[BITList] Fwd: Sean Ennis, Merchant Navy captain - obituary - Telegraph

Wed Mar 18 10:41:32 GMT 2015

From a correspondent …

Capt. Ennis deserved it:

What he did was remarkable - his ship was totally unsuited for the job (if I remember, a converted fishing boat without bow thrusters etc.) and his rescue boats had exposed fuel tanks.
He went way above what anyone could have expected of him yet the first reaction from the press was to castigate him for not getting closer, or staying longer.  
Ha!  I’ve been there and was at the time of the American (Occidental) owned Piper accident was on a FiFi3 firefighting supply/support ship and would have sailed to help at the Piper, if only our ship had not been undergoing a refit.
I had previously been the Mate on the COLTAIR (below)

I’ve met others involved with the Piper and other blowouts and yes - state of shock is the only way to describe it.  The violence and proximity of these explosions is unbelievable yet when there was a blow-out on one of our platforms and 4 miles of drill string shot up into the air,  one of the crane drivers still kept his cool and swung his derrick round to rescue a rigger who had been working up in the drill tower.

Apart from the appalling loss of life, the saddest aspect was the results of the Piper Enquiry.  The government and the offshore industry promised all sorts of the things including the requirement for specialist stand by vessels, but after the many years the enquiry took, very little was resolved and most of us considered it a whitewash.  Yes, some specialist offshore support vessels were built, and some of the enlightened offshore oil companies already had their own, such as B.P. Exploration’s ’SEAGAIR’ below which was operating at their northern Magnus oil field before the Piper incident.

    http://transportsofdelight.smugmug.com/SHIPS/Merchant-Shipping/YARMOUTH/16538785_5JP4Hq/2392164020_TNRTFx5#!i=2392164020&k=TNRTFx5 <http://transportsofdelight.smugmug.com/SHIPS/Merchant-Shipping/YARMOUTH/16538785_5JP4Hq/2392164020_TNRTFx5#!i=2392164020&k=TNRTFx5>

(note ex-fishing boat with her orange hull as an offshore ’standby’ vessel just forward of her bows - that was the standard North Sea platform stand-by vessel at the time of Piper Alpha)

SEAGAIR, which I was asked to visit during her construction and later on which I sailed  briefly as night-Master.  
She had ‘Jeapodous 2’ protection which allowed her to motor through a hydrocarbon gas cloud as well as having a full water curtain to protect herself while fire fighting and rescuing in very close proximity to a blowout.
Most of her fire-fighting equipment was at her stern, allowing her to take helicopters during a fire - most North Sea helicopter pilots were ex-Forces.

at the platform for which she was built:  Magnus, 160 k north-east of the Shetlands - for scale the airspace between the sea and the base of the platform is 100 foot, to allow for the “freak 100 ft wave expected once every 100 years”  We had 2 during our 1st. year there!

> 
> My own 5,000 t. ship in the foreground, with ‘COLTAIR’ in the distance as northern sector disaster ship,
> (ex Forties Kiwi, ex British Kiwi 15,000 ton product tanker)
> waiting for her replacement below

>  
Magnus, with SEAGAIR in normal close attendance, and B.P. Explo’s IOLAIR disaster platform alongside.  IOLAIR took over from the COLTAIR which was then 25 years old.

IOLAIR was the northern sector’s disaster ship with full FiFi and rescue capability.  Seen above in what looks like a Force 8 - and in order to keep her platform connected, B.P. spent £18m on her gangway’s development.  
The IOLAIR doubled as a floated and the fully self-supporting, remote controlled and stabilised gangway was used for rig workers to get to work.  It also carried all emergency support to the platform.

COLTAIR (Gaelic for puffin, ex Forties Kiwi) converted from her tanker operations in 1974.
Note, barely visible control cab under the after end of the extended helicopter platform.  This was for guiding the ship when backing under a platform overhang so riggers could evacuate onto that extended helideck.
Once the platform was abandoned, COLTAIR would spin around with her 4 azimuth thrusters and engage the fire with her 3 remote controlled bow water cannons, each capable of pumping 2,000 tonnes of seawater an hour,
powered by her redundant cargo pumps.  The 4th cargo pump provided a water curtain over the amidships bridge.
The white hatches on her side were for the rescue boats to land survivors from the water, with direct access to the ship’s hospital.

The Enquiry recommended, but did not require the building of such vessels as the SEAGAIR.  It took many years before the last of those old ex-trawlers were withdrawn.
and interesting to compare the fines Occidental received compared with those by B.P. for their recent accident Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, and which may break the company yet.

So yes,  Sean Ennis rightly deserved his obituary,

http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/member.php?uid=57091&protype=1 <http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/member.php?uid=57091&protype=1>

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