It was 41 years ago today that Newfoundland and Labrador experienced one of its worst tragedies in history.

All 84 men were lost when the Ocean Ranger went to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

Danny Collins would have been on the rig that night, but a friend was there in his place. He has trouble dealing with it to this day.

Collins was always concerned about safety, saying it was not the main concern of the U-S based owners.

He says you could be out there in 50-foot waves and not feel a thing. One night though, the rig began listing. That was about three months before it sank.

He jumped out of his bunk and ran out to the control room but by the time he got there, they had righted the rig. He asked what had happened but nobody would tell him anything other than “it’s all fixed.” In his opinion, the rig should have been shut down and evacuated until they figured out the problem.

A memorial service takes place at St. John the Baptist Church Thursday morning at 10:30.

While 84 men died when the world’s largest semi-submersible drill rig went down, three more lives were lost when attempts were made to refloat the rig and remove it from shipping lanes where she posed a hazard to navigation.

Two divers were killed as the result of an explosion at the site of the Ocean Ranger in June of 1983. Another diver died on a subsequent attempt to refloat the rig.

Meanwhile, Energy NL is remembering the 41st anniversary of the Ocean Ranger disaster.

Energy NL says the responsibility is on all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to keep the memory of those lost alive, and continue to work each day to ensure those who work in the offshore industry return home safely to their loved ones.