This group wants Ocean Ranger artifacts home in N.L. after 42 years in Ottawa
Group held their first public forum last night to discuss repatriation
A new group called the Ocean Ranger Legacy Foundation is working on bringing the artifacts of the 1982 offshore drilling rig wreck home after 42 years of being stored in an Ottawa museum.
The group held their first meeting last night at the Marine Institute in St. John's. Family and friends of the 84 lost men, as well as those connected to the Newfoundland offshore oil industry, were invited to discuss how they would like the artifacts to be dealt with.
One foundation director Rob Strong said he has been involved in the offshore oil industry since before the Ocean Ranger sank. "I had six friends who lost their lives," Strong told CBC Radio's Newfoundland Morning.
"I know what an impact it had on the community back in 1982, so it's just something that's close to my heart."
The debris retrieved from the catastrophe was sent to the Canada Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa to investigate what caused the rig to capsize and leave no survivors.
The inquiry determined that the life jackets aboard were inadequate and that lives could have been saved if each man was protected by a survival suit.
Though the inquiry published its findings within two years of the catastrophe, the evidence has been sitting in the museum's storage for more than four decades. Last year, the museum reached out to the family members of the 84 men who died aboard to invite them to see the collection of debris and to request their input on what they wanted to be done with the artifacts.
The rig's ballast control panel, portholes, life jackets and ores are among the preserved wreckage. For the victims' family and friends, these objects are more than objects of study — they are physical pieces of their loved ones' stories.
"What a horrific night it must have been with 60-foot [waves] ... and no lifeboats and inadequate training," Strong said.
Strong wants the artifacts to return home to Newfoundland. "The families and the children of the families always like to have a place to go to — on a birthday or an anniversary — to reflect upon the loss of 84 lives and the loss of their particular family members," he said.
Strong said bringing these remnants home to the community would also stand as a reminder of the importance of safety in the oil and gas industry.
"I'm sure every time someone gets on a helicopter and flies offshore and lands on a rig, I'm sure that at some stage in the back of their mind, is the memory of the Ocean Ranger," Strong said.
The Ocean Ranger Legacy Foundation's first public meeting is the first step on a long road to repatriation, he said.
"The prime interest [of meeting] is to relate and talk to members of the families, because this is what this is all about — it was those people that lost loved ones," Strong said.
"So we'll never do anything that doesn't conform with their wishes."
Strong said that while The Rooms in St. John's does not have enough space to accommodate the artifacts, the museum has been assisting the foundation in their repatriation efforts.
At this stage, the foundation has not secured funding or a location for display and storage of the artifacts.
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With files from Newfoundland Morning