Page 21: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 15, 1973)

Equitable Equipment

Honored As Louisiana

Offshore Pioneer

Personnel Changes

At Columbus Line 'Dr. John Henry de La Trobe, chairman of the board, has an- nounced that for personal reasons

Richard T. Soper, president of Co- lumbus Line, Inc., has resigned.

Mr. Soper will continue as a direc- tor and a consultant, and will re- main as a director of the other cor- porations in which Hamiburg-Sud, the parent company of Columbus

Line, has an interest.

Erwin M. Ludewig, a director of

Columbus Line, Inc., and a manag- ing director of Hamburg-Sud, will act as president of Columbus Line,

Inc.

Dr. de La Trobe also announced the election of Dr. Michael Schwarz as senior vice president, and the election of Capt. Konrad Wedekind as vice president-Pacific Coast.

Columbus Line operates between the East Coast of the United States and Canada, and Australia-New

Zealand, and was the first shipping company to introduce a fully con- tainerized service in that trade.

On the Pacific Coast, Columbus

Line will be the first to operate a fully containerized service to and from Australia and New Zealand with the introduction this spring of new containerships in that service.

Equitable Equipment Company,

Inc., a New Orleans, La., shipbuild- er, was recently honored for its pioneering contributions to the de- velopment of Louisiana's offshore oil and gas industry.

Equitable's president, Cecil M.

Keeney, was presented with a plaque commemorating his com- pany's work for the industry 25 years ago, at ceremonies in Morgan

City by 25th Offshore Anniversary

Inc., an agency of the Chamber of

Commerce of the Morgan City,

Berwick, and Patterson (La.) area, organized to pay tribute to those companies instrumental in the initi- al development of Louisiana's oil and gas industry in the Gulf of

Mexico and the state's tidelands.

Equitable Equipment Company converted a Navy vessel into the drilling tender Frank Phillips, used by Kerr-McGee to bring in the first

Louisiana offshore oil well in 1947.

The vessel was 260 feet long by 48 feet in beam 'by 15 feet, with a draft of 8 feet 6 inches loaded. It was equipped with stiff-leg derricks, hoisting winches, diesel generators, pumps for water and fuel transfer, bilge system, mud pumps, warping winches for holding the barge to the drilling platform in rough weather and a modern Halliburton oil well cementing skid unit. It had living and working accommoda- tions for a crew of 38.

The well drilled from this tender was 12 miles off the Louisiana coast at a water depth of 30 feet at low tide. Production was from a Mi- ocene sand with pipe perforated at 1,734-50 feet on 'block 32 of 20,000 acres of Louisiana state-owned land. It was Kerr-McGee No. 1 well.

Equitable Equipment also built the world's first self-propelled drill ships, the 76-man quarters unit for

Humble's first twin-tower offshore rig—the first of its kind in the world — and the largest offshore quarters unit in the world.

Representing Equitable Equip- ment Company at the presentation and recognition ceremonies were

Mr. and Mrs. Cecil M. Keeney, J,

Frank Williams, vice president, sales, and Mrs. Williams.

February 15, 1973 23

Here's what happens with the new Raytheon

Watchstander System for remote monitoring of engineering, cargo and bridge parameters — as well as spares inventory, fuel consumption, cargo control, dockside maneuver- ing, satellite navigation, or just about anything else you might need a computer to do:

What happens is saf efficient ship operation.

Equitable Equipment president Cecil M.

Keeney stands beside plaque commemorat- ing his company's pioneering contributions to Louisiana's offshore drilling industry.

RAYTHEON

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