Morgan City, LA You have to learn to roll with the sea and the weather.

~Doc Laborde Morgan City is located on the Atchafalya River in South Louisiana. International cargo can be received at the Port of Morgan City, through which the Intracoastal canal and the Mississippi River reach markets in 37 states. Oil Fever first occurred in 1900 in Morgan City, which the year that the Spindletop discovery occurred. However, the oil industry didnt take off until 1937. In 1937, Morgan City was the jumbo shrimp capital of the world. Kerr-McGee Industries drilled the first successful oil well out of sight of the land, which is recorded at the most significant oil discovery in Louisiana. This caused a black gold rush that marked the beginning of a new era. In the early 1940s, many people from all over the southern states moved to Morgan City to begin working in the oilfield. The oil industries grew to trump the shrimping industry. Shrimpers were worried that the seismic blasts required to find oil wells was harmful to their business. The shots from these wells sent geysers 50 to 100 feet into the air, leaving craters on the ocean floor. These blasts not only scared away shrimp, but shrimp trawls would get stuck in the crater, tearing nets. There was also a shortage of crews because many trawlers went as far as Mexico to keep shrimping or gave up and worked for the oil companies. At first, oil and exploration meant working in marshes and water, often hiring wooden boats with gas engines. Before long, they started using larger steel boats with diesel engines. Because boats and barges are huge parts of the oilfield, shipyards began popping up in and around Morgan City. At that time, there was only one drilling rig and one oil-producing platform, just south of Morgan City. The workers would leave Morgan City and go to Grand Isle, where they were exploring for more oil. They stayed for two weeks, eventually discovering an area that could possibly have oil. Within a month, the spot was being drilled and producing oil and Sulfur, which was sent to Freeport Sulfur Company. After WWII, the pay offered by oil companies was higher than anywhere else. Because of this, many people switched from their occupations to jobs related to the oil field. The rise of oilfield work, however, did not mean the end of onshore jobs. Workers were moved back and forth as their skills were needed. In marshes, men lived on quarter boats, while men working offshore lived on vessels pulled up alongside the platforms. In 1950, the wage to work on the barge was 50 dollars a week. The crews worked 21 and 7 or 7 and 7, which means that they spent 21 days on the boat and 7 days off or 7 days on then 7 days off during a month. At this time, they were working on recovering from the 1946 Tideland dispute, which resulted in Louisiana being granted title to submerged lands out to three miles) and were only now beginning to send people back out into the gulf. They used converted LSTs that held the pumps, generators, living quarters and pipe storage. Operations were very primitive in those days. There was hardly any communications, so on nights when you couldnt see the

end of the boat because of the fog (Dilsaver), it took hours to get through the fog. Changing crews was also an ordeal in itself. It took many hours to change the crews and to get equipment off of the rig, an important issue because rigs never stop. The offshore oil and gas industry brought a ton of new industrial sectors. Both big and small companies were attracted to the potential profits. Large companies such as Halliburton and Schlumberger added offices in southern Louisiana, which brought others to the state and gave jobs to locals. Locals also began building their own businesses and oil rigs to cash in on the success. Tidewater Marine, now a leader in the business, got its start at this time in Morgan City. Morgan City thus became the other primary location for oil field workthe first being New Orleans. In the early 50s, there were no specialized vessels for oil rigs. They took PT boats and converted them to carry passengers. Then, companies like Mobil began making boats built especially to haul passengers to and from the oil rigs because hundreds of people would be participating in crew changes. From the PT boat design, they built crew boats out of steel. These boats werent as fast as the PTs because they used the safer alternative to gas: diesel. Thus, the very first crew boats were built. Dub Noble, a Morgan City local, described his work in the oil field: March 1st, 1954, we went into marsh operations on a quarter boat over and around Golden Meadow, LouisianaI was doing surveying for the marsh operation. This is doing the same thing we were doing offshore, only it was in the marsh instead of out on the waterWe used marsh buggies to take us where we wanted to go, but the quarter boat that we lived on was placed in the canals and bayous, wherever it was we could get the quarter boat closer to where we were [going to] do our work. We started off in Grand Isle. I worked practically every stitch of marsh and land below Highway 90 in the next fifteen to eighteen years. By the late fifties, crew boats were only 55 to 70 ft. long with only a captain and a deckhand as a crew. Compare that to now, where crew boats average between 135 and 180 ft. and require at least a 4 person crew. When first entering the oil business, a worker would begin as a deckhand. They would work their way up to captain and finally get their 100-ton license, followed by their 300-ton license. Point Au Fer, thirty miles south of Morgan City, was a company called Magnolias first well. Magnolia Petroleum has since been renamed Mobil Oil and is now part of Exxon-Mobil. Magnolia was making a ridiculous amount of money on the oil, but hardly any of it was going to the workers. Many new companies started popping up. To name a few, Doc Drilling Company, Blackie Drilling Company, and Old Reagan Tool. However, the barges were only one-rig companies. These barges were rented out to the oil companies in the beginning. Arthur Levy was one of the main boat owners in the Morgan City area. He had several big vessels that worked for companies like Shell Oil from Galveston Texas, to Houma, LA.

Other small companies struggled through that time. When regulations got too strict, the small boat companies had to go out of businessit didnt pay for them to buy new boats or improve their boats. They just didnt make enough money. More and more men went to work for other companies instead of staying on their own boats, which required quite a period of adjustment. According to Burt Ross, it was terrifying being on the boat for the first time, not knowing what to expect. The diesel smell coming from the engines on his first trip was unbearable. He first went to work on a 45 foot crew boat that had air conditioning and good visibility. All he remembers about his first trip is everyone on board throwing up. They werent used to being that far offshore, where the weather was choppy. Another few workers described their work life as nice. They had food and beds. They got on a boat on Thursday, then caught a book out of Berwick or Morgan City. On a normal day, the boat would run for 12 hours. The workers would wake up in the morning and put on their old, dirty clothes at 6 am. They would either be going into the hole or coming out of the hole with pipe. It was always muddy.

Resources Austin, Diane E. "Morgan City's History in the Era of Oil and Gas--Perspectives of Those Who Were There." History of the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry in Southern Louisiana 3 (2008): 1-248. BOEM.gov. U.S. Department of the Interior, Sept. 2008. Web. 4 Dec. 2013. <http://www.data.boem.gov/PI/PDFImages/ESPIS/4/4532.pdf>. Geography. Port of Morgan City. Louisiana, n.d. Web. 4 Dec 2013. <http://www.portofmc.com/index.php/geography.html> History of Morgan City, LA. City of Morgan City. Morgan City, n.d. Web. 4 Dec 2013. <http://www.cityofmc.com/index.php/aboutmorgan-city/morgan-city-history.html>