Remembering the Ocean Ranger

Ocean Ranger was a semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit that sank in Canadian waters on 15 February 1982.

It was drilling an exploration well on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, 267 kilometres east of St. John's, for Mobil Oil of Canada, Ltd. with 84 crew members on board when it sank.

There were no survivors.

At 1:30 local time, Ocean Ranger transmitted its last message: "There will be no further radio communications from Ocean Ranger. We are going to lifeboat stations." Shortly thereafter, in the middle of the night and in the midst of severe winter weather, the crew abandoned the platform. The platform remained afloat for another ninety minutes, sinking between 3:07 and 3:13 local time.