[BITList] Drillship stuff

[HUGH]

I'm afraid I didn't sail on a drillship - Scotts built them, mid to late 70s, and I did the downhole stuff and BOP handling.  Expertise in that field on the Clyde was not commonplace, so, when the orders were placed, those and such as those of us went to lectures, so we could at least talk oilfield until our skills caught up.  The first ship delivered, Ben Ocean Lancer, was to a Dutch hull design for an American company overloaded with cigar smoking supers and convoluted channels of communication.  They hadn't a clue about the difference between a ship and an oilfield in Texas.  Nor had their approved suppliers in the US of A.  We got used to receiving documentation warning us in red type that the pump should be installed by a qualified electrician.  Also common were drawings sent in advance of equipment delivery, wholly lacking in anything that would tend to let a draughtsman work out where the hell to put it, and how to secure it. "We'll weld it down ourselves," was often heard in response to an inquiry.  All of this crap, and more, had to be sorted out, and was, though only at the cost of overloading the poor chap who spoke something like the same language as us. We learned that, shortly after she left, they burned the four BOP handling winches off the seats they were welded to and put them over the side on the grounds that they didn't like them.

The second ship, Pacnorse1, was a dream by comparison, and regardless of comparison.  There was one super, Sverre Barmen, with an assistant.  He only talked to the people actually doing the work and had regular meetings with them.  Great.

All my drillship stuff is in the loft, somewhere.

Hugh.

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