ABSTRACT
By the early 1970s the number of those working offshore had begun to build up significantly. The Department of Energy Brown Book of 1974 lists 3760 employed offshore and that for the following year 6000, compared with a mere 1000 in 1970 (DEn, 1968–91). These figures, as we shall have occasion to note elsewhere, are a vast underestimate. They refer only to those workers who actually worked on installations and exclude support workers. Following the first oil price hike of 1973, the level of offshore activity in the UK sector sharply increased. This attracted workers to move north to a new industry which provided the opportunity for ‘big money’. These workers often came from the declining industrial heartlands of Clydeside, the Northeast and Merseyside, as well as the rural hinterlands of the North. Even humble roustabouts (general labourers), the lowest members of the drill-floor pecking order, had the prospect of rising up the industrial hierarchy within a matter of a few months, and earning what seemed enormous sums. In reality, for most of the workforce the premium for enduring the isolation, discomfort and danger of working offshore twelve – to sixteen-hour shifts on a rota of two weeks on, one week off, was fairly modest. By contrast, North Sea divers in the mid-1970s, working under saturation dive conditions, could earn as much as £1000 a week. Pipeline welders, by working a seven-day week, could earn perhaps half that amount, still a considerable wage for the time.
