The Ocean Ranger: Remaking the Promise of Oil

by Susan Dodd

Reflecting on Canada’s worst sea disaster since World War II, this chronicle captures the 1982 sinking of the oil rig Ocean Ranger, which took the entire crew of 84 men—including the author’s brother—down with it. The memory of this tragic event gradually faded into a sad story about a terrible storm, relegated to the “Extreme Weather” section of the news archives. Resurrecting this disaster from the realm of history, this study maps the sociopolitical processes of its aftermath, when power, money, and collective hopes for the future transformed a story of corporate indifference and betrayal of public trust into a “lesson learned” by a heroic industry. This book acts as a navigational resource for other disaster aftermaths—including that of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico—as well as a call for vigilant government regulation of industry in all its forms.

192 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2012

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up as part of research for an updated exhibit on the Ocean Ranger. I didn't realize how powerful the book would be. It is terrifying to think about how much workers are still put at risk as we continue to allow the oil industry to self-regulate on many safety issues. After the Deepwater Horizon disaster, reading this book makes the reader wonder if those who died off the shores of Newfoundland died in vain, even with the safety regulations that were then put in after the Ocean Ranger and the Cougar Helicopter tragedy.