Time frame: Mid-1950 s. One of hundreds of pumping platforms built in the Gulf of Mexico. One pump was powered by a large electric motor which was very difficult to remove and repair. (Somehow it had been overlooked that no machinery runs forever without repair). This motor had been placed on the platform as an assembled unit, then much of the remainder of the platform built around it. A few hard days of chain hoist and side-drift rigging was the only way the motor could be removed.

So, once or more every year or so, the long sad story of the kiteline rigging maneuvers removal of the motor would occur. The motor was then sent ashore for repair, then passed back through a labyrinth of structural steel and pipe, involving piecemeal rig, then re-rig etc., this heavy-duty yo yo would make its laborious and risky journey, then again be aligned to the pump. and so it went for many years

Mid-1970 s

Quite by chance, a couple of south Louisiana millwrights were on the platform; and had just completed a job assignment unrelated to the pump motor after one of its infamous trips ashore. The return crew boat wasn t due for a few days so the two millwrights were assigned to help reinstall the pump motor. Once the motor was back in place the millwrights were basically dismissed from the alignment activities. They were both appalled and even amused at how the motor was being aligned by the two platform mechanics...