The following story comes from the Wijsmuller Bulletin.
The positioning of Statfjord C, the world’s second biggest concrete-base oil and gas production and storage platform, in the North Sea on June 10 1984 marked the successful completion of another complicated towage operation carried out by a consortium of towage companies under the co-operation of Wijsmuller Offshore and Towage B.V., Ijmuiden, Netherlands.
After being towed 240 nautical miles from Norway the platform was ballasted down on its final location in 149 meters of water.
In addition to Wijsmuller’s two most powerful tugs, TEMPEST and TYPHOON, the other tugs involved in the operation included OCEANIC and ARCTIC (Bugsier, Hamburg), the SMITH SINGAPORE (Smit Tak, Rotterdam) and the JON VIKING, FRANK VIKING and DAG VIKING (Viking Supply Ships, Kristiansand.)
The first 30 miles of the tow meant accurate navigation and manoeuvring through the Norwegian fjords. With the three Viking tugs positioned aft and the other five forward of the platform, this part of the operation went without a hitch.
The ocean towage of about 210 miles was performed with the FRANK VIKING as a stern tug only, and the DAG VIKING acting as an escort vessel, the JON VIKING was released. The transport made relatively good progress despite the fact that the maximum speed was about two knots. During the towage the platform had a displacement of 764,000 tons and a draft of 139 meters. But as the giant platform neared the destination, the weather deteriorated. To attempt positioning Statfjord C would have been impossible because of the unfavourable wave heights and periods. The tow was halted about 13 miles from the final installation site, and the waiting was to take four and a half days. When the transports could proceed again, the tow was made without incident.
On arrival at the site, Captain Ronald Seim of Norwegian Contractors, in charge of the operations and the 57 crewmen on the platform were ready to control the ballasting down to achieve a high degree of accuracy. This was essential since the tugs were bull’s-eye; in fact it was positioned only eight meters outside the centre.
On the stamp depicting the tow, the tugs are from the left to right; TEMPEST, OCEANIC, SMIT SINGAPORE, ARCTIC and TYPHOON, behind the platform you can see the FRANK VIKING as the stern tug and the DAG VIKING as standby vessel.
The details of the tugs you will find in the index.
Norway 1985 2k+1k sgMS960, scott?