Page 12: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2021)

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INTERVIEW KEN CHAPMAN

PROFILES IN TRAINING:

KEN CHAPMAN

Senior Instructor

Maersk Training

Ken Chapman has led as deep and as broad of a maritime and ofshore life as possible, an accrued experience and knowledge including being part of the team that had to coordinated during one of the ofshore oil and gas industry’s worst disasters ever: the Piper

Alpha. Today he refects with Ofshore Engineer on how these experiences helped drive him into a career in training, today as the Senior Instructor, Maersk Training.

By Greg Trauthwein

This is probably the period that infuenced me the most

Ken, to start can you give an overview of your career and my future. I was involved in one of the most signifcant with insights on your current position?

My working life started in the Merchant Navy (MN) (the events in the Oil & Gas industry, as I was part of the team

U.S. equivalent of the Merchant Marine) working for Bibby that had to coordinate the Piper Alpha disaster; which was

Line as a deck cadet in 1975. My father was a Captain in the probably the worst night of my life and it changed me in so

MN, my uncle a Chief Engineer. This choice of the MN was many ways. (*The Piper Alpha offshore rig suffered an explo- not popular my father and he advised against it, saying the sion on the night of July 6, 1988, claiming the lives of 167 crew

MN was a thing of the past in the UK. As it happened, he was members). Although not on the scene, I think the whole team right to a certain extent. By 1979 I was made redundant due was affected by the events that unfolded that night. Even to the downturn of the British Fleet. After trying various jobs now, writing about it makes me feel uneasy. However, I have onshore, I started work with BP as an oil and gas operator in turned negative into a positive and use that training experi-

Sullom Voe Oil Terminal. Island life suited me but not my ence in the past and today. wife, so a change was called for, and I went back to sea work- After a few years in HM Coastguard, the industry offshore ing on Standby Vessels and AHTS vessels. was picking up, and I was fortunate enough to go back to

After a year or so there was a downturn in the N. Sea, and the industry working on the drilling rigs. Why? Working HM

I was forced to make another change. This resulted in work Coastguard was one the most rewarding jobs but was poorly onshore in areas different to MN or shipping, but I believe paid. I opted to go offshore, for fnancial reasons, as a Ballast my experience was well-used onshore and led me to join HM Control Room Operator in 1990, and for the next 25 years

Coastguard, based in Aberdeen MRCC, as a SAR coordinator. I was fortunate to work for the same employer, albeit in dif- 12 OFFSHORE ENGINEER OEDIGITAL.COM