On a Drilling Rig in the North Sea, Rosie Hutchins Stood in the Derrick.
The derrick is a tower-like framework that supports the hoisting equipment that raises and lowers drill pipe. Rosie was strapped into a harness on a platform in the derrick called the monkey board, a small area used for the roughnecks to stand to trip pipe. As a newly appointed roughneck, Rosie was tasked with placing stands of pipe to be made up and go down the hole.
Seventy-five feet below Rosie on the rig floor, the drill crew waited for her to complete her task. Rosie remembers thinking at the time that she did not want to let her crew down, or worse, drop the ninety-five foot stand of pipe across the derrick. Read more...