Service and Technical Support Vulcan Offshore Home Overview of Conventional Platforms The Early Years Offshore Chattanooga Factory West Palm Beach Office West Palm Beach Fabricating Facility Chattanooga Plant Expansion Sales: Meeting the Customer's Needs Field Service: Have Hammers Will Travel It's in the Details Vulcan Offshore Tips Offshore Technology Conference Offshore Hammers in Action The Saga Continues Vulcan Iron Works Home vulcanhammer.net home Positive Infinity

Everyone has an experience in their life that they count the greatest. Corporations do, too. For Vulcan Iron Works, that experience was its involvement in offshore oil development. It worked for the employees, too; as Executive Vice President Pem Warrington said in 1991, it was "the experience of a lifetime."

Come join us as we take a look at Vulcan's involvement offshore, which follows a fascinating (and very profitable) saga of American commercial history. You can click here to start or pick one of the topics below:

• The Work: The Installation of Coventional Platforms
• Early Hammers Offshore
• Where the hammers began: The Manufacturing Facilities and Offices
  • The Chattanooga Plant
  • The West Palm Beach Office
  • The West Palm Beach Plant
  • The Chattanooga Plant Expansion
• Sales: Meeting the Customer's Needs
• Service: "Have Hammers, Will Travel"
• It's in the Details: Product features that make the difference
• Vulcan Offshore Tips: Service Advice for Vulcan Offshore Hammers
• The Offshore Technology Conference
• Offshore Hammers In Action
• The Saga Continues
• Special Pieces
  • A Few Words About the Telex
  • Construction Assistance Vehicle (CAV.) Not an offshore oil and gas product, but an underwater craft Vulcan fabricated for the U.S. Navy.
  • Herman Hasenkampf: A Tribute. Vulcan's most successful sales person perished in the wake of Hurricane Katrina; this is our farewell to him.
  • A Fistful of Yuan: Vulcan in China, 1981-1983. An account of the most interesting offshore sale Vulcan ever made, with many details of hammer start-ups and offshore procedure.
  • Anatomy of a Letter of Credit, an example of the way Vulcan generally was paid for international sales.
  • Internal Pile Hammer IPH-16, Vulcan's attempt at revolutionising steam hammers offshore.
  • Sea Water Hammer, Vulcan's last design of a hammer for underwater use.
  • Underwater Hammers, and the Rise of IHC, a look at early underwater hammers and of the company that ended up with Vulcan's air/steam line.
  • Dennis and Olson Method, a method for estimating the axial capacity of piles, especially offshore pipe piles

About the Photos

When putting together this collection, we wanted to tell the story of both the construction of conventional platforms. It's tempting just to surf the web and take "stock photos;" however, we chose to use something closer to home. With one exception, all of the photos in this section were either taken by Vulcan employees or were commissioned by Vulcan and taken by professional photographers. Many of these photos were rescued from destruction when Vulcan sold its Chattanooga facility; they are a priceless legacy of a great endeavour.

For their part Vulcan's employees were not photographers; they were service, sales, technical and management people. The photos weren't always the best, but they told the story better than just about anything else we can think of, and modern digital processing has improved many of these shots. Most of them are named in the narrative.

Although there may be others, two professional photographers are known to have their work in this collection: Bill Blakeney of Palm Beach Gardens, FL, who took some of the better photos offshore, and Jim Wilson of Hixson, TN, who took those of the plant expansion dedication.

Most of these photos are available for purchase. Click on the "contact us" button to the right and let us know how we can help you.