Notable New Orleanians: A Tricentennial Tribute

water the industry drilled from floating anchored ships. As costs increased to accommodate new
developments ODECO, which had been private, was forced to go public for additional funds. By
1970 the authoritative Oil & Gas Journal called ODECO “one of the off-shore-drilling giants.” 1
During the 1960s Laborde designed the Ocean-Driller, the first column-stabilized semi-submersible
drilling rig. It actually floated in deep water, kept in position by anchors, its deck supported
by hollow columns that extended into the sea and offered stability to the drilling deck and vessel.
ODECO also built Thunder Horse, at one time the world’s largest semi-submersible drilling and production
platform, for BP [British Petroleum] in 2008. It displaced 130,000 tons of water, a number
that by a familiar comparison, far exceeds the 90,000 tons of Cunard’s ocean liner Queen Victoria.
Tidewater Marine originated in a meeting of industry representatives that Alden Laborde called in
June 1954 to meet ODECO’s shortage of supply vessels. The meeting included engineers, contractors,
the owner of Alexander shipyards, and a representative of Murphy [Oil] Corporation. Each agreed to
put up $10,000 to build a new type of supply boat with a forward pilot house and long, open rear deck.
Laborde and the Murphy Corporation immediately recognized a conflict of interest between
ODECO and Tidewater. Alden dropped out of Tidewater, allowing Laborde’s younger brother John
to run the new enterprise. Taking over as Tidewater’s first president, John Laborde led the company
to become within the next decade the largest supply company to the world-wide oil industry.
Alexander Shipyards, Inc. constructed its first three boats, Ebb Tide, Rip Tide, and Gulf Tide, 2 and
over succeeding decades many more followed. Among the largest were the Mammoth Tide and the
Goliath Tide, each 218’ in length with four engines pushing two props. For their size they made the
respectable speed of 13.5 knots.
In 1993, ODECO Drilling became Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. Alden retired and lived quietly
until his death in 2014. His younger brother John Laborde still participates in New Orleans activities.
Alden J. "Doc" Laborde.
COURTESY OF THE LABORDE FAMILY AND
OVERBOARD HOLDINGS.
1 Oil & Gas Journal, May 4, 1970, p. 107.
2 On line shipyard data base by Tim Colton.
N ASH
R OBERTS
(1918-2010)
Nash Roberts was New Orleans’ first celebrity television weatherman. In an age before computer-generated
graphics and models, his meteorological predictions proved true with such regularity
that his audiences trusted him. Roberts’ low key personality eschewed weather hype, endearing him
to the people. Before the use of satellites, he cannily predicted cold fronts, thunderstorms, sunshine,
hazy afternoons, and of course, hurricanes. His predicting triumphs came with hurricanes Audry
(1957), Betsy (1965) and Camille (1969). It was not until Hurricane Katrina, his last experience and
one long after his retirement, that a storm forced Nash and his wife Lydia to leave New Orleans.
Nash became a weatherman out in the Pacific during World War II. It was then that the Navy
recruited him to fly with other crewmen into the eye of hurricanes. They gathered information
about moisture, pressure, and winds—a new undertaking, requiring a steady hand and nerves.
Somehow, Nash came out of the war knowing that meteorology was to be his business. A short
teaching stint at Loyola led to the opening of a private forecasting business for the Gulf of Mexico,
the explosion of oil and gas drilling in the Gulf demanding good predictions. Nash developed his
private consulting business for the industry.
Nash’s first tools in the business of reporting the weather were a grease pen and marker board. It
was just after 1951, when he went to work for the new WDSU TV as the first weatherman in the
South, that these simple instruments became known. Countless little television screens depicted the
Nash marker at work drawing great arcs with little carrots on them, indicating lines between high and
BIOGRAPHIES
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