Folklore: Ocean Ranger - 30 years

Subject: RE: Guitar Chords 'The Ocean Ranger'
From: MMario
Date: 24 Jan 03 - 12:20 PM

if anyone has a mid or dots,...it is one of the DT "missing tunes"

Subject: Ocean Ranger Feb 15 1982
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 02:45 PM

Well, today is the anniversery. I can't believe it was that long ago...mg

Subject: RE: Ocean Ranger Feb 15 1982
From: Beer
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 03:44 PM

Wow! How time does pass quickly.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: Folklore: Ocean Ranger - 30 years
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Feb 12 - 10:52 AM

30 years today, the Ocean Ranger went down off the coast of Newfoundland.

In tribute, here's Ron Hynes' Atlantic Blue [lyrics thread: (click)]

Subject: RE: Folklore: Ocean Ranger - 30 years
From: mg
Date: 15 Feb 12 - 10:55 AM

It was truly sad...and so many people got Valentines from them after the disaster...I still don't know the whole story about how some survived and were in the lifeboats and the boats took on water or something...mg

Subject: RE: Folklore: Ocean Ranger - 30 years
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 15 Feb 12 - 11:46 AM

The power of a North Atlantic storm stronger in force than many hurricanes combined with human error took the Ocean Ranger down. The rig did not even carry survival suits because the regulations did not "require" them. 84 men died needlessly because of design errors and poor training! May they forever rest in peace!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Ocean Ranger - 30 years
From: Beer
Date: 15 Feb 12 - 11:57 AM

Where does the time go. Thanks for posting this and Ron did a wonderful job in composing this song.
Adrien

Subject: RE: Folklore: Ocean Ranger - 30 years
From: mg
Date: 15 Feb 12 - 01:13 PM

It was a broken window in the computer room I heard (from an engineer who worked on it..) and that caused power shortages and then what was used to stabilize the rig did not work..so it was not like it just tipped over..but there are tragic stories about people making it into lifeboats..as usual I scramble them in my head...the cover on the lifeboats maybe didn't close properly and they flooded? Don't know. It seems to me there were a least two lifeboats with survivors.

And in the 84..does that include vendors? I found out much later than someone had died who supplied the rig so he probably would not be on the list of 84..

Plus a Russian boat went down trying to rescue them or reach them...loaded with pulp..took on water I guess. mg

Subject: ADD: Ocean Ranger (MG)
From: mg
Date: 15 Feb 12 - 01:19 PM

Here is my song..written as it happened..tune is Southern Cross

  OCEAN RANGER
  (MG)
  
  On the fifteenth day of February
    Nineteen-Eighty-Two
  The Ocean Ranger was capsized
    And lost all of its crew
  84 precious lives were lost
    On that sad and fateful day
  Some were Newfoundlanders
    And some were C.F.A. (come from away)
  
  The crew in desperation tried
    To launch their covered boats
  When they saw the rig, the Ranger
    Would no longer stay afloat
  But the seas were far too treacherous
    And the waves were far too high
  And each man knew that hope was gone
    It was his time to die
  
  And what an awful night it was
    Out on those roaring seas
  The Russian freighter went down too
    Just sixteen miles east
  And thirty Russian lives were lost
    And they were just as dear
  As those we lost from Newfoundland
    And memories we rever
  
  Like their sons who follow after
    And their fathers gone before
  Our men must earn their living
    On that wild and treacherous shore
  And whether they're hunting fish
    Or seals, whales, or crude oil
  They must endure and persevere
    In hardship and in toil
  
  And now the wakes are over
    And the masses have been said
  And the widows and the orphans
    Now are left to mourn their dead
  We pray to God the father
    And the son, and holy ghost
  To protect all those who venture forth
    Off Newfoundland's fateful coast

Subject: ADD: Ocean Ranger (Mike Kennedy)
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 15 Feb 12 - 02:07 PM

the first song that Mike ever wrote was this song written in response to the tragedy....

OCEAN RANGER
(Mike Kennedy)


Word has come to Newfoundland, the Ocean Ranger's down
They're sending out the rescue boat from the harbor at Saint Johns
She's going out upon the banks, a hundred -twenty miles
And they hope the oceans have been kind, they pray that fortune smiles

The helos sit at Stephenville, they await the word to go
The pilots walk the tarmac as they watch the ice and snow
They cup their coffee in their hands to keep away the cold
For they know that time is all to short and the day is growing old

The skipper on the searcher, now, he's been out here before
He started on the Franklin just before the war
The weather comes from north-northeast, the wind she backs around
She's taking ice upon her bows, he slows the engines down

The weather clears at Stephenville, they head out to the east
Their rotors scream a mournful cry, like gulls that search the beach
They head out under hanging clouds, above the ocean's throngs
And they send the word to old Saint Johns, the Ocean Ranger's gone

The word comes o'er the ship-to-shore, he turns the boat around
He puts her stern into the wind and heads back for Saint Johns
Last time out they won the race, last time they brought 'em in
But men have died and more will die off of Newfoundland

Some men are bound to sea, they fish or hunt the whale
Some are bound to snow or ice, and some to storm or gale
Other men are sent to sea to fight their country's wars
Beneath the hell of shot and shell the gray sea waits for more

So, the news comes back to Newfoundland, the Ocean Ranger's gone
The church bells ring for eighty-four, they sing a parting psalm
Prayers are said for those who've died and those at sea who toil
For more than money has been spent for North Atlantic oil.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Ocean Ranger - 30 years
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 15 Feb 12 - 03:20 PM

The Ocean Ranger was designed to float supported on submersed pontoons filled with ballast tanks. The ballast was controlled by pumping air or water into these tanks to maintain the rig's upright stance. Massive waves smashed portholes 90 feet above sea level flooding the control systems for the ballast pumps. Without being able to balance the tanks she tipped and sank. Many were lost because they were cast into the sea without survival gear. The lifeboats were not well designed and they could not be retrieved by the supply tug until the seas subsided and by then it was too late. After the disaster regulations were tightened, and survival capsuls were designed that were enclosed and would float like a cork. Survival suits and training in their use became manditory for every person venturing onto the rigs. With all the proper equipment and training in place some would probably have made it.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Ocean Ranger - 30 years
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 15 Feb 12 - 03:26 PM

It seems to me that many had their own survival suits but they might not have been issued them..which is nothing less than crazy.

Guest..who is Mike and how can we hear that song? It is awesome. Is it on you tube perhaps?

I remember how hard it was to get a list of the names who were on it..I had friends who rotated on and off..all seemed to be off but I suspect there were faces but not names I would have known. mg

Subject: RE: Folklore: Ocean Ranger - 30 years
From: Beer
Date: 15 Feb 12 - 04:10 PM

Well said.

http://youtu.be/XIw3ACoIF6o

ad.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Ocean Ranger - 30 years
From: sciencegeek
Date: 15 Feb 12 - 09:29 PM

thank you, mg....

Mike Kennedy (the hubby) wrote this in 1982, a month or so after the sinking. He hasn't sung it years and used the made up name Ander Lough for the airfield ( pre-goggle years- he found Ander Lake on a map & substituted Lough for Lake - but I recently learned of Stephenville airfield & replaced it when I typed up the lyrics for Mike. He'll probably grumble a bit, it scans & is a tad closer to what happened. :)

Mike served on a US destroyer and they lost a man overboard- never recovered the body, so I think some of that got channeled into the song.

If you if you send me a PM I'll PM you back with an mp3 - but not too quickly... I'm slow.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Ocean Ranger - 30 years
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Feb 12 - 08:20 AM

Sciencegeek-

That's certainly another fine song that Mike Kennedy composed. It really has the feel of the grim reality facing those aboard the Ocean Ranger and the challenge facing the rescuers, and the detail to fill in the story.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Folklore: Ocean Ranger - 30 years
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 16 Feb 12 - 11:10 AM

thanks for the kind words, Charlie...

I didn't realize that Mike had recently finished a song about losing the sailor from the destroyer he was on.

and thank you, mg for your PM... Mike is flattered by your interest and make contact soon.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Ocean Ranger - 30 years
From: sciencegeek
Date: 16 Feb 12 - 06:18 PM

found this for those interested:

In January 2012, a non-fiction book, The Ocean Ranger: Remaking the Promise of Oil was published in Canada by Fernwood Publishing. The book's author, Susan Dodd, lost her older brother Jim with the sinking of the Ocean Ranger and watched, for years, as her parents pursued legal struggles with the oil companies.

Subject: Disaster Songs
From: GUEST,Joe Scanlon
Date: 09 Apr 12 - 02:23 AM

One song about Ocean Ranger goes as follows

The Ocean Ranger was capsized
And lost all of its crew;
Eighty-four precious lives were lost
On that sad and fateful day,
Some were Newfoundlanders
And some were CFA.

What is "CFA"?

Joe Scanlon

Subject: RE: Folklore: Ocean Ranger - 30 years
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 09 Apr 12 - 02:52 AM

Come from away

Subject: RE: Chords Req: The Ocean Ranger
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Apr 12 - 02:54 AM

I notice that the songwriter's name in the Digital Tradition version is most probably wrong. Would the songwriter like to submit corrections? Thanks for the explanation for "CFA" - is that term used in Newfoundland?
Take a look at the third verse - the post above says it was a Russian freighter that sank, while the DT says it was a trawler - I would suppose that "freighter" is correct, right? That third verse ends with the word "rever," which I can't find in my dictionary - should that be "revere"?

GEST (Songs of Newfoundland) has lots of information on a number of songs about the Ocean Ranger.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Folklore: Ocean Ranger - 30 years
From: GUEST,Scoop Scanlon
Date: 09 Apr 12 - 03:38 AM

My best friend has moved to PEI where his wife is the daughter of the former small town doctor and he is known as the doctor's daughter's husband from away.
I should have realized CFA is "come from away".
Ouch!
Joe Scanlon

Subject: RE: Folklore: Ocean Ranger - 30 years
From: Scoop Scanlon
Date: 09 Apr 12 - 03:49 AM

Some of those close to those who died found the inquiry traumatic. It was disturbing for example to learn that men had been in a lifeboat and that a supply ship was beside that boat when it capsized. It was more disturbing to learn that those involved in controlling the rig`s ballast had not even read the operating manual and that when the automatic systems failed they might have saved Ocean Ranger had they been properly trained.
You can read my entire review of Ocean Ranger on disasterforum.ca the Cape Breton disaster song web site. It was done as part of a study of Canadian mass death incidents. There are no sources except for published documents because when doing research we guarantee all sources anonymity.

The following is an excerpt from that research:

Because of some firms' poor records, in some cases all there was to work with was a list of names and a few addresses:

With this incomplete list the church representatives tried to determine from the surname what would most likely be the religious affiliation of each person. The historic settlement patterns of the original settlers, principally England, Ireland and Scotland, and relative isolation of Newfoundland communities enables one to link a surname with a religion fairly accurately, and often with a region.

Within a couple of hours, each name had been assigned to one of five categories: Roman Catholic, Anglican, United Church, non-residents and 'other', the latter being the responsibility of the Salvation Army representative.[viii]

One of the things that astounded me was that they had the names but I don't know why they didn't have the homes of these people. A bunch of emergency clergy – they have a call out – Roman Catholic, Anglican, United, Presbyterian – and I was astounded. I will never forget how these men would hear the names and tell the community they came from and I don't think they were ever wrong and it was amazing. They really helped out down there and I learned at a young age how important it is to have the right people around you.[1]

Subject: RE: Folklore: Ocean Ranger - 30 years
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 09 Apr 12 - 03:32 PM

OK..that would be me...it was a freighter I am sure..loaded with wood pulp I believe and took on water...

CFA = come from away ...my friends were CFA string band..

Revere is right...

That was my first song and I had the radio on all night as I was afraid of oversleeping..words kept going through my head and I woke up and said what is that song going through my head...it sort of composed itself as the radio kept announcing developments as it went down...it was very hard to get names of who was on it..thought my friends had escaped but later found that one who was delivering supplies was on it...

Salvation Army was a pretty big religious denomination there so I bet there were more than a few...mg