In many ways this book was a group project and could never have been completed without the generous assistance of so many. We are especially indebted to those who had sailed on the Deepwater Horizon and their families for sharing often painful memories with us—Dave and Alyssa Young, Doug Brown, Curt Kuchta, Marcel Muise, Janet Woodson, Roger Burkeen, Rhonda Burkeen, Rebecca Wheeler, John Allen, and Huston Funk. The technological complexities of deepwater drilling in general and the Macondo well in particular presented a steep learning curve that could not have been scaled without the unstinting tutelage of Paul Parsons and Robert Almeida. Thanks, too, to oil field veterans Richard Robson, Matt Michalski, Peter Mello, and Alwin Landry for invaluable perspective. We were incredibly fortunate to have reporting assistance from two of the best in the business, Bill Rose and April Witt, and the keen reading eyes of Gene Weingarten and Lisa Shroder. We also benefited from the excellent reportage of the nation’s newspapers, especially that of The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The New Orleans Times-Picayune, and Tom Junod of Esquire magazine.
Our gratitude goes to Gail Ross and Howard Yoon, for agenting, as well as hand-holding and tear-drying; and to our editors, David Hirshey and Barry Harbaugh, for guiding us through the shoals.
John Konrad would like add personal thanks to: his wife, Cindy, and Jack and Eleanor—for getting him through long nights writing and months spent offshore; Marcia, Jack, Maggie, Andrew, JD, Mairead, and his extended family for believing when writing a book seemed like the last thing he could accomplish; Mike Schuler and Tim Konrad for running gCaptain in his absence; Thad Fendley, Lee Freeman, Steve and Rachel Gordon, and the gCaptain.com forum members who answered so many of our questions; LCDR Tony Russell and ADM Thad Allen for providing U.S. Coast Guard access; Captain Dan Sheehan, for giving him the time to write; Richard DuMoulin, for his advice and support and introducing him to the wonders of life at sea; David, Lew, Steve, Dan, Eric, Wolf, Oscar, Ben, and countless other friends at Transocean and BP; the crews of the Spirit, Deep Seas, Ascension, and, especially, the D534, who welcomed him offshore and taught him all that he knows. And the crew of the Bankston and Coast Guard rescue teams who saved so many friends that day.