Harvey Schnee and the Bow Valley III
Copyright © Reader’s Digest
Association Far East Ltd
The artwork by Reader's Digest is based on a photograph of an Aker semi-submersible-drilling-rig. You can read the name Maersk Vinlander, just below the port-side crane. I worked on the Vinlander in 1995.
The first unusual item that catches your eye are the 'barber-poles' at bow and stern of the rig. It was soon explained to new arrivals that these flexible fibreglass poles were designed to keep the lifeboats away from the rig's hull while they were being launched. This was not another case of spending money on delusions-of-safety. Off Canada's east-coast sea-ice can build up around the rig's legs and interfere with the lifeboat's journey to open water. This particular Aker-rig had been built in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada.
She had originally been called the Bow Valley III. I soon found another Canadian link on the drill-floor. In a shack at one side there was a large and carefully-designed toolboard. There were clear similarities between the toolboard on the former Bow Valley III and the one I knew from the Aladdin. Toolboards were known in the popular mythology of drilling-rigs to be a signature item of Harvey Schnee, the practical and innovative rig engineer. I had only met Harvey once but I knew he was a Canadian from Alberta. I began to look for more evidence to support the Harvey-Schnee-theory.
The Bow Valley people were long-gone so you couldn't just ask. The Maersk people were safety-paramounters of a different generation. They didn't even use the toolboard. I soon found what I was looking for on the rig's raised-cat-walk. This was a feature of some Aker-rigs that seemed to have as many disadvantages as it did advantages.
The Bow Valley raised-catwalk was twice the width of the one on the Sea Conquest/Ocean Ben Loyal. This had the very real advantage for roustabouts that they had more room to run away when crane-loads became too lively. The clear Harvey Schnee evidence was a casing-lift system on the port-side of the raised-catwalk.
This simple but well-made innovation had two short arms projecting from the side of the catwalk. They could be lowered and raised by attaching them to an air-winch. In the lower position you could roll a single joint of casing onto the arms. you could then lift it to the cat-walk level where it was accessible to the drill-crew. This idea brought the tricky business of running casing on a floating rig much closer to the operator-friendly set-up on an Alberta land-rig. The casing operation became largely independent of the cranes; a very real advantage in rough seas. The port-side of the catwalk is just about visible in the photo as a white horizontal behind the crane.
The initial oddity of the barber poles had been explained as a simple, practical solution to a real-world problem. I wasn't long in finding another oddity. The electric motors under the drill-floor were in an area where combustible gas was a real possibility. They were designated as Zone 1 motors and were force-fed their cooling-air in a way that kept any gas out of the motor. At least that was what I was use to seeing. The Zone 1 electric-motors on the Bow Valley III had no ducts or ventilation fans. They were much neater-looking with what appeared to be a refrigeration system on top of the motor. I made enquiries of those who know more about electrickery. Sure enough it was explained that the cooling-air for the motors ran in a closed-loop through a refrigeration system. There was little danger of gas getting into a system that was self-contained and sealed.
I can say with certainty that Harvey Schnee designed and built the toolboard on the Bow Valley III. I am equally sure that the casing-lift was also his work. With the barber-poles and refrigerated motors you are straying away from drill-crew things. Harvey Schnee was employed through the drilling department. His titles of 'Harvey-the-Welder' and 'Rig Engineer' were purely honorific, if not sarcastic. Yet I believe that the barber-poles and electric-motors were his ideas. They could theoretically have been someone else's ideas. Plain honest, farmhand genius is not the exclusive birthright of any one individual. The chances of two great minds of the Harvey Schnee calibre being present on one rig at the same time are remote.
I wasn't there when they built the Bow Valley III. I was there when Harvey turned the controls for the Aladdin bridge-cranes through. 180°. It was a lot of work. It meant that the operator could see the cranes without twisting his back and looking over his shoulder. It was just so much easier to use the equipment after Harvey's intervention
Appendix A
Harvey Schnee died in June 2015 aged 80
https://obittree.com/obituary/ca/alberta/medicine-hat/saamis-memorial-funeral-chapel-crematorium--reception-centrecgr-holdings-ltd/harvey-schnee/2186795/
She had originally been called the Bow Valley III. I soon found another Canadian link on the drill-floor. In a shack at one side there was a large and carefully-designed toolboard. There were clear similarities between the toolboard on the former Bow Valley III and the one I knew from the Aladdin. Toolboards were known in the popular mythology of drilling-rigs to be a signature item of Harvey Schnee, the practical and innovative rig engineer. I had only met Harvey once but I knew he was a Canadian from Alberta. I began to look for more evidence to support the Harvey-Schnee-theory.
The Bow Valley people were long-gone so you couldn't just ask. The Maersk people were safety-paramounters of a different generation. They didn't even use the toolboard. I soon found what I was looking for on the rig's raised-cat-walk. This was a feature of some Aker-rigs that seemed to have as many disadvantages as it did advantages.
The Bow Valley raised-catwalk was twice the width of the one on the Sea Conquest/Ocean Ben Loyal. This had the very real advantage for roustabouts that they had more room to run away when crane-loads became too lively. The clear Harvey Schnee evidence was a casing-lift system on the port-side of the raised-catwalk.
This simple but well-made innovation had two short arms projecting from the side of the catwalk. They could be lowered and raised by attaching them to an air-winch. In the lower position you could roll a single joint of casing onto the arms. you could then lift it to the cat-walk level where it was accessible to the drill-crew. This idea brought the tricky business of running casing on a floating rig much closer to the operator-friendly set-up on an Alberta land-rig. The casing operation became largely independent of the cranes; a very real advantage in rough seas. The port-side of the catwalk is just about visible in the photo as a white horizontal behind the crane.
The initial oddity of the barber poles had been explained as a simple, practical solution to a real-world problem. I wasn't long in finding another oddity. The electric motors under the drill-floor were in an area where combustible gas was a real possibility. They were designated as Zone 1 motors and were force-fed their cooling-air in a way that kept any gas out of the motor. At least that was what I was use to seeing. The Zone 1 electric-motors on the Bow Valley III had no ducts or ventilation fans. They were much neater-looking with what appeared to be a refrigeration system on top of the motor. I made enquiries of those who know more about electrickery. Sure enough it was explained that the cooling-air for the motors ran in a closed-loop through a refrigeration system. There was little danger of gas getting into a system that was self-contained and sealed.
I can say with certainty that Harvey Schnee designed and built the toolboard on the Bow Valley III. I am equally sure that the casing-lift was also his work. With the barber-poles and refrigerated motors you are straying away from drill-crew things. Harvey Schnee was employed through the drilling department. His titles of 'Harvey-the-Welder' and 'Rig Engineer' were purely honorific, if not sarcastic. Yet I believe that the barber-poles and electric-motors were his ideas. They could theoretically have been someone else's ideas. Plain honest, farmhand genius is not the exclusive birthright of any one individual. The chances of two great minds of the Harvey Schnee calibre being present on one rig at the same time are remote.
I wasn't there when they built the Bow Valley III. I was there when Harvey turned the controls for the Aladdin bridge-cranes through. 180°. It was a lot of work. It meant that the operator could see the cranes without twisting his back and looking over his shoulder. It was just so much easier to use the equipment after Harvey's intervention
Appendix A
Harvey Schnee died in June 2015 aged 80
https://obittree.com/obituary/ca/alberta/medicine-hat/saamis-memorial-funeral-chapel-crematorium--reception-centrecgr-holdings-ltd/harvey-schnee/2186795/
Appendix B
The Sindbad Saxon was Harvey's rig for much of the 1980's. It became the Dan Princess and then a submersible-swamp-barge in the Caspian Sea area.
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