The rumour was, the Finns did not come up again until the shift was over. Years later, Aker's construction manager Svein Jørpeland said their welds were faultless: a Finnish welder had three years of training, a Norwegian three months.

So what did men like that do after work? Their camp was a barracks town above the dry dock, partly on an old rubbish dump. It was built for 200 men; one spring, about 2,000 came, some of them sleeping on three hotel ships. The concrete crews had a gym and a squash court, the steelworkers had slot machines, and most evenings were television, cards and reading. Aker's men met at a nightclub in town called Cobra.

The Finns made a different trip into town: seven or eight kilometres, to the swimming hall. It had a sauna. Their camp would not get one until 1976.

In old Finland, a settler built the sauna first. Then the house.

What would you build first?

Sources: Norsk Oljemuseum, Statfjord industrial heritage: "Brakkebyene" (2018) and "Støping av A-en" (2018); Trude Meland, Stavangeren 3/2014 (her 2010 interview with Svein Jørpeland); Norsk Oljemuseum Årbok 2012; Ahlqvist 2023 citing Pentikäinen 2000; thisisFINLAND.
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