Locating Black Gold on an Epic Sea Quest

Forty years ago this Saturday, January 7, 1966 Belfast was the centre of a momentous historical event that determined the United Kingdom's future, and steered the world into an important new industrial era. On January 7, 1966 the oilrig Sea Quest slid majestically into the Musgrave channel after a breathtaking pause that threatened to confirm the pessimists' theory that the launch was impossible.
The three-legged 8,000 ton sky-scraping metal monster defied German, Japanese and Korean expertise whose collective conclusion was that a drilling rig could never be successfully launched down three slipways in one piece.
This had never been done before, and their view was that the rig would break up in the process. The momentary pause as the launching procedure began, but the rig stood still, caused many hearts to flutter. The bottle of champagne had cracked open on one of her legs, but the monster remained lifeless. There was a flurry of activity on the slipway and Sea Quest began to move.
"I cried when she hit the water and floated proudly, towering above us," one of her painters told me recently, "and I still shed a tear when I think about it." At the time it was one of the world's largest and most expensive drilling rigs involving a total investment of well over pounds 3 million. George McAllister, foreman rigger on the Sea Quest explained, "Only one of the yard's cranes could reach her main top deck, the 150 ton floating crane." It was a proud day for the McAllister family; George's brother Alan was a rigger's helper on the job, and another brother Sam was manager of the rigging department.
Four and a half years later, on October 7, 1970 Sea Quest's owners, British Petroleum, made the announcement that was to change history. The Sea Quest had struck oil 110 miles east-northeast of Aberdeen in 350 feet of water. The crude oil was 11,000 feet beneath the seabed, and further drilling revealed large reservoirs at a depth of 7,000 feet. Known as the Forties, the field began producing in 1975, and peaked in 1979 at half a million barrels a day.
The process that Belfast had inaugurated meant that Britain ended its dependence on oil imports and her balance of payments was miraculously transformed. But it hadn't been oil that easy!
"The steel workers had a huge job," George McAllister told me, "the main problem was getting material onto the top deck."
"At the base of each leg were enormous pontoons twenty five feet in height. Everything was hollow so that water could be pumped in to set her at the right working level."
So when she was launched and completed they had to find deep water to test her out.
"There was a deep hole in the seabed off Blackhead where we were able to do the pumping trials," Mr McAllister explained, "we towed her out there. I think there were three or four tugs required."
I asked him what had happened during those terrible few seconds when she seemed to be stuck on her slipways.
"No one was allowed on the platform in case she would topple or break up," said George who had five squads of riggers under his command. "Three of the squads were in boats, and two were standing by on the slipways. One of the boat squads leaped onto the forward pontoon and attached cables to a tug."
With the help of some shipwrights, using hand operated jacks, the Sea Quest began to move. There was an enormous barge attached between the three pontoons to stabilise the massive structure when she hit the water.
"Everybody shouted at the men on the pontoon to jump off when the rig moved," said George, "but it was too late."
The whole rig, pontoons and barge, hit the water and the barge crunched on impact. There was an awful lot of noise, and the vibrations sent pieces of loose timber falling into the channel, and onto the stranded riggers on the pontoon.
"One of those guys was called Geordie Pollock, and his nickname was the 'Big Dipper' because he was fond of betting on the horses," said McAllister, smiling at his vivid memories.
"Geordie told me afterwards that when the pieces of wood started showering down on him he ran faster than any of his horses, even though there was nowhere to run to!"
But there were hundreds of tons of chains and anchors attached to the rig, which tethered her back as she slid along the thick coating of slippery tallow on the slipways. George was in one of the boats, and along with the other teams of riggers they clambered onto the pontoons, and attached the rig to the tugs.
"There was an amusing moment during fitting out," he remembered.
"An engineer was testing an escape line and asked for a volunteer. No one would, so he attached a sandbag to the harness and dropped it into the water far below.
"The sandbag smacked into the Lagan at a hundred miles an hour," laughed George, "but I think the engineer was only joking." However no one was joking about the immense success of the Sea Quest. She was launched from three slipways; just one of which had been previously used to launch the Canberra. For Belfast that was oil in a day's work.

Source: (C) 2006 Belfast News Letter