Friends and families will gather Friday morning in Newfoundland to mark the anniversary of Canada's worst marine disaster since the Second World War.

Twenty years ago, Canadians awoke to the news that the world's largest mobile drilling rig sank during a fierce storm off the coast of Newfoundland.

Considered unsinkable, the Ocean Ranger was more than 100 metres high and was as long as two football fields.

The Ocean Ranger drilling rig

But poor training, inadequate safety equipment, design flaws and 160-kilometre-an-hour winds sealed the fate of the 84 crew members. All of them died. Sixty-nine of them were Canadian.

They will be remembered during a candle-lighting ceremony at St. Pius X church in St. John's.

St. John's resident Paul Barnes knew one of the victims of the disaster. He says he can only imagine the horrors his friend Greg Tiller went through that night.

Ocean Ranger memorial plaque

"I think everyone realizes that it wasn't instantaneous. There must have been so much fear and uncertainty, when the rig started tipping. How many hours were they just terrified out there? That just sends a chill through me," said Barnes.

The Ocean Ranger disaster did result in a Royal Commission. Alex Hickman was the chairperson of the group that examined the disaster. He says it's a poignant anniversary for him.

"I still think about it always on the 15 of February. I think about the weather that prevailed that day and I'd like to think that there won't be any repetition, but that may be wishful thinking, because the sea is so powerful, so angry, so unremitting," said Hickman.

The commission's investigation into the disaster led to safety changes within the offshore industry. Crew members now have two safety suits each, and the regulations around safety systems are stringently enforced.