“Maersk Viking” Heading to GOM: Take a Virtual Tour of the Rig

“Maersk Viking” Heading to GOM: Take a Virtual Tour of the Rig – Oilpro.

Thanks to Mr Jeff Reed for posting this to Oilpro! That’s where I saw it posted. It’s a pretty neat video of the new drillship Maersk Viking.

I’ve been spending a lot of time (as mate/DPO) on very similar ships in the last couple of years. The drillships Pacific Santa Ana, DS-5 and DS-3 are all a lot like this one.

This one will be coming to the Gulf of Mexico soon. I keep trying to find a position on something working somewhere other than the GOM, but it seems all the work is here. I guess I’ll be stuck here til things change and there’s a boom somewhere else in the world.

You can take the virtual tour and get an idea of where I’ve been spending a lot of my time lately.

Cargo Ships on Beaches…Really? | gCaptain

Cargo Ships on Beaches…Really? | gCaptain

I always thought it would be so cool to drive one of these big ships up on the beach! I mean really, the whole point of shipping is NOT to run your ship aground.

I do understand that there are some horrendous working conditions there for these people. I also understand that the people who take these jobs are desperate for ANY kind of job to support themselves and their families. I know when you’re desperate, you might not want to be too picky about what you will and won’t put up with. Maybe people might want to figure out what is the reason why they are so desperate in the first place- someone mentioned that there were too many people (comments below article). Yeah, that is the bottom line really. These ship breaking jobs are actually good paying jobs for over there. Yes, I’m sure it could be made safer and would save some lives, but look at what we have done here as far as safety goes- we are regulated to death! I would love to see the comparison statistics on safety between those ship breakers and the ones here (IF we have any left). I don’t think it would really make ALL that much difference. I notice the people working all over Asia on bamboo scaffolding, no shoes, no safety belts, no hard hats, no nothing except the knowledge that if they get hurt, no one is going to help them. They seem to do just as good as we do on their accident rates. All without putting everybody in the “safety” straightjackets like they did here. We can’t do anything anymore without filling out reams of paperwork and dressing up like we’re going to outerspace or something 🙁