Alexander Kielland wreck
Edda 2/7C and Alexander L. Kielland (right)
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| History | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Alexander L. Kielland |
| Owner: | A. Gowart-Olsen A/S |
| Operator: | Stavanger Drilling II |
| Builder: | Compagnie Francaise d’Entreprises Métalliques (CFEM), Dunkerque, France |
| Launched: | 5 June 1976 |
| Fate: | capsized / sunk at 56°27′53″N 3°06′16″E / 56.464839°N 3.104464°ECoordinates: 56°27′53″N 3°06′16″E / 56.464839°N 3.104464°E |
| General characteristics | |
| Length: | 103 m (338 ft) |
| Beam: | 99 m (325 ft) |
Alexander L. Kielland was a Norwegian semi-submersible drilling rig that capsized while working in the Ekofisk oil field in March 1980, killing 123 people. It was a platform of the Pentagone series.
The capsize was the worst disaster in Norwegian waters since World War II. The rig, located approximately 320 km east of Dundee, Scotland, was owned by the Stavanger Drilling Company of Norway and was on hire to the U.S. company Phillips Petroleum at the time of the disaster. The rig was named after the Norwegian writer Alexander Lange Kielland.
The rig was built as a mobile drilling unit at a French shipyard, and delivered to Stavanger Drilling in July 1976. The floating drill rig was not used for drilling purposes but served as a semi-submersible 'flotel' providing living quarters for offshore workers. By 1978 additional accommodation blocks had been added to the platform, so that up to 386 persons could be accommodated.
In 1980, the platform was working in the Norwegian North Sea providing offshore accommodation for the production platform Edda 2/7C.
In driving rain and mist, early in the evening of 27 March 1980 more than 200 men were off duty in the accommodation on Alexander L. Kielland. The wind was gusting to 40 knots (74 km/h) with waves up to 12 m high. The rig had just been winched away from the Edda production platform.
Minutes before 18:30, those on board felt a 'sharp crack' followed by 'some kind of trembling'. Suddenly the rig heeled over 30° and then stabilised. Five of the six anchor cables had broken, the one remaining cable preventing the rig from capsizing. The list continued to increase and at 18:53, the remaining anchor cable snapped and the rig capsized.
130 men were in the mess hall and the cinema. The rig had seven 50-man lifeboats and twenty 20-man rafts. Four lifeboats were launched, but only one managed to release from the lowering cables. (A safety device did not allow release until the strain was removed from the cables.) A fifth lifeboat came adrift and surfaced upside down; its occupants righted it and gathered 19 men from the water. Two of Kielland's rafts were detached and three men were rescued from them. Two 12-man rafts were thrown from Edda and rescued 13 survivors. Seven men were taken from the sea by supply boats and seven swam to Edda.
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Wikipedia