Davey Einarsson, a GSI executive and lifelong employee of the oilfield services company, returned to Canada from Libya after the 1969 coup d'état that brought Muammar Gaddafi to power. He was assigned to the company's Arctic operations, off the coasts of Alaska and Canada in the Beaufort Sea. At the time the company had only one boat to serve its clients, the MV "Grebe", a modified former submarine chaser.