenge

Oh the power of Mother Nature!!!! Never underestimate her! Such a terrifying & sad ordeal.😪

I never heard of this disaster. What a terrifying, awful way to die! Rip to all who lost their lives. 😢😢😢

Unsinkable Titanic: been there, done that

Speaking of Canada, would you ever do the Halifax Explosion? I've read about it before but I think your form of narration would be really interesting.

I wouldn’t get in a canoe on a duck pond if someone said it was unsinkable.

Anytime somebody calls a Ocean going vessel "unsinkable" karma proves otherwise just ask the German battle ship Bismarck, or the Japanese battle ship Yamato both were claimed to be "unsinkable" and both are on the bottom

Never describe any floating object as unsinkable.... the Sea will say, "Hold my beer!"

Technically while not unsinkable it was extremely unlikely it would sink. if everybody had been well trained and proper equipment used it never would have tipped over. Just the malfunctioning panel alone should not have been enough. And you heard it took 3 hours to actually sink. Titanic had less than an hour. More of a tragedy than it should have been. That’s the tragedy.

oxidation is loss, reduction is gain, unsinkable is sealing your fate

it went from the largest semi-submersible oil rig in the world to the largest fully-submersible oil rig in the world!

This video was legit just the same info repeated multiple times in slightly different ways. Not sure if that was intentional to pad your run time, or just bad script writing…either way, not cool

Titanic but oil rig

You would think that anyone in the ocean marine trades would strike the word "Unsinkable: from their vocabulary! Each and every time that word is used to describe a vessel its guaranteed to sink.

Reportedly nicknamed “Ocean Danger.”

I would think that after 1912 no one will belive calling something "unsinkable" is goog idea

42yrs as of yesterday.. may they RIP...

You would think that people trained to work on oil rigs and ocean going boats that have experience would immediately know the significance and danger of that porthole breaking and water getting into that particular room. I mean even I was like uhhh... ballast control?!? That's super important....like sink the vessel important....it's very sad that they really had no chance after a certain point that they didn't even know was coming until it was too late.

Water on a panel. I don't think we're going to make it on Mars.

As a Newfoundlander born in the early 2000's, this story still hurts to this day. May god rest the souls of the sailors aboard the Ocean Ranger.

If you call something "unsinkable" you're just daring Poseidon to end its career.

Ocean Ranger Architects: "Any attack made by the ocean against this derrick would be a useless gesture, no matter what size the waves will incline! This derrick is now the ultimate oil rig in the Atlantic! I suggest we use it." The Ocean: "YOUR ARROGANCE BLINDS YOU!"

I’m convinced that when anyone claims that something is unsinkable or any of the other immunities that it summons a force in some shape or form that solely exists to destroy that so called immune creation in the most “impossible” way.

I will trust a ship made out of tissue paper before I trust a ship labeled as “Unsinkable”

Would love to see you do a video on the Alexander L. Kielland oil rig disaster 😍

They should have thought about what happened 70 years before naming it unsinkable

Guess New Jersey and Ireland are as "mobile" as Mobil Oil Company, because you kinda missed with the the location pins... But a great video otherwise, and this story is yet another case study of "never say it's impossible"...

I'm from there. It is still something that is talked about where I live. A lot of Newfoundland is small communities, where everyone knows everyone. The Ocean Ranger and the Cougar helicopter flight 91 crash are essentially seared into Newfoundlanders and Labradorian's memories.

8:08 reminds me of a certain submarine disaster that wasnt equipped with mundane diving gear, despite being built with a submerged diving bay You'd have thought they would use inflatable boats or something, instead of canoe-danger, easily sinkable, tip-over wood boats.

Lesson of the day: Never call something "Unsinkable"

Oh god this is heartwrenching. RIP to all those poor people. Moral of the story.... never call anything 'unsinkable'

The ultimate cause of the death of 84 men WAS NOT that the rig sank, for whatever reason. Nobody believed the rig was "unsinkable" otherwise it wouldn't have carried lifeboats. The major failing here that doomed the workers was that nobody thought about the reality of launching lifeboats from high above the water in heavy seas, if they had then they would have supplied steel, not fibreglass, lifeboats, which if banged against the rig would not have shattered. Given the known water temperatures the men should also have been supplied with emergency survival suits.

“Jim.” “…” “What have we learned?” “To not call ships unsinkable” “What was that?” “To not call ships unsinkable.” “That’s what I like to hear.”

The scary thing is.... the area in which this sank also lays the titanic at bottom of the sea, pretty close to where this happened.... both "Unsinkable"... coincidence? :O

Ismay: _"But this ship can't sink!"_ Andrews: _"She is made of iron, sir. I assure you, she can. And she will. It is a mathematical certainty."_

To put the ballast control room in one of the pontoons close to the waterline was a big misstake. Why put a controlroom in there in the first place? Its a completley unlogical placement of a such thing. Controlrooms should be on or near the bridge where the rest of the vessel is operated from. All controls at one place and in a safe location.

What a nightmare. Even tho I know basically the general ending, I’m listening to things start going to hell, and I’m still hoping that history changes b4 the end of the video, and no one ends up dying.

We should start naming ships and oil platforms shit like "totally 100% sinkable" then it will be *safer* than any other vessel/platform on the seas.

I wouldn't refer to ANYTHING as unsinkable! Titanic the unsinkable ship! This unsinkable Rig! Attaching the word "Unsinkable" seems to have the opposite effect! It SINKS! I would be hard pressed to board anything referred to as unsinkable! Turn around & walk away! 😬

Omg! McLovin! Any one else catch that? 🤣🤣🤣 1:29

It's pronounced "New-fund-land", not "New-fund-lund", at least in my corner of Canada.

The gross indifference and complete lack of concern for employees safety is par for the course for corporations. They only care as much as the law requires them to.

Let’s stop declaring shit to be “unsinkable”. Mother Nature seems to take that as a direct challenge.

I really appreciate you put metric system Good video indeed

Plzzzz stop calling things for ”unsinkable”. It’s like you are begging for catastrophe. Look what happened to Titanic

Yeah that oil rig did a Poseidon Adventure.

0:20 I have never heard of Noo-fn-Lund.

You do realize those plague mask where rarely used right? Ohh and they never worked either. Still don't understand where the obsession with this stupid mask came from.

Call anything unsinkable,God process to sink said unsinkable thing man creates may those who parished at sea be forever remembered

Like Thomas Andrew of the Titanic said God couldn’t sink this ship. Don’t mock God.

They knew a big storm was coming why didn't they bring all workers back to St.Johns?

Can you the disaster of the oil rings deep water horizon in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010

Maybe we should stop saying something is unsinkable or indestructible

If I was to own a Ship/Boat or any kind of Water Craft I would name it the "Sinkable"

This whole time I thought this was the true story from the movie Deepwater Horizon. Come to find out that’s a completely separate and equally tragic event. Who knows how many more there are ? So sad

Can you cover the stardust fire? I’m suprised it doesn’t get much coverage when they locked their customers inside.

One broken window brings down the whole neighborhood.

Unsinkable? Water "hold my beer" Sad for the people who lost their lives though.

Wait rigs can sink bro? I don’t think I’ve ever thought about that Makes sense though

For equipment as vital as ballast control, there should've been a backup ballast control room on the port side.

00:05 dude don’t care anymore

that's too sad, just when they were in the face of hope of being rescued then suddenly their boat tumbled over

It didn't sink, it was upgraded to a fully submersible oil rig

I really wish people would stop calling things unsinkable.

A real life death star type flaw. So minor of an oversight ultimately doomed it. condolences to the families

sunk by the weakest element - porthole glass worth less than a dollar...

How too familiar does this story sound? Unsinkable ships & rigs plus fireproof theatres & hotels! Yup we know the outcome of these tales. xXx

Dear Americans...I understAND NewfoundlAND

New Fin Land. Not New Fin Lund. Understand = Newfoundland

Titanic: “Come on in boys, the waters fine.”

Mother Nature or human error will always find a way to sink anything that is unsinkable.

At the end of this documentary, it is stated that human negligence was to blame for this devastating event. To use the word negligence implies intent. Legally, I disagree with this because those on board did the best they could with the knowledge and training they were provided to save to rig and the people aboard it. I think a more appropriate term would have been human error because obviously no one wanted this to happen, and the company would have prevented the catastrophic loss of life and equipment if possible. Unfortunately, especially in areas of technology, we learn the most from these horrible incidents and accidents. This is why every time a plane crashes, the NTSB reports and in those reports make recommendations that improve the systems in which contributed to the crash.