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    On February 15^th, 1982, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians witnessed the worst offshore drilling accident in Canadian history with the loss of 84 lives.

The Ocean Ranger was built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Japan and first operated in the Bering Sea off Alaska in 1976. From there it moved to New Jersey, then Ireland and in November 1980 arrived on the Grand Banks. The Ocean Ranger was a massive oil rig touted as unsinkable and able to drill in areas too dangerous for other rigs. She was the pride of the offshore oil industry, the biggest rig of her day. On February 15, 1982 the semi submersible drilling rig the Ocean Ranger capsized and sank on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, 170 miles East of St. John’s.

On Sunday, February 14^th, a vicious storm developed south of Newfoundland and headed for the Grand Banks. By sunset that very day, winds were up to 90 knots and seas were building rapidly. At around 7pm, with seas over 30meters (100feet) high, the main deck of the Ocean Ranger reported an especially huge wave. Sometime after 7pm the Ocean Ranger reported to the mobile shore base in St. John’s that a giant wave crashed over the rig smashing a porthole in the ballast control room. Water rushed in and shorted out circuits and the rig began to list. No one on board could stop what was happening. At 1:05am they requested that the supply ship come close and to stand by. At 1:09 it sent an SOS signal to search and rescue. "We're listing badly and we need to get the seamen off the rig.." Another call from the Ocean Ranger states, "We may not be able to hold the rig, rig might fall over..." At 1:30, the Ocean Ranger signaled it was sending its crew to lifeboats. That was the last time anyone heard from them. Two hours later at 3:38 a.m Coast Guard and other rescuers watched their radars as the Ocean Ranger disappeared. By 2:00 a.m., supply boats in the area had come to rescue people, or at least try. Tom Cane was onboard one such vessel and recalls, "We got close enough to see people. Fifteen or twenty feet and we were trying to get boot hooks out to them.....reach out and try to get a hook into a bit of clothing or something because I don't say they would last long in a cold night like that." Despite their efforts all rescue attempts failed and all crew members perished.

Owen Meyers was the weather forecaster on another oil rig, the Sedco 706 just fourteen kilometres from the Ocean Ranger. He remembers "We didn't have anything. We didn’t have all the survival suits like they have now. We had nothing, you know. I mean you were just going to go out in the Atlantic Ocean. I mean the sea water temperature was -1.2 degrees I think."

All 84 crew members died. Over the next 4 days search teams were only able to recover 22 bodies, 2 life boats, and 6 life rafts. Autopsies showed those men had drowned. A Royal Commission looked into the disaster. It concluded the Ocean Ranger had design flaws, particularly in the ballast control room, and that the crew lacked proper safety training and equipment.