Looking back on the Orion oil rig crash and dramatic rescue off Guernsey's coast

  • ITV Channel's Kate Prout looks back on how the quick action of rescuers helped to avert a major disaster

This year marks the 45th anniversary of one of Guernsey's biggest sea rescue operations.

In horrendous weather conditions and Force 12 hurricane winds, the Orion oil rig became stranded on rocks off Grandes Rocques.

Rescuers spent the next two days saving the 30 crew on board and their efforts meant no lives were lost.

We look back on how a major maritime disaster was averted by a community pulling together.

Rescuers spent two days saving the 30 crew on board. Credit: ITV Channel

On 1 February 1978, the Orion oil rig was being towed from Rotterdam to Brazil.

In the early hours, it broke its line 20 miles off Guernsey and drifted towards nearest land.

It didn't take long for the 276-foot tall structure, attached to a 400-foot long barge, to embed itself on rocks off Grandes Rocques.

With 30 crew still on board, they needed to be rescued before the storm broke up the vessel.

Salvager Richard Keen explained: "I'd never seen an oil rig before. We got there just as the rig got to shore, it was blowing an absolute hurricane. You could lean into the wind, past your centre of gravity and not fall over.

"It was heaving with people, lots of lights on, the lifeboats were on standby, the seas were horrendous and then these helicopters appeared and it was tremendous to see them take the crew off."

The 276-foot tall structure, attached to a 400-foot long barge, became stranded on rocks off Grandes Rocques. Credit: ITV Channel

It took nearly two days to retrieve all 30 crew from the rig and 27 days to get the whole unit refloated and towed to France - before it set off on its final journey to South America.

The Guernsey lifeboat crew played a vital role in the early operation and local hotels put up those who were rescued, as well as emergency services who arrived in the island from the UK and Europe.

Maritime Historian John Paul Fallaize reflected: "At the time everyone pulled together, the States sent their teams down. A massive amount of salvage was getting done and the local people were helping out too, even after the barge had gone people were out on the beaches picking up stuff."