
Calls mount to return Ocean Ranger artifacts to Newfoundland
CBC
For more than 40 years, artifacts tied to a Newfoundland and Labrador offshore oil disaster have been preserved in an Ottawa museum, but some day soon, they might make their way home.
Taken by divers from the wreck of the Ocean Ranger, items like life jackets, oars, portholes, the oil rig's ballast control panel, dozens of documents and logs taken from inside the sunken rig were part of a royal commission to determine what caused the rig to list and eventually capsize.
Those artifacts are now in the Canada Museum of Science and Technology, one of three museums in a network of national museums known as Ingenium.
Since the Land and Sea documentary that went inside Ingenium aired, there has been an increased discussion over the fate of the artifacts and where they should go, with calls for them to be returned to Newfoundland and Labrador.
Noreen O'Neill lost her husband, Paschal O'Neill, 42 years ago on the Ocean Ranger. She recently travelled with Land and Sea's Jane Adey to Ottawa. There, she was able to touch and connect with many of the items, including eight life jackets preserved in a temperature-controlled unit at the museum's Ingenium Centre.
O'Neill said she'd always wondered what happened to the artifacts and if they had been discarded after the inquiry. While it was upsetting at times to see these items — like when she saw the life jackets she thought were too small for grown men to wear — she was glad she made the trip.
O'Neill says her husband would want the artifacts returned to Newfoundland and Labrador.
"You know, as much as they could, they would want them here. They died for this. And you know, the oil industry still needs to go forward, but to know that this is here and it's a reminder that their lives just weren't in vain," said O'Neill.
There's already a sizeable collection of artifacts in St. John's that almost rivals the collection in Ottawa.
Greg Walsh, director of archives and collections at The Rooms, the province's largest museum, says the city is home to 30 archival collections, including records of the royal commission.
"But of course, because we also collect from private sources, we also have personal collections. Photo collections. Miscellaneous artifacts," Walsh said. There are also 10 "discrete" items that are from the Ocean Ranger, he said.
From his understanding, Walsh said Ingenium is a national institution, which means its Ocean Ranger collection belongs to the country, much like how items in The Rooms belong to the province.
Walsh said discussions are "ongoing" on the possibility of having artifacts make their way to The Rooms, but it's also too early to tell if — or when — that could happen.
"What we would like to see happen is a definite and larger discussion between the Ingenium colleagues, who, as I said, are doing a totally excellent job of making this collection available and preserving it," said Walsh.