On the night of February 14–15, 1982, the Ocean Ranger — one of the largest self-propelled semi-submersible drilling rigs in the world — was drilling an exploration well for Mobil Oil Canada on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, 267 kilometres (166 miles) east of St. John’s, when a severe winter storm struck the area, with winds reported at 100 knots and waves of 17 to 20 metres. Before the night was over the rig had capsized and sunk. All 84 men aboard were lost; there were no survivors.
At about 7 p.m. on February 14, spray from a large wave smashed a portlight in the ballast control room, which sat only 8.5 metres above the waterline. Seawater entered the room and shorted out the ballast control panel. Other rigs nearby then heard radio traffic from the Ocean Ranger reporting that the valves on the panel appeared to be opening and closing of their own accord. Ballast water moved into the forward tanks, and the rig developed a list of 10 to 15 degrees toward the bow.
The crew had neither detailed instructions nor proper training for operating the complex ballast system by hand, and the list could not be corrected: with the rig down by the bow, the ballast pumps aft could no longer draw from the forward tanks. As the list increased, waves poured into the forward chain lockers, destroying buoyancy, and in the early hours of February 15 the Ocean Ranger capsized and sank, coming to rest upside down on the seabed. Only 22 bodies were ever recovered.
A joint federal-provincial Royal Commission investigated for two years, issuing its first report in 1984. It found flaws in the rig’s design and construction, above all the vulnerable ballast control room; a crew untrained in the ballast system on which the rig’s survival depended; inadequate safety equipment, including the lack of proper survival suits for abandoning into a winter ocean; and ineffective inspection and regulation by both Canadian and United States government agencies.
The commission’s recommendations reshaped safety in the Atlantic Canadian offshore: certified training in ballast control, immersion survival suits and improved lifesaving equipment, dedicated standby vessels, and a stronger, dedicated offshore regulator, leading toward the Canada–Newfoundland offshore petroleum board and the modern regulatory regime. The 84 men of the Ocean Ranger are commemorated every February 15 in Newfoundland and Labrador.