| Description | Tape 1 Side A: WILLIAM HENRY (BILL) WARSOP (WW) born 11 September 1941 Mansfield. JOSEPH ELVIN (JOE) DOBBS (JD) born 8 February 1939 Grimsby. (WW) Grew up in Mansfield. All paternal family in mining. Went to secondary modern school. Did apprenticeship in garage then joined oil industry 1959 in BP seismic party. Details re Mansfield area mines, reason for closures of all but two. Second of five children. Describes childhood home. Older brother worked for BP. Recalls father's advice not to go down the pits. Describes father's work routines in the mines. Reference to Coal Board houses. Details re education, own abilities, sport, career choices including going down the pit. Mentions National Service. Hard way of life. Recalls discipline at home. Father died at 51. Details re mother, step-father. Recruited into D'Arcy Exploration seismic job 1959. Details re digs, wages. (JD) Born in Grimsby. Family mostly fishermen. Left secondary modern school at 15. First job was as pageboy in a hotel. Mentions own height. Went into light engineering, worked on Lloyd 650 car. Father a labourer in building trade, later in fish processing factories. Lived in terraced house. Second of three children. Details. Grandfather worked on railways. Father one of c16. Mother grew up in orphanage. Father's work routines. Details re him, hard life. Describes work as pageboy in Ship Hotel, Grimsby. Describes mayhem when Sea Gem capsized. Arrival of Santa Fe drilling. Reference to American, Junior Meeks. Background to getting job as roustabout offshore in West Sole Field 1966. Reaction of local people to Americans. (WW) First jobs with seismic party. Details re geophones, firing shots, recording data.
Tape 1 Side B: (WW) Seismic work (cont'd). Recalls other workers in seismic party, particular jobs. Portable drilling rigs came from Eakring. Explains own progress to shot-hole loader. Worked in Eakring yard during winter. Placed in Fitting Shop. Dukes Wood oil production still going in 1963. Recalls repair work. Mentions Cardwell work-over rig. Recalls American wartime workers' initials carved on trees. Reference to Bill Winterton. Local people didn't know about oil wells in the area. Details re jobs done at Eakring, eg fetching Sea Gem rig, ex Jamaica, piece by piece, from Liverpool. Rig constructed in Eakring yard, taken to Middlesborough dockyard. Recalls Sea Gem disaster after which BP curtailed Eakring operation. Laid off 1966. Details re construction. Reference to John (Perce) Shelton, 'Mr Seagull'. Mentions other workers. Sea Gem a Wimpey bridge-building barge, stop-gap before Sea Quest. Details re day Sea Gem capsized. People lost interest in Eakring after this, operation slowed down. Made redundant. Went to work for building firm about 1967. (JD) Went to platform with Santa Fe Drilling Company. Laid off. Joined Sea Quest as roughneck. Recalls work as roustabout, fellow crew members. Americans hard task-masters. Details re mud-mixing. Promoted to roughneck on drilling floor. Describes work. Recalls other workers, eg Gordon McCullough. Recalls pressure of work. Many couldn't stick it. Details re shifts, good pay. Mentions own family situation. Wife, from fishing family, able to accept absence of husband. Feelings about coming home, couples living together day-in day-out. Living conditions on platform. Sea Quest luxurious. Recalls Americans with Santa Fe, everyone mixing in. Same few people stuck it out. Recalls cold, bad weather, rig movement.
Tape 2 Side A: (JD) Always mechanically-minded. Further details re living conditions offshore. Tough job. Mentions safety standards, looking after number one. Recalls incident with lifeboat, accidents. Never belonged to a union when offshore. Explains. (WW) Father, Labour supporter, didn't belong to union. Only once involved in union when a bus driver. Details. Background to getting job back at Eakring in Production department. Explains role as fitter. Mentions drilling contractors. Technical details re machinery, work done. Details re down-hole pumps, extent of oilfields including Gainsborough. Mentions later cementing of wells. Became production fitter working on work-over rigs. Details procedures when down-hole pump failed. Became supervisor for two rigs. Mentions contamination of wells by paraffins. Explains cleaning process, killing well, use of salt. Describes well lining, equipment used. Details re depth of wells in region. Was Work-over Supervisor until four weeks ago. 1987 started permanent abandonment, cement sealing of Eakring wells. Describes process in detail. Reference to stinger tubes. Mentions possibility of future use of wells. (JD) After Santa Fe went to Sea Quest. All-British crew. Different culture from that on Santa Fe. Explains. More safety-conscious. Details re living conditions. Reference to Marine Department. Details re hierarchy on rig. Reference to OIM (Offshore Installation Manager), Billy Howe. Sea Gem could sit on the bottom. Recalls rig breaking loose in bad weather. Details re incident, structural damage, repairs etc. On rig during tow to Holland for repairs. Mentions lift up leg. Returned to well which was danger to shipping through non-buoyancy because of escaping gas bubbles. Details. Before well killed, gas set fire to on sea surface as warning to shipping.
Tape 2 Side B: (JD) Joined Sea Quest 1967. Started as roughneck, joined drilling crew of Fifers. Later joined Grimsby crew for about 7 years. Details re workmates. Still get together. Bought Vauxhall Velox to drive to work on way to flight offshore. Details re a breakdown. Recalls nicknames. Recalls routine going to work. Impression of Aberdeen. Describes helicopter trip in early days, lack of safety precautions. Recalls first arrival in Aberdeen in NSU Quickly car, primitive BP office, airport. Describes conditions in Forties Field, Sea Quest's stability. Some people seasick. Compares Forties, West Sole Fields. Same work looking for oil as for gas. Formations were difficult because of clogging clays. Describes problems, procedures followed, improvement when potassium-based muds introduced. Explains equipment used, eg shaker screens. Describes own work. Details re drilling rates, sense of types of formations. Recalls expressions used when drilling, costs of chemically-based mud. Describes mishaps. Became pumpman for three years. Explains hazards of job. Describes pumproom, equipment, procedures dealing with gumbo. Attitude of drillers when told to stop drilling. Dangers involved if mud ran out. Became Mud Engineer 1977. Describes time on/off routine. Details re two years training as Mud Engineer in different parts of UK, study of chemistry, potassium chloride muds, ingredients for mud, their role. Effect of work on family. Recalls amount of time spent with them, going on trips etc, pride of family in own work. Recalls first oil in Forties Field discovered by Sea Quest 1970. Details re testing, time of discovery, secrecy surrounding event. Recalls bad weather at time, sinking boat, helicopter in trouble. Some people taken ashore from Sea Quest.
Tape 3 Side A: (JD) Discovery of first oil (cont'd). Recalls incident, at time of secrecy, in bad storm, red alert, possibility of need for emergency rescue from rig, rescue of Danish personnel by damaged helicopter nearly out of fuel. Reference to Shackleton aircraft. Details re oil discovery at the time. Rescued Danes did not know about oil discovery. As pumpman, realised possibility of oil but not told. No celebration of discovery until inauguration. Invited with wife to event. Details re Queen. Reference to Hamilton Brothers' first oil ashore. Recalls first pipelines being laid to Cruden Bay, Grangemouth. Spent c9 years on Sea Quest. Recalls first well as Mud Engineer from Sea Conquest 1977. Details re problems with mud programme, cost of mud. Success rate of one in ten was good. Explains enjoyment of job, satisfaction in drilling well more cheaply than others. Recalls competition from Shell with Staflo rig. Change to work with drilling fluids company BW Mud 1978, double salary etc. Mentions working conditions in BP, feelings about leaving. Commuted to Aberdeen base. Did some work for Shell. Details re BW Mud services. Promoted Area Manager for land operations, sent to Great Yarmouth, then Midlands. Worked also with coal operation. Set up office in Nottingham. Recalls competition in mud industry. Had good reputation. Made redundant 1986. Soon joined another mud company as consultant. Importance of mud qualification to career. Details re other work as mud engineer. Retired in 2000. Mentions raising greyhounds. Oil industry gave family a good life. Importance of mud to oil/gas industry. Pride in having been present at first oil. Reference to BP magazines.
Tape 3 Side B: Blank
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