Family of Mr. Charlie's original owner visits rig in MC

Edward Theodore “Ted” Laborde, 87, worked as a managing director for Marsh McLennan, a New York-based firm specializing in “risk, strategy and people.” He brought to the table schooling from Georgetown University and LSU’s law school.
But he thinks he had another edge that made him successful.
“Although I had a great education,” Laborde said, “I was successful in the insurance business because of my experience.”
His knowledge of offshore energy production was about more than figures on paper. Laborde spent a summer lugging 100-pound cement sacks, unloading supply boats and trying to keep all his fingers as a 16-year-old roustabout on the world’s first transportable, submersible drilling rig. That’s the rig that would become known as Mr. Charlie, now the International Petroleum Museum & Exposition in Morgan City.
Laborde and about two dozen relatives and friends visited Mr. Charlie on Monday to take a tour of the rig that played a role in the family history.
Laborde is the nephew of Alden “Doc” Laborde, who along with John Hayward founded Ocean Drilling & Exploration Co. — ODECO — in 1953. Construction of the Mr. Charlie rig, named for major investor Charles Murphy, was completed in 1954 at the Alexander Shipyard in New Orleans.
The rig’s first work was off the mouth of the Mississippi River.
Laborde was one of nine children and a Marksville High student. He went to work on Mr. Charlie on June 4, 1954.
He may have been the boss’ nephew, but it wasn’t a cushy job.
The crews worked seven days on and seven days off. The shifts for roustabouts were 6 to 6. The drilling crews worked 12 to 12.
There was drilling mud to clean up. A roustabout might be told to help in the kitchen for a crew of up to 58. Supply boats had to be unloaded, and the deck sometimes had to be cleared of mud and cement.
Some of the work was “very dangerous,” Laborde said, “particularly loading and unloading with the crane.”
After his summer on the rig, Laborde went back to Marksville High. He reported a week late for football practice, and the coach wanted to know what he’d been doing. Working offshore, he replied.
The coach wanted to know what the money was like. Laborde told him $2.50 an hour plus overtime.
“Hell,” the coach said, “that’s more than I make.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator says that $2.50 in June 1954 is the equivalent of $29.98 in June 2025.
Mr. Charlie drilled hundreds of wells in a working life that lasted until 1986. The rig was taken to ODECO’s Amelia yard.
Mr. Charlie was purchased for a token price from Diamond Offshore Drilling, which had acquired ODECO, for use as a museum.
Now Mr. Charlie serves as the backdrop for TV shows and movies and as a training site. Mostly, it gives people their only chance to see what an offshore oil rig is like.
Laborde knows. But on Monday, “I believe I want to get on board and see what it is,” he said.

This story has been edited to correct Ted LaBorde's job responsibilities at Marsh McLennan.