My mother made this quilt for me in memory of my father.
A drillship is a merchant vessel designed for use in exploratory offshore drilling of new oil and gas wells or for scientific drilling purposes.The first drillship was the CUSS I, designed by Robert F. Bauer of Global Marine in 1955. The CUSS I had drilled in 400-foot-deep waters by 1957.[1] Robert F. Bauer became the first president of Global Marine in 1958.[1]
In 1961 Global Marine started a new drillship era. They ordered several self-propelled drillships each with a rated centerline drilling of 20,000 foot-wells in water depths of 600 feet. The first was named CUSS (Glomar) II, a 5,500-deadweight-ton vessel, costing around $4.5 million. Built by a Gulf Coast shipyard, the vessel was almost twice the size of the CUSS I, and became the world's first drillship built as a new construction which set sail in 1962.[1]
In 1962, The Offshore Company elected to build a new type of drillship, larger than that of the Glomar class. This new drillship would feature a first-ever anchor mooring array based on a unique turret system. The vessel was named Discoverer I. The Discoverer I had no main propulsion engines,[1] meaning it needed to be towed out to the drill site.
Ian