Interesting article and well-written. When the USAF was testing the facilities at Vandenberg AFB that was to have been the West Coast Space Shuttle Launch and Landing Facility, they towed the External Tank to Vandenberg through the Panama Canal so that it could be mated with the dummy orbiter on the launch pad. The barge trailed a second towline aft of the barge so that, in the event the main tow line parted, the tug could circle back and pick up the second tow line.
Why had the rig been pulled into a storm that was long forecast? Walls seemed to suggest that the master on the tugboat Forward had tried, in error, to outrun or outmuscle the Hebridean seas.
Up until a couple months ago I was in the ship repair/scrapping business. Our owner made a fortune scrapping oil rigs. I read a story a while back about some investors buying an operable oil rig for 10 cents on the dollar ($65m for a $650m rig). The point of the story wasn’t what a good deal it was, it was how stupid the investors were for buying an offshore oil rig.
It must be as massive an undertaking to dismantle something that huge as it is to build it.