Food Problems

Rosser offers suggestions to the British on how to reduce drilling time

Southwell had become impressed with the speed the Americans were drilling the wells. It was noted at this time that the American crews could complete a well in the Eakring area in about a week on average, whereas the British took on average five weeks. Therefore Southwell asked Rosser to come to London and explain to the Anglo-Iranian Oil company bosses how things could improve.

 Rosser told them that greater freedom should be given to the crews to work on their own initiative, that the drill bit should not be arbitrarily changed every 300 feet but that it should be only changed if the hole wasn't going fast enough. Much time was lost continually pulling out the piping to change the bit. Rosser told them that heavy drilling mud should only be used if you are likely to encounter formation pressures that must be controlled. Drilling with water will reduce drilling time dramatically where it is safe to do so, as in the Dukes Wood and Eakring areas.

He explained that the British drilling crews were waiting 72 hours before testing the cement jobs on the wells they are drilling and that they have reduced waiting time to 48 hours with not a single problem encountered. He suggested the time that could be saved by skidding the whole rig derrick rather than dismantling it every time. Having the water and fuel connections at the location by the time the rig is on the drill site and having the cement at the location ahead of the time it is needed. Rosser suggested that one British oil worker should join each American crew.

The American crews were putting the wells on line on average at one per week. In justification of the British crews it should be noted that the rigs they were using had not been designed for the shallow drilling of Eakring but the much deeper drilling requirement in Persia. It is also to be noted that the each and every able bodied man had to submit himself to military service. British drilling crews, except the actual drillers, were largely inexperienced and in some cases had been rejected for military service for medical reasons. At the beginning of the war the requirement for experienced oil workers in the UK sector was not foreseen as being great and so most had gone into the armed services. It had been wholly the military who had decided who went where and a good many people with mechanical expertise had gone into the RAF where, at the beginning of the war and throughout 1940 and 1941, these requirements had been more immediate. This was Britain half way through it's fifth year at war whilst America was half way through it's second year [not counting the 24 days of 1941] . Priorities had refocused.

More Problems

Despite the ever increasing supply of equipment from the docks there had been some losses to enemy submarines. By July 5th three of the mobile National rigs were credited with the completion of 25 wells. Completion would obviously increase when the fourth National rig could be put into service.  

One rig had to be shut down for 2 hours because of electrical failure of the bombed power lines. Another problem was the well troubles, lost time was sometimes due to fishing exercises [pulling broken pipe out of wells]. Another rig had dropped 1600 feet of drill pipe into the hole and another had lost time because of a struck pipe. The problems were keeping the toolpusher Gordon Sams busy and irritated. It was noted that the crews were not as alert as they had been at the beginning and the pressure was telling. It was at this time too that D'Arcy announced that they wanted wells at 2½ acre intervals instead of the original 5 acre intervals. This produced additional pressure.

Rosser found also that the ships now arriving at the docks where taking time to offload their cargoes this was causing them to wait 36 hours in some cases. During the drilling of a test well at Nocton where the American crews were drilling below 5000ft, they were on their way there when they encountered a British Military convoy fully equipped for combat, clearly they were moving somewhere for embarkation. The curious encounter resulted in cooperation between the two without either telling the other precisely what they were up to and they managed to pass each other on the narrow English roads.

Tragedy

Rosser had written in his diary that November 11th 1943 would be his most important day of his life, little did he know that within 48hours tragedy would hit all the crews of Eakring. On this day he had arranged to meet Major General C.H.Lee Commanding officer of SOS (Services of Supply) European theatre of war who had agreed to supply the extra rations to the workers. 

On Saturday morning  November 13th 1943 Walker had set off in his Plymouth for the supply depot at Burton-on-Trent to pick up the weekly American food rations. Rosser with Robbie Robinson driving a K-7 truck headed for Liverpool docks to pick up a C-100 pump and supplies. The day was heavily overcast with thick fog that hung close to the ground. He was explaining to Robbie about meeting the General as the truck pulled up outside the guardhouse on the docks where he was to meet the shipping agent. As he climbed down from the truck Rosser was told that he had an emergency telephone call from Kelham Hall.

Walker was on the telephone with some bad news. Herman Douthit had fallen from the double board of the drilling mast at location 148 in Dukes Wood and had been killed. Rosser's knees were seen to buckle when he heard the news and the man in the guardhouse pushed a chair under Rosser and picked up the telephone receiver. They immediately started back to Kelham Hall. They pulled into the courtyard of Kelham Hall at about 09:00pm, everyone was in sombre mood. 

Arrangements were made with the Chaplain Carlsen at the American General Hospital in Mansfield for the funeral. Rosser then caught a train to advise the American Embassy of Herman's death and to discuss the possibility of sending his body back to the States. The officials of the Embassy explained that the shipment of the body home at this time was impossible due to wartime regulations. Rosser sent a telegram to Noble's Tulsa office that Colonel Irish had arranged the burial with full military honours in the Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey.  Rosser telegrammed Mrs Douthit that if after the war she desired, Herman's body would be shipped home.

His funeral was attended by his American as well as his British friends he had made since arriving at Kelham. Many who came could not all get into the church.  The services were conducted by the Chaplain from the Mansfield General Hospital and the minister of the Parish Church. All rigs were shut down from 6:00 am to 6:00pm as a mark of respect.

It had been 11:30am when Herman Douthit had been on the derrick at location 148 at Dukes Wood he had gone up for the purpose of attaching a rope to the platform. He was coming back down to take the catline off when he fell about 55 feet. He died of head injuries. He was 29 years old. He left a wife, Louise. 

Herman Douthit is now buried at the American military cemetery, in Cambridge, England. His cross says 'Herman Douthit - civilian' . He is the only civilian buried on this cemetery at Plot C, Row S, Grave 2.

Christmas 1943 and onwards

Despite the tragedy the teams looked forward to Christmas and Walker was busily arranging details for the holiday. Despite the past few weeks everyone had been driving pretty hard irrespective of the time lost through fishing exercises. Rosser and Walker had been pleased of the way they had behaved at Kelham Hall. Despite Herman Douthit's accident and the mean fracture of Webster's arm that refused to heal properly the Roughnecks remained surprisingly healthy. The Mansfield General Hospital had given assistance when required and with the exception of three or four occasions when  someone was retained there everyone remained healthy. There had been little lost time off for injuries.

There was now enough food with the assistance of the army G-20 depot at Burton-on-Trent and the Christmas menu featured turkey and of course the black market was in full operation with some of the locals in the Kelham and Eakring area. The Americans warmed to the English tradition of having four days holiday over Christmas 1943. 

 Work continued however, especially on Nocton No3 which was proving to be a problem. Finally they gave up and plugged it with some 4½ inch pipe still down the hole and skidded the rig to another site. By the Wednesday the rig had been skidded to a new location. Rosser and McGill made a trip to Sheffield to get oil filters and a Grease gun, the weather continued bad. Rosser stayed at the Saracen's Head in nearby Lincoln that night.

As the holiday season drew to a close the pressure on the America teams to produce more oil eased off. The oil situation in Great Britain had greatly improved since September and even the bus services started getting more fuel. The coming year was to be marked with some historical events but mostly they were looking forward to going home.

Preparing for going home

Competition amongst the drilling crews had become a natural development. Those who had originally embarked as drillers continued to be drillers with the exception of H.A.Hobbs who had quit to return home and was replaced by Lewis Dugger. There had been a few interchanges of crew because of illness and brief days off for rest. The friendly rivalry had contributed to the rapid well completions and D'Arcy and Anglo-Iranian oil were very pleased. 

By the spring of 1944 there had been many military successes of the Allies, the enemy had been driven from North Africa and Sicily and Italy had opened up the Mediterranean. With the defence against the U-boat in the North Atlantic, oil reserves were now increasing in the UK. Three million allied fighting forces waited on the British mainland for the day and hour when the war would be carried to mainland Europe.

On the weekend that the American rigs had finished their 365 drilling days, Rosser and Lewis Dugger took off for London for the purpose of celebrating Mrs Dugger's arrival. Rosser provided a room for them at the Hotel Carlston whilst he stayed at a hotel in Piccadilly. No one could have foreseen that it was this very night that the Germans decided to make a final gesture and attack London. The Saturday night of March 4th 1944 will be one that the Duggers would remember for a long time. Rosser was out early the following morning and was appalled at all of the damage. He was unable to telephone the Carlston Hotel so he made his way round to the Carlston Hotel on foot. When he reached the block where the hotel had stood he was horrified to see that it had been hit. Rosser was told that the Duggers were not in the part that had been hit and had been evacuated that night.

Over 600 Londoners had been killed that night and hospitals were continuing to receive the injured. Rosser checked the hospitals and was reassured that Mr & Mrs Dugger were not on the list of dead or injured. Rosser waited hoping for a call when finally he received a call from a village in Wales and that they were on their way back to Newark. On Monday March 6th the three of them had breakfast together at the Clinton Arms Hotel in Newark.

 Farewell

The contract between the Anglo-Iranian oil company and the Noble and Fain/Porter companies had been terminated with the fulfilment of the drilling of the one hundred wells and the 365 drilling days carried out by the drill crews. 94 of the holes drilled were producing high quality oil, they had drilled 106 in total. Nocton No3 was the only well that had to be plugged as a lost hole. This remarkable achievement had been carried out in wartime conditions.

Walker and Rosser left on the HMS Mauritania, a troop transport, on March 3rd from Greenock. Their job done they were to also take home the 37 remaining roughnecks that had come over to Britain. After having a time gathering them all together they left on the train from Newark bound for Glasgow.

They left for home March 3rd 1944.

From 1944 - 1945 they would have added another 1,231,346 barrels to the total output of Eakring oilfield making a total of 3,520,553 barrels in total shipped to the refineries.

A fitting memory

The curator of Dukes Wood Oil Museum, Kevin Topham, stands next to a tree in the Dukes Wood Nature Reserve that was carved in 1943 by some of the American Roughnecks of Sherwood Forest.

My thanks to 

The Secret of Sherwood Forest Oil production in England during World war II

by GUY WOODWARD and GRACE STEELE WOODWARD, ISBN 0-8061-3433-X

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