1974 LAING OFFSHORE FILM

in grateful dark in the northeast of England a giant Cathedral of Steel lies on its side it's the beginning of June 1974 and gray Thorpe won the first oil production platform for the North Sea is almost complete it's taken 18 months 2,500 men and 20,000 tons of steel to put together this intricate tracery of metal soon to be anchored to the seabed to get there it'll have to be towed 250 miles when it gets there it'll be pinned 250 feet into the sandstone under the North Sea and we'll be standing in 350 feet of water the North East of England is traditionally a shipbuilding area but for the men who worked on this project grateful one has been a new experience how do they feel about it well it looks gigantic from 2 or 3 miles or even and when you do get to it you know it's unbelievable really the size it really is fantastic to me so what God is that a good say for the treatment and everything in the North East England at first is just a job and now they don't realize what I've done some of them because they're working on it every day and it's just become the rig but what any visitors come down with some they're locals it's good God the size of that how do you work up there up there is 300 feet from the ground because of the size of the project two of the largest revolving cranes in the world was specially built to assist in the construction of gratefull one [Music] each crane stands 400 feet high and is capable of lifting 800 tons essential when you see the size of the lower legs of the fat the whole structure rests on the 30 foot diameter tanks the floatation raft which will take her out into the North Sea and slide her down onto the seabed building her has been the overall responsibility of one man David Haines stock why has gray felt one being such an undertaking basically its size and its weight I think you need to get it slightly into perspective it's about twice as high as Big Ben and weighs about four times as much as the Eiffel Tower it's pretty enormous in terms of science what's the future of the yard after great thought one well as soon as this one floats out we have to commence the construction in fact we've really begun constructing of the second one I am pretty confident that providing we maintain the same level of completion dates then we're going to get a third and a fourth and light the way through the rest of this decade the task of getting grateful one out to sea and into an upright position is one where the slightest mistake could be disastrous understandably it's been left in the unemotional hands of a computer program the man in charge is Roy Jenkins an American with twenty years in the oil industry behind him where were the techniques acquired which will be used on the installation it's an extension actually you might say a spinoff of the space program a lot of the basic techniques and they were developed for the moon shots and space program have been refined and adjusted into a civilian uses the computer monitors each individual tank and tells us whether that tank is dry or how much water is in it it also tells us the pitch and roll the attitude of the structure well as editor was going down how does this compare with other projects the largest by far that we've ever done it's a new frontier in the purest red June 25th the platform is complete and the final touches are given to a dredging operation which has scarred out the channel down which gray thought one will be taken by eight tugs on her journey to the sea the man who will tow her there is Captain Bill Strickland what's complicated about this one it's large it's it's not a ship shape it's very high in the air which means it has tremendous wind effects it's subject to tides it's never been done before it is the first anywhere and I think the main thing is its sheer size I think probably only comparable thing that's been thought out is a large concrete tank from Norway which was probably bigger in weight but this is probably far more complex in the number of individual marine operations that have to take place in a very short period of time June 26 in the evening 150 million gallons of water start to flood the dock it'll be 36 hours before the dock and the journey to the North Sea started June 29th dawn gray thought one is on the move we very slowly very gently she's winched out into the river where the tugs are ready to start her on the 250 mile journey into the North Sea it a complicated operation involving a left turn and then a right turn the platform picks its way daintily through the deepest part of the channel programmed a big operation obtain the oil production platform we don't want property to its base in the oil staying as close as possible to the coast the tides tow their strange charge at over 4 knots hoping that the weather will be kind the command vessel has the computer center on board and this is constantly monitoring the platform's condition as all the latest information on wind tides and weather is nervously watched over the North Sea is not the world's most hospitable ocean a fury of its storms is legendary so far however the weather has held the sea is kind and the tugs grind remorselessly on to the forties oilfield the platform's destination July 2nd weather still good tugs floating cranes and platform finally arrived sunset and the last night that great thought one will spend on her side July 3rd no problems a calm fine day the radio-controlled vowels in the floatation raft are gradually opened by the computer on the command vessel and the stern tanks start to fill like a timid bather grateful warning climbs have bulk towards the sea for two and a half hours she edges nervously a gentle seven degrees into the water and then in 30 seconds the final plan it'll be another three hours before gray thought one is finally upright on the seabed by the end of August all the piles will be in place and the decks installed 1975 and the first oil will be flowing through her steel veins and by then there will be others for gray Thor one is simply the first