Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello. Hello. Welcome to another shorthand where today is going to be my aim to make everybody feel very uncomfortable.
When is it ever not your aim to do that?
Good question. So yes, we are all, are we not, Hannah, obsessed with deep sea diving? Oh, too much.
Last breath, man. I've watched that like seven times.
If you have not watched The Last Breath... I don't know how else I can sell it to you. Go watch it. It is so fucking harrowing. I love it.
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Chapter 2: What is the Byford Dolphin incident and why is it significant?
It's so good. We're not supposed to go down there. I know. That is the fucking theme of this entire episode. Why can't we just stay on land where we belong? Quite. Because yes, I'm sure all of you listening, just like Hannah and I, are completely obsessed with deep sea diving. Either because we're nuts and we want to try it, or we already do it.
Or because it's a horrific nightmare and the very idea makes us want to jump out of a window. I firmly fall into the latter category. And despite my horror, or I guess because of it, I watch every single documentary, YouTube video and news report about all the things that can go wrong deep down under the sea.
Usually, the people getting themselves into all sorts of trouble down there are recreational divers. People who have pushed themselves too far or made some sort of terrible calculation while trying to dive in some godforsaken underwater cave. Things don't go wrong as often when it comes to commercial diving.
But when things do go awry in that particular arena, the results are usually catastrophic. And the story we have for you today, the 1973 Byford Dolphin incident, is widely regarded as one of the most horrific ocean deaths ever. But how did it happen, and why? What exactly led to two men being crushed, three men boiling to death, and one man being liquefied and shot out of a five-inch hole?
Well, prepare yourselves. This is The Shorthand, and it's definitely a no-eating episode.
Let us begin with an oil rig, a specific one. In 1974, the Biford Dolphin was launched. It was a Norwegian purpose-built semi-submersible oil rig. And if you're having trouble mentally picturing that, try imagining a huge ship that could morph into oil and gas drilling platforms in the middle of the ocean. And the Biford Dolphin was stationed off the coast of Norway, because Norway have what?
Way more fucking oil than everybody else, and that's why they're not in the EU, because they don't need to be. The Biver Dolphin was a state-of-the-art rig when it was built. Absolutely massive. It weighed 3,000 tonnes, could carry a crew of 100 people and was capable of drilling to a staggering 20,000 foot.
And since it was the absolute cutting edge of technology at the time, it required a lot of complex management. like keeping the rig steady above water, drilling into the seafloor itself, and of course, the maintenance of all that equipment sitting under the water, often at enormously huge depths.
And those charged with taking care of this equipment and carrying out any repairs it may need are known as saturation divers. And as if working on an oil rig wasn't dangerous enough... It's the saturation divers who are by far at the most risk to the point where if you watch or have watched The Last Breath, you will know what I'm talking about.
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Chapter 3: What roles do saturation divers play on oil rigs?
It is likely that the crew were all exhausted. The company had actually lobbied the government to allow them to work the divers longer than the industry standard eight-hour shifts.
Yeah, he had literally, like, gone to the Norwegian government, who owns the Byford Dolphin, to be like, eight hours is really not cutting it. Can we work them, like, 14? And the government were like, oh, company, we weren't asking that. Yeah, of course you can. Don't worry about it.
Additionally, there was a storm raging that night.
So, it was extremely loud, according to everyone. And the divers and the tenders were all shouting to each other to communicate. It seems that something like this happening, something like this going so catastrophically wrong, was just a matter of time. Especially when you consider that the year before, a new collar had been mandated on all other oil rigs.
And this new collar came with new clamps that were impossible to remove while the trunk was under pressure. That feels like something that should always have been like that. Doesn't it just?
But for some reason, the Biford was told that they could just fit these new clamps when they got round to it, when they got a chance. Even though all other oil rigs had been told they had to do it immediately. So chidover. Yeah. And look, if pressure-resistant ramps had been fitted and used on the Biford Dolphin, this horrible incident would never have happened.
But there were also other safety measures that other rigs had introduced, like gauges on the outside of the structure so that the pressure could be seen by the tenders. Like, this is so important. The tenders are on the outside. They're not in the living chambers or in the trunk or in the diving boat. They're on the outside on the surface of the rig.
And they're basically just helping maneuver the trunks into place. But there are no gauges on the bifurcated dolphin outside. So they can only hear the men inside yelling to them. Like, you know, we've closed the door. You can take the collar off now. Like, If they could have seen the pressure gauge, they never would have unclipped it. And remember, like you said, there's a fucking storm raging.
They can barely hear anything anyway. It is honestly, it is just so infuriating. Also, another thing that other oil rigs had introduced was coloured traffic lights that would just indicate when doors were open and closed. If there had just been like a green light or a red light or whatever indicating that Trolls was yet to fully close that door, Kremen's never taken that fucking collar off.
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