You guys need to chill out, it typically is a GREAT IDEA to cut costs on even essential things. Humans will do stupid things since those stupid things dont always punish early.
@@talon9639 One of the "essential things" is $ spent on training in safety protocols & emergency response; should those be cut too? Training with ongoing proficiency testing minimizes so-called stupidity in emergency responses. Glad you apparently don't work in OSHA or NATOPS.
Thanks for another great video. As low quallity AI content is flooding the platform, it is nice to have consistent high quality content from channels like yours.
Merchant Navy Officer, I studied this and the Braer as my case studies when I was a cadet. Well presented. In my career I have been on fire fighting tugs at an oil terminal and a Pilot, as a lot of this is very close to home and even in 2024 (in the UK at least) this disaster still informs discussions about refinery and tanker safety.
As an irish man. Im most appreciated of the coverage of this crime that is criminally underrated especially within my own country let alone as an example of international corporate neglect and exploitation.
@@Quattro_Joe It should be recognised similar to the Stardust tragedy. The fact it is not, highlights the failure in safety standards at work. The helicopter that crashed on West coast, may have not happened if this serious incident was dealth with. The 50 men who lost their lives, their families have not yet received a proper apology, or as with the Stardust a memorial.
@@jonathanbailey1597 Nonsense. There's nothing about getting an engineering degree that makes a manager less obedient to the incentives of his managerial position, which was your implicit claim.
A prime example of Murphy's Law and SNAFU. It's sad that when corporations commit gross negligence and death, all they pay are fines whereas if a person does it, they go do jail.
A literal quote from a work safety campaign sign at my local defense contractor: "Last year, we had 4 workplace accidents that resulted in injury or lost productivity. This year, let's strive for 2." Let that soak in a minute.
I was told by the government office responsible for worker safety that they only require "minimum standards. I said "why does the government only require minimum standards, you should be setting a better example." It was a political decision by our provincial government. More money for big corporations and less safety for workers.
“Well, despite our best efforts, we’ve had _no_ accidents this year, and so have not yet met our safety goals. I have this nail gun, but do I have any volunteers?”
Safety has a real cost. When you drive your car, do you wear a full face helmet, Hans device, and Nomex fire suit? Do you have someone weld a roll cage in your car? Why not? Oh, I guess you are willing to sacrifice safety for money and convenience.
Management probably realized long ago that their worker pool didn't have the ability to remain accident free... Poor talent, poor standards... The person most responsible for your safety is you...
Thanks for posting. I was a seafarer for many years onboard oil and gas tankers. I can’t believe that ship didn’t have an inert gas blanketing system for the cargo. The poor condition of the ships hull is also surprising, considering it was only 11 years old.
I have photo of myself standing under her prop, when the stern section was put on a Smit barge, I'm about 10. At the time, the Spaniards were reluctant to take it for scrap, in case it toppled off the barge and blocked their port. Learned more from your video, didn't know the back story to the reason for the storage facility.
I remember when this happened. Bantry Bay, it's like Torrey Canyon, Exon Valdez or Pier Alpha, a 2 word phase that immediately brings to mind the human cost or corporate greed.
A survey showed it needed work, the sister ship was sold for scrap, so the company clearly knew the ship was in poor condition. Yet they loaded it and and dispatched it. How many more death traps are sailing around now i wonder?
You day this like the oil industry acts irresponsibly. Where would anyone gain that opinion? Other than every single opportunity they were given to do so, I mean.
@@BlairAir Every shipping firm acts this way. There are even more dangerous ships to be on than supertankers but you don't hear about them because they sink quickly and quietly.
The explosion part reminds me of the 1917 Halifax Explosion, I think that'd be a neat video idea. the stern gun of the Mont Blanc (which weighed an estimated 1200 pounds) was hurled over 3 miles from the blast and one of her anchor shanks was launched 2 miles.
I dont understand why they removed fixed safety systems to "save cost". The money has been spent already, its sunk cost at that point. Was the equipment they took off sold?
It still needs power supply, maintenance and operation, particularly in the case of keeping lines pressurised. But fire fighting systems should be the last thing you remove from an oil terminal.
Can’t find a solitary fault with this channel! Every time I watch an episode, or binge a handful of episodes, I grasp every word said with ease. It is definitely one of the absolute best channels on TH-cam, along with ‘smarter everyday’ and ‘what’s going on with shipping’!
Great content-as always! This reminds me of the 1947 Texas City disaster. If you're looking for content, I'd love to hear your take on it! I'm from Houston, so I've seen the 2-ton anchor that was blown almost two miles away. It's now a memorial.
It's always a great day when there's a new Waterline Stories video!! 😃 I've watched all of your videos in the past couple of months, since discovering you, and once again the quality and information is top notch!! I can't wait for your next one... stay safe out there! Cheers from Hershey, Pennsylvania 😊
I've been bingeing on your content for the last two days. You have a great story telling style that really grabs one's attention. Your Chris Lemons video was an incredible story. Well done, mate.
The Kowloon Bridge had five other sister ships if I remember correctly. They came to grief in one way or another, I was R/I On the sir Alexander Glen, she had some interesting hull cracks. Eventually losing her rudder, then went to scrap
Cutting costs = boosting company and shareholders profits. As always, innocent people pay with their lives for corporate malpractices! The oil industry in particular is notorious for this! Thank you for this well presented and narrated video.
My grandfather was part of the investigation committee, and knew the better part of the crew. From what I remember him saying about this disaster, it likely was a combination of a poorly maintained hull and serious negligence from Bantry bay terminal crew.
Less about profit than it is about keeping the facility open. If the facility loses money and provides no benefit to the company - it will be shut down. The people who work at the facility want to keep their jobs, so they cut costs wherever they think it's feasible. And since oil terminal explosions are extremely rare - cutting expenses on firefighting gear is something you can get away with 99.999% of the time.
@@colincampbell767 I would say more like 80 something percent... at least 10% of factories do burn at some point, in most (where fire-fighting is at-least at a passable level) they get only minor damage, because the incident is quickly brought under control... where the safety is made of holes, this results in relatively large catastrophizes with injuries and deaths. in Texas, the oil industry zone (not sure if its a single factory) seems to have burned like a dozen times
@@colincampbell767that’s the completely wrong way to look at it. Imagine your employer decided to remove all fire extinguishers and suppression systems from your workplace. Would you just accept that? And also you forget that accidents are so rare BECAUSE safety equipment is in place. Back in the victorian era there weren’t any safety measures, and the risk of you dying in a factory or a port were extremely high.
I remember that event well as i was brought up in Norfolk. I was 9 yrs. old and my class mate/ BFs father was an officer onboard her. Truly devastating.
It’s totally criminal that the owners of the ship were allowed to leave the shipyard without the needed repairs. My brother faced this type of thinking when he worked as a person in charge of his company’s offshore tug boats. Many times, his suggestion to fix a problem properly were met with just patch it. Money being spent while not making money were the obvious reasons.
Most companies that deal with stuff that can kill usually pay the minimum they can get away with and remain legal. They cut costs and corners wherever they can and any incident that causes injuries or deaths is paid for with insurance. Obviously it’s a lot cheaper to pay a bit of compensation once in a while, whereas the cost of avoiding such incidents is more expensive. Good examples of preventing injuries/deaths is shown by the American car industry and its attitude to seat belts, collapsing steering columns, safety glass, safer interiors without sharp edges, and the list goes on to this day. The car companies realised it was cheaper too pay a bit of compensation than spend a few dollars installing seat belts and safety steering columns..
Standard Oil, which was broken up into Esso, became EXXON. Standard Oil loved NAZI Germany. They refused to abandon their patents with NAZI Germany and help their own countries and their allies. Even when the president of Standard Oil, Walter C. Teagle, was told by FDR to stop selling oil to NAZI Germany it continued. Senator Truman called Standard Oil's dealings with the NAZIs "treason". How did they get away with it?
the dark humour section of my brain just lit up at the thought of this massive lump of ship just taking to the sky... "I'm saaaiiiling awayyyy~" like, you could get through the whole chorus in the time that it flew. majestic as frig.
Never fails. Usually, the emergency equipment and services take the hit when trying to cut costs. Nothing bad will happen, right? Right? Also, let's take out an alternate means to get to and from the anchorage and onlybuse a boat. Especially in an emergency. Let's solely rely on a single point of failure in case of an emergency and evacuation.
If only people had a clue of how close to disaster that oil rigs and tankers are, all over our oceans,every day. When an incident like this occurs, there is almost no accountability
Interesting post, explaining quite concisely the cause and effect of changes to way Whiddy Island operated. MV is an acronym for 'Merchant Vessel', not Motor Vessel, just for reference.
I remember that happening. I knew a now deceased sea captain who commanded very large ships. He was not surprised at the short cuts and cheapskate approach by Gulf. He believed many facts never emerged as some were economical with the truth to say the least.
Can you make a video of the "C P Baker" that exploded off Louisiana in 1964 my dad and 20 others died in the disaster. Thanks, cheers from Jacksonville Florida
I thought for critical Safety Systems like this there should always be two men in the control room just in the off-handed chance that one guy keels over from a heart attack not necessarily pissing off like this guy did
Speaking of which (not to say I'm presuming why the guy wasn't at his post) - if you're going to have 1 - man operation, what happens when he needs to take a leak or whatever? He supposed to cross his fingers, or his legs?!
Thank you for this interesting and awful accident! 🥇🥇👍 What I don't understand is that the insurance company paid for damages caused by a ship whose owner refused to do the necessary maintenance.
" ... some of the crew went into Bantry town and expected to be back by midnight" 🤣🤣🤣 Heading into Bantry town? Expect to be back by midnight? Ain't gonna happen, bud. 🍺🍻🍺🍻🥃🥃🥃
They removed all the safety features to save money but you know good and well their corporate headquarters had every safety feature known to man at the time. Hypocrites and fools ....
*Total SA:* "Ehh, there's a small chance we might sell this ship in the future, so let's go ahead and save a few bucks by refusing to implement any/all possible safety measures and/or protocols. What could possibly go wrong? Now, gear up lads! Time to fill'er up with extremely flammable oil and sail this perilously combustible bad boy to a massive petroleum depot halfway around the globe!" Negligent corporate greed = 1 | Betelgeuse = 0
I have read most of the comments and have discovered an elephant in this room. The context of what it was to live in the late 70s is absent here, and the situation is being viewed in the context of post-2010 expectations. Let me put it this way. Americans will be intimately familiar with the acronym OSHA. It stands for : The Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA was founded April 28, 1971. This incident was on January 8, 1979. A little less than 8 years later. Had this incident taken place on US soil, OSHA wouldn't have yet been able to bring charges against Gulf Oil, mainly because the regulations hadn't had enough time to be written / reviewed / voted on and finalized yet.
Gas purging systems are also really nice because they will push every single last drop of liquid out of that tank! They will blast argon gas or helium or something into the tank sometimes just to make sure that they're cleaned out and empty empty!
Incidents like this happen fairly frequently in oil operations. Most are covered up. Only those too big to hide ever come to the attention of the general public or, in some cases, the local Government. The problem lies in the fact that many Governments allow oil companies to act on their own (politicians and bureaucrats are bought off) with little or no protective legislation or Government inspection. I used to work for a company that built oilfield equipment and we subscribed to a publication that gave analysis of oil field failures. I read many of these articles and found myself in a position of disbelief that these incidents took place and few, if any, did anything about them. Oh, there were fines and such, but no one was ever held responsible and sent prison. A friend of mine worked for a major oil company in the pipeline division. One day he seemed out of sorts and I asked him what was up. He told me that there had been a massive failure at one of the facilities he was responsible for and one of his operators was going to be crucified as a result. We talked about what had happened and as it turned out it was an area that I was very familiar with. I told him that had things been as they should have been the incident could never have happened and offered to get him the documentation to show why it could not have happened had the rules been followed. We discussed how things had been changed at the facility over the years yet none of the safeguards had been upgraded to suit along with an inadequate maintenance schedule. As a result, he was fully prepared when he went to the kangaroo court being held in house. The end result was he was absolved of all responsibility as was his operator who was then given a two week holiday in Jamaica all expenses paid for him and his family as "stress relief". My friend used to call me on occasion whenever work was being done at the facilities he was responsible for and we would go over what was being done and what safeguards had to be in place when the work was completed. This went on for about a year until he was suddenly reposted to another country far away. We believed this new posting was because he had become a royal pain in the ass when he knew the rules better that his superiors did and insisted that everything must be done by the book. I got one final call from him before he left and I gave him a contact in his new country that I had done business with once before and he could query if he needed information from outside the "loop" at this new posting. This new contact called me once and told me that my friend was very inquisitive about things and was rapidly developing a reputation for being a stickler for making sure things were being done right and shortcuts were simply not allowed. Regarding Whiddy Island, there are things that really puzzle me. I would have to ask where John Connelly was during the 15 minutes when Whiddy was going up in smoke? As the operator of the facility in charge of everything taking place there he never should have been away from his control panel when a ship was offloading. So where was he? And why was the control panel not manned by someone else when he stepped away? Was Gulf so thrifty that they did not have a second man in the booth while operations were underway? Why was Gulf allowed to downgrade fire fighting equipment yet the demands of the facility never changed? Why was the bridge to the offloading terminal removed and never replaced? Had it been there the people on the ship could have run to safety. I have to wonder if these questions and a lot of others were ever asked in the inquiries after the fire were done. Big oil, big money. We won't even think about BP in the Gulf of Mexico...........or the Exxon Valdez in Alaska. Rules were broken 16 ways from Sunday but they are still in existence today.........
I used to know a couple of guys who worked in a UK refinery on the internal fire department, their comment was if you ever here the sirens go drive like hell to get away because you don't want to be within 20 miles of it if we loose control of a fire there, I always thought this might have been an exaggeration but having heard this story I'm beginning to think that they were probably right
I worked on the fire main pipe work installation and it was supposed to be kept pressurised and regularly tested; late cost cutting was a fatal decision. Fear of an accident was part of the objections to Whiddy during its promotion by Gulf. Those proved justified. Criminal incompetence but no one prosecuted, as you’d expect.
All those deaths by bean-counters, who managed to save how much? ......$120million........ ........Oh wait, that's how much this disaster cost, & what they didn't save!
Let's not be hyperbolic and fear mongering. He was in office for 4 years already. I don't remember a bunch of boat explosions occurring from 2016-2020😂. Not all regulations are necessary, and some can even be destructive . If you over-regulate industry in the US and make the work too hard to be done here, the work will likely move to a country with almost NO safety/environmental regulations at all. The earth still suffers and you lose meaningful jobs. Regulations aren't an automatic benefit. Some are useless garbage that only work for election ads to help politicians get elected 😊
@@waterlinestories keep it up, I like the vids. Has anyone ever said that we South africans say "Off" apparently in a weird way? I was told that by almost anyone and watching your videos they can't help but day "he says it like you" apparently too much lip. So I told them to be more cultured, like us.
Ocean travel is hard on the ship, putting in huge amounts of weight and taking it off takes it toll, not getting serious maintenance because they need to be in service to maximise money - frequently leading to serious risk on in fact loss. You should look up the loss rate on bulk carriers, it’s bloody insane.
I'm only @ 4:45 min of the video, and I hear : « _The comany was forced to make a number of cost-saving measures_ » Don't know why, but I'm sure the troubles will happen just after this sentence... 🤔🤷♂
So Betelgeuse went to supernova explosion. It is amazing how often tragedy is lInked back to cost savings and cutting corners. Fifty one humans lost their lives for a few bucks saved.
Great presentation 👍 The Irish government (challenged by the crisis in Northern Ireland) refused to implement the lessons of Whiddy Island and granted exploration rights to offshore oil and gas that would make embarrass West African despots . Worse (on the long-term environmental level), locals profiteered on the clean-up by overnight quadrupling the price of hay necessary for shore protection. When in Bantry, best not to raise the subject with locals...😔
I’m quite surprised that this is the first time I’ve heard of this tragedy. I guess I was to busy having fun at age 26, to buy newspapers or watch the news. What was the point of the special inspection in Singers, if the company can just ignore the recommendations?
They were trying to cut costs by downgrading the fire fighting system at a petroleum depot? Yeah, GREAT idea...
You guys need to chill out, it typically is a GREAT IDEA to cut costs on even essential things. Humans will do stupid things since those stupid things dont always punish early.
@@talon9639 Rubbish.
@@talon9639what are you yapping about?
@@talon9639 I can't tell if you're being satirical not
@@talon9639
One of the "essential things" is $ spent on training in safety protocols & emergency response; should those be cut too? Training with ongoing proficiency testing minimizes so-called stupidity in emergency responses. Glad you apparently don't work in OSHA or NATOPS.
And, as usual, none of those in charge went to jail.
They probably got a bonus because of the insurance money, once again covered by the insurance company's customers.
In China they would have...or been executed
I used to work for a subsidiary of Total SA, I'm not surprised they were too cheap to take basic safety precautions.
I bet the speculators of the tanker was relieved after the disaster...
Thanks for another great video. As low quallity AI content is flooding the platform, it is nice to have consistent high quality content from channels like yours.
Thanks. That's the aim.
You can not let this be a learning experience. You have to interject modern politics.
Amen.
@kikh4691 no, you don't. That's why @HidingFromDaylight didn't do that.
Merchant Navy Officer, I studied this and the Braer as my case studies when I was a cadet.
Well presented.
In my career I have been on fire fighting tugs at an oil terminal and a Pilot, as a lot of this is very close to home and even in 2024 (in the UK at least) this disaster still informs discussions about refinery and tanker safety.
👍🏻
@@waterlinestories Thank goodness they have refugees to replace them. A bit late but who knows what they are working on?
@@michaelmcneil4168 careful, if you’re in the UK, the comment/thought police might send you to jail.
Did heads roll in His Majesty's Coastguard? Sounds like they totally dropped the ball
As an irish man. Im most appreciated of the coverage of this crime that is criminally underrated especially within my own country let alone as an example of international corporate neglect and exploitation.
What about the crimes of the terrorist groups ?
@@gowdsake7103clown.
@@gowdsake7103 whataboutism is for the weak minded
Hey, I was in Ireland working for couple of months, and I liked it there, ahoy Irenman!!!
Irish person talking about “international corporate neglect”. You people are inherently communistic sadly.
I am 45 from N Ireland and I have never heard of this. Great video. Thanks.
You were a tot back then, I was 26 in ‘79 and hadn’t heard of it. 🤷♂️
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40 from Dublin. Never heard of this. Great video
@@Quattro_Joe It should be recognised similar to the Stardust tragedy. The fact it is not, highlights the failure in safety standards at work. The helicopter that crashed on West coast, may have not happened if this serious incident was dealth with. The 50 men who lost their lives, their families have not yet received a proper apology, or as with the Stardust a memorial.
mid 50's, mid Wales, never heard of it and I thought I knew all the big oil disasters.
This is what happens when you replace engineers with bean counters and 'business men'.
Engineers in decision-making roles are unconcerned with bonuses and promotions? In what universe?
Thus we have Boeing
@@gandydancer9710 Strawman.
@@jonathanbailey1597 Nonsense. There's nothing about getting an engineering degree that makes a manager less obedient to the incentives of his managerial position, which was your implicit claim.
@@gandydancer9710 Wrong again.
A prime example of Murphy's Law and SNAFU.
It's sad that when corporations commit gross negligence and death, all they pay are fines whereas if a person does it, they go do jail.
But when it suits them, corporations are citizens.....
Not at all, Murphy's law and SNAFUs stem from criminal neglect!
A literal quote from a work safety campaign sign at my local defense contractor: "Last year, we had 4 workplace accidents that resulted in injury or lost productivity. This year, let's strive for 2." Let that soak in a minute.
I was told by the government office responsible for worker safety that they only require "minimum standards. I said "why does the government only require minimum standards, you should be setting a better example." It was a political decision by our provincial government. More money for big corporations and less safety for workers.
“Well, despite our best efforts, we’ve had _no_ accidents this year, and so have not yet met our safety goals. I have this nail gun, but do I have any volunteers?”
@@SonicPhonicGovernments set the minimum standards, so governments always only require the minimum standards
Safety has a real cost. When you drive your car, do you wear a full face helmet, Hans device, and Nomex fire suit? Do you have someone weld a roll cage in your car? Why not? Oh, I guess you are willing to sacrifice safety for money and convenience.
Management probably realized long ago that their worker pool didn't have the ability to remain accident free...
Poor talent, poor standards...
The person most responsible for your safety is you...
Thanks for posting. I was a seafarer for many years onboard oil and gas tankers. I can’t believe that ship didn’t have an inert gas blanketing system for the cargo. The poor condition of the ships hull is also surprising, considering it was only 11 years old.
I have photo of myself standing under her prop, when the stern section was put on a Smit barge, I'm about 10. At the time, the Spaniards were reluctant to take it for scrap, in case it toppled off the barge and blocked their port.
Learned more from your video, didn't know the back story to the reason for the storage facility.
Oh wow. Interesting detail and amazing to have a photo like that
I remember when this happened. Bantry Bay, it's like Torrey Canyon, Exon Valdez or Pier Alpha, a 2 word phase that immediately brings to mind the human cost or corporate greed.
MAADD. Marine Animals Against Drunk Drivers
You mean Piper Alpha right?
Piper Alpha - number of deaths 167
A survey showed it needed work, the sister ship was sold for scrap, so the company clearly knew the ship was in poor condition. Yet they loaded it and and dispatched it.
How many more death traps are sailing around now i wonder?
A very great many….
You day this like the oil industry acts irresponsibly. Where would anyone gain that opinion? Other than every single opportunity they were given to do so, I mean.
@@BlairAir Every shipping firm acts this way. There are even more dangerous ships to be on than supertankers but you don't hear about them because they sink quickly and quietly.
Are the ships owned by fallible humans? Then you have your answer.
The explosion part reminds me of the 1917 Halifax Explosion, I think that'd be a neat video idea. the stern gun of the Mont Blanc (which weighed an estimated 1200 pounds) was hurled over 3 miles from the blast and one of her anchor shanks was launched 2 miles.
👌🏻
I dont understand why they removed fixed safety systems to "save cost". The money has been spent already, its sunk cost at that point. Was the equipment they took off sold?
I assume that 'removed' means 'decommissioned'! The motivation could be save maintenance costs and crew to man the systems.
Probably to save on periodic tests, inspection and maintenance.
It is not a sunk cost. Love the clowns that know nothing.
It still needs power supply, maintenance and operation, particularly in the case of keeping lines pressurised. But fire fighting systems should be the last thing you remove from an oil terminal.
Hey!
I found the insult guy!
Shouldn't you be on Reddit?
Can’t find a solitary fault with this channel! Every time I watch an episode, or binge a handful of episodes, I grasp every word said with ease. It is definitely one of the absolute best channels on TH-cam, along with ‘smarter everyday’ and ‘what’s going on with shipping’!
Thanks. That’s incredible to be mentioned in the same light as them.
There’s another one you could check, ‘Practical Engineering’ is great.
Great content-as always! This reminds me of the 1947 Texas City disaster. If you're looking for content, I'd love to hear your take on it! I'm from Houston, so I've seen the 2-ton anchor that was blown almost two miles away. It's now a memorial.
I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the suggestion
So! You've seen the two ton anchor!
Does that mean your an expert now on the whole incident or just the anchor?
Thank you for listening to our requests mate !!!
👍🏻
Another fascinating video from my favorite site. Take care and be safe out there, please 😉😉😉
😂 thanks Beverley. Hope all is well your side
It's always a great day when there's a new Waterline Stories video!! 😃 I've watched all of your videos in the past couple of months, since discovering you, and once again the quality and information is top notch!! I can't wait for your next one... stay safe out there! Cheers from Hershey, Pennsylvania 😊
👌🏻 thanks, that's really kind of you to say.
I knew bantry sounded familiar. There are still tank farms operating on the island. Ive done consultant for the company that operates them
Must be interesting work?
For anyone wondering, the shore tanks could hold the equivalent of about 7 million barrels of oil
What a terrible terrible waste. I bet I could drive my old v10 Mercedes almost a thousand miles on all that gas lol
Another disaster that’s rarely reviewed in the US. Only about a 1000 lessons learned. Again
What are you getting on about?
You looking at the same video as the rest of us
I've been bingeing on your content for the last two days. You have a great story telling style that really grabs one's attention.
Your Chris Lemons video was an incredible story. Well done, mate.
😀 Thanks, I really appreciate that 👍🏻
another notable wreck around that area and disaster is the Kowloon bridge, the sistership of the Derbyshire
The Kowloon Bridge had five other sister ships if I remember correctly. They came to grief in one way or another, I was R/I On the sir Alexander Glen, she had some interesting hull cracks. Eventually losing her rudder, then went to scrap
@@jimhallinsn1023 what is an "R/I" please?
Derbyshire is kind of like the UKs Edmund Fitzgerald if I can remember right.
Cutting costs = boosting company and shareholders profits.
As always, innocent people pay with their lives for corporate malpractices!
The oil industry in particular is notorious for this!
Thank you for this well presented and narrated video.
My grandfather was part of the investigation committee, and knew the better part of the crew. From what I remember him saying about this disaster, it likely was a combination of a poorly maintained hull and serious negligence from Bantry bay terminal crew.
Profit always comes first, humans and the environment either come last or they're expendable.
Thanks to Dodge Bros v Ford Motor Company
Do you give every second or third paycheck to charity? I bet not, so profit is first to you also.
Less about profit than it is about keeping the facility open. If the facility loses money and provides no benefit to the company - it will be shut down. The people who work at the facility want to keep their jobs, so they cut costs wherever they think it's feasible. And since oil terminal explosions are extremely rare - cutting expenses on firefighting gear is something you can get away with 99.999% of the time.
@@colincampbell767 I would say more like 80 something percent... at least 10% of factories do burn at some point, in most (where fire-fighting is at-least at a passable level) they get only minor damage, because the incident is quickly brought under control... where the safety is made of holes, this results in relatively large catastrophizes with injuries and deaths.
in Texas, the oil industry zone (not sure if its a single factory) seems to have burned like a dozen times
@@colincampbell767that’s the completely wrong way to look at it. Imagine your employer decided to remove all fire extinguishers and suppression systems from your workplace. Would you just accept that? And also you forget that accidents are so rare BECAUSE safety equipment is in place. Back in the victorian era there weren’t any safety measures, and the risk of you dying in a factory or a port were extremely high.
So, 120 million for the cleanup and mostly paid for by insurance. Probably cheaper than the cost of the firefighting gear.
Your movies are National Geographic style. Sometimes, sad, very informative . Thank you👍
Wow, thanks. I'm not sure NatGeo must yet but that's the aim.
I had heard of every accident covered on this channel, until this one. Wow.
I remember that event well as i was brought up in Norfolk. I was 9 yrs. old and my class mate/ BFs father was an officer onboard her. Truly devastating.
No legal ramifications? No prosecutions? No indictments? No prison terms? 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️
It’s totally criminal that the owners of the ship were allowed to leave the shipyard without the needed repairs. My brother faced this type of thinking when he worked as a person in charge of his company’s offshore tug boats. Many times, his suggestion to fix a problem properly were met with just patch it. Money being spent while not making money were the obvious reasons.
Most companies that deal with stuff that can kill usually pay the minimum they can get away with and remain legal. They cut costs and corners wherever they can and any incident that causes injuries or deaths is paid for with insurance. Obviously it’s a lot cheaper to pay a bit of compensation once in a while, whereas the cost of avoiding such incidents is more expensive.
Good examples of preventing injuries/deaths is shown by the American car industry and its attitude to seat belts, collapsing steering columns, safety glass, safer interiors without sharp edges, and the list goes on to this day. The car companies realised it was cheaper too pay a bit of compensation than spend a few dollars installing seat belts and safety steering columns..
bet the Gulf bosses did not cut their bonuses...
Standard Oil, which was broken up into Esso, became EXXON. Standard Oil loved NAZI Germany. They refused to abandon their patents with NAZI Germany and help their own countries and their allies. Even when the president of Standard Oil, Walter C. Teagle, was told by FDR to stop selling oil to NAZI Germany it continued. Senator Truman called Standard Oil's dealings with the NAZIs "treason". How did they get away with it?
Doubtless the person found most guilty and given the harshest sentence was the baker's wife.
or go to prison for the loss of life and ecological disaster caused by their penny pinching
the dark humour section of my brain just lit up at the thought of this massive lump of ship just taking to the sky...
"I'm saaaiiiling awayyyy~"
like, you could get through the whole chorus in the time that it flew. majestic as frig.
Excellant narration - thank you.
Thanks👍🏻
Never fails. Usually, the emergency equipment and services take the hit when trying to cut costs. Nothing bad will happen, right? Right?
Also, let's take out an alternate means to get to and from the anchorage and onlybuse a boat. Especially in an emergency. Let's solely rely on a single point of failure in case of an emergency and evacuation.
At least the government was able to make use of the facility. Also shows how money can shorten the foresight of corporations.
If only people had a clue of how close to disaster that oil rigs and tankers are, all over our oceans,every day. When an incident like this occurs, there is almost no accountability
Interesting post, explaining quite concisely the cause and effect of changes to way Whiddy Island operated. MV is an acronym for 'Merchant Vessel', not Motor Vessel, just for reference.
I remember that happening. I knew a now deceased sea captain who commanded very large ships. He was not surprised at the short cuts and cheapskate approach by Gulf. He believed many facts never emerged as some were economical with the truth to say the least.
What happens when everything that could go wrong does.
What happens when bean counters replace engineers
Can you make a video of the "C P Baker" that exploded off Louisiana in 1964 my dad and 20 others died in the disaster. Thanks, cheers from Jacksonville Florida
Oh man. Sorry to hear that. I'll put it on the list to research.
I am sad for the loss of life.
I thought for critical Safety Systems like this there should always be two men in the control room just in the off-handed chance that one guy keels over from a heart attack not necessarily pissing off like this guy did
Speaking of which (not to say I'm presuming why the guy wasn't at his post) - if you're going to have 1 - man operation, what happens when he needs to take a leak or whatever? He supposed to cross his fingers, or his legs?!
Very well narrated. Being a tanker man feel sorry for those that died.
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That hunk of steel sailing thru the air must have been whistling like a 16in sheel from a Battleship! Holy hell, 6 miles 😮
They wrote a song about Bantry Bay that was featured on some oil company advertisements!
Thank you for making this video, there is not enough TH-cam videos about this
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Thank you for this interesting and awful accident! 🥇🥇👍
What I don't understand is that the insurance company paid for damages caused by a ship whose owner refused to do the necessary maintenance.
Your history is sad but very informative. Thank you so much.
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I feel like naming a ship Beetlejuice was kinda asking for trouble.
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Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse!
Lol!
Great description and analysis of the event. RIP all lost
Horrifying accident that was preventable. Heartbreaking for all those killed & injured and the devastating environmental damages.
Visited Bantry and the locals were fast to tell the story of the Betelgeuse and show the memorial. Good story.
" ... some of the crew went into Bantry town and expected to be back by midnight"
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Heading into Bantry town?
Expect to be back by midnight?
Ain't gonna happen, bud.
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I hope everyone realizes $120 million is literally nothing to an oil company, 51 people died and it didn't affect them at all...
Yep. Basically just a rounding error.
have you ever narrated an audio book? if not you should, great radio voice!
🤣 thanks. Never have. Maybe one day
Better than having a face for radio, lol.
@yakacm 😂
@@yakacmhe has a face for a boot! 🤣😂😉
Interesting video. You should cover the Texas City fertilizer explosion.
Thank You 👍🇮🇪
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They removed all the safety features to save money but you know good and well their corporate headquarters had every safety feature known to man at the time. Hypocrites and fools ....
And companies say regulation hurts business... Yeah, but the lack of it screws everyone...
Over regulation hurts business
*Total SA:* "Ehh, there's a small chance we might sell this ship in the future, so let's go ahead and save a few bucks by refusing to implement any/all possible safety measures and/or protocols. What could possibly go wrong? Now, gear up lads! Time to fill'er up with extremely flammable oil and sail this perilously combustible bad boy to a massive petroleum depot halfway around the globe!"
Negligent corporate greed = 1 | Betelgeuse = 0
I have read most of the comments and have discovered an elephant in this room. The context of what it was to live in the late 70s is absent here, and the situation is being viewed in the context of post-2010 expectations.
Let me put it this way. Americans will be intimately familiar with the acronym OSHA. It stands for : The Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
OSHA was founded April 28, 1971. This incident was on January 8, 1979. A little less than 8 years later.
Had this incident taken place on US soil, OSHA wouldn't have yet been able to bring charges against Gulf Oil, mainly because the regulations hadn't had enough time to be written / reviewed / voted on and finalized yet.
Excellent video of another tale of greed resulting in the loss of innocent life.
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Gas purging systems are also really nice because they will push every single last drop of liquid out of that tank! They will blast argon gas or helium or something into the tank sometimes just to make sure that they're cleaned out and empty empty!
WOW ! And a proper use of the term....Shrapnel too !
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Incidents like this happen fairly frequently in oil operations. Most are covered up. Only those too big to hide ever come to the attention of the general public or, in some cases, the local Government. The problem lies in the fact that many Governments allow oil companies to act on their own (politicians and bureaucrats are bought off) with little or no protective legislation or Government inspection. I used to work for a company that built oilfield equipment and we subscribed to a publication that gave analysis of oil field failures. I read many of these articles and found myself in a position of disbelief that these incidents took place and few, if any, did anything about them. Oh, there were fines and such, but no one was ever held responsible and sent prison.
A friend of mine worked for a major oil company in the pipeline division. One day he seemed out of sorts and I asked him what was up. He told me that there had been a massive failure at one of the facilities he was responsible for and one of his operators was going to be crucified as a result. We talked about what had happened and as it turned out it was an area that I was very familiar with. I told him that had things been as they should have been the incident could never have happened and offered to get him the documentation to show why it could not have happened had the rules been followed. We discussed how things had been changed at the facility over the years yet none of the safeguards had been upgraded to suit along with an inadequate maintenance schedule. As a result, he was fully prepared when he went to the kangaroo court being held in house. The end result was he was absolved of all responsibility as was his operator who was then given a two week holiday in Jamaica all expenses paid for him and his family as "stress relief".
My friend used to call me on occasion whenever work was being done at the facilities he was responsible for and we would go over what was being done and what safeguards had to be in place when the work was completed. This went on for about a year until he was suddenly reposted to another country far away. We believed this new posting was because he had become a royal pain in the ass when he knew the rules better that his superiors did and insisted that everything must be done by the book. I got one final call from him before he left and I gave him a contact in his new country that I had done business with once before and he could query if he needed information from outside the "loop" at this new posting. This new contact called me once and told me that my friend was very inquisitive about things and was rapidly developing a reputation for being a stickler for making sure things were being done right and shortcuts were simply not allowed.
Regarding Whiddy Island, there are things that really puzzle me. I would have to ask where John Connelly was during the 15 minutes when Whiddy was going up in smoke? As the operator of the facility in charge of everything taking place there he never should have been away from his control panel when a ship was offloading. So where was he? And why was the control panel not manned by someone else when he stepped away? Was Gulf so thrifty that they did not have a second man in the booth while operations were underway? Why was Gulf allowed to downgrade fire fighting equipment yet the demands of the facility never changed? Why was the bridge to the offloading terminal removed and never replaced? Had it been there the people on the ship could have run to safety. I have to wonder if these questions and a lot of others were ever asked in the inquiries after the fire were done.
Big oil, big money. We won't even think about BP in the Gulf of Mexico...........or the Exxon Valdez in Alaska. Rules were broken 16 ways from Sunday but they are still in existence today.........
I used to know a couple of guys who worked in a UK refinery on the internal fire department, their comment was if you ever here the sirens go drive like hell to get away because you don't want to be within 20 miles of it if we loose control of a fire there, I always thought this might have been an exaggeration but having heard this story I'm beginning to think that they were probably right
As a fireman I'd say that this was an utter cluster f#ck. The fire suppression systems should have never been a cost saving option.
@waterline stories thank you for covering an Irish story I never knew had ever happened 👍
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@@waterlinestories do you have anymore Irish stories in the pipeline no pun intended lol 😂🇮🇪
@stephenpowell8750 ooof. I'll have to go and look. Not in the immediate production pipeline.
@@waterlinestories no worries I'll keep an eye out for in the future thanks for the reply I appreciate it 👍
Well done sir. This disaster was just another in a long line of disasters including those yet to come. All in the name of Return On Investment.
Nice one man. 👍
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I worked on the fire main pipe work installation and it was supposed to be kept pressurised and regularly tested; late cost cutting was a fatal decision. Fear of an accident was part of the objections to Whiddy during its promotion by Gulf. Those proved justified. Criminal incompetence but no one prosecuted, as you’d expect.
Impressively researched.
I remember this when I was a kid, but the details are shocking now.
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All those deaths by bean-counters, who managed to save how much? ......$120million........
........Oh wait, that's how much this disaster cost, & what they didn't save!
Been listening to RealAF for quite some time now, Andy’s the truth.
Sadly, we got a guy running for pres in the US who wants to eliminate "regulations" also allegedly. I fear it will not end well if he is elected.
Let's not be hyperbolic and fear mongering. He was in office for 4 years already. I don't remember a bunch of boat explosions occurring from 2016-2020😂.
Not all regulations are necessary, and some can even be destructive . If you over-regulate industry in the US and make the work too hard to be done here, the work will likely move to a country with almost NO safety/environmental regulations at all. The earth still suffers and you lose meaningful jobs.
Regulations aren't an automatic benefit. Some are useless garbage that only work for election ads to help politicians get elected 😊
TDS?
Lol. Nice touch, the shot of Bantry Bay innie kaap.
Bru, New Waterline Stories? so lekker!
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Boere spotted. Go Springboks
@Dilley_G45 😂
@@Dilley_G45 ek sê, dit is a lekker tyd om 'n boek te wees! Braai and watch, we don't do BBQ's at rugby. Lol 😆
@@waterlinestories keep it up, I like the vids. Has anyone ever said that we South africans say "Off" apparently in a weird way? I was told that by almost anyone and watching your videos they can't help but day "he says it like you" apparently too much lip. So I told them to be more cultured, like us.
Profits before People !
Ship was only 11yrs old. So much damage in so little time. I'd never buy a ship off an oil company!
Ocean travel is hard on the ship, putting in huge amounts of weight and taking it off takes it toll, not getting serious maintenance because they need to be in service to maximise money - frequently leading to serious risk on in fact loss. You should look up the loss rate on bulk carriers, it’s bloody insane.
Sweeeet a new WS episode!
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Sidebar : am I the only one who loves the 4-note sting at the title ? 👍
Very interesting. Im from Cork city but never knew this happened.
I'm only @ 4:45 min of the video, and I hear : « _The comany was forced to make a number of cost-saving measures_ »
Don't know why, but I'm sure the troubles will happen just after this sentence... 🤔🤷♂
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I remember the explosion which woke me up in the night even though our house was 10 miles away. And seeing the huge column of smoke the next morning.
YOUR safety hinders THEIR profits.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR WORK AND MOST RECENT UPLOAD!!
👌🏻 Thanks for watching
Thanks for the video.
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Maddening that the losers that caused this pretty much got away with it. How did they manage to make all those safety breaches undetected!
"Beetlejuice" lol
I was thinking the same thing.
Yeah, they were screwed.
Stop saying it
@@kylelysek9253 Two more times, and we are all in trouble 😂😂😂
It's Showtime!!!
*Fancy calling an Oil tanker 'Betelguese'* -------- The giant star bearing that name ------ *Is also on the verge of exploding* --- 😐
So Betelgeuse went to supernova explosion. It is amazing how often tragedy is lInked back to cost savings and cutting corners. Fifty one humans lost their lives for a few bucks saved.
Well the ship was aptly named
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Great presentation 👍 The Irish government (challenged by the crisis in Northern Ireland) refused to implement the lessons of Whiddy Island and granted exploration rights to offshore oil and gas that would make embarrass West African despots . Worse (on the long-term environmental level), locals profiteered on the clean-up by overnight quadrupling the price of hay necessary for shore protection. When in Bantry, best not to raise the subject with locals...😔
I’m quite surprised that this is the first time I’ve heard of this tragedy. I guess I was to busy having fun at age 26, to buy newspapers or watch the news.
What was the point of the special inspection in Singers, if the company can just ignore the recommendations?
Never miss one of your posts.
Thanks I appreciate that.