By Kathryn Skelton,Staff Writer

DURHAM – Pete Cyr sounds like he’s still a little awed himself.

He’s the new captain of one of the largest offshore oil-drilling rigs in the world. Right now, that ship, Discoverer Enterprise, is in the Gulf of Mexico.

Every few weeks, he makes the trek by train, bus and plane to Louisiana, then takes a helicopter from shore to work.

“It’s almost three football fields long, as tall as a 37-story building, capable of drilling a 6-mile oil well in water almost 2 miles deep without using anchors. How cool is that?” Cyr said. “Who’d think the captain of that lives in Durham, Maine?”

As he describes it, the rise from a guy “kicking rocks into the ocean to being captain of the world’s largest drilling rig” took 14 years.

Cyr, 41, grew up in Brunswick and got experience on the water in his early 20s, before college, at boatyards in South Freeport. He worked as a mechanic on pleasure boats.

“Pushing wrenches and busting knuckles wasn’t doing it for me,” Cyr said.

He graduated from Maine Maritime Academy in 1995 and started as an assistant control room operator in a moored, semi-submersible ship in China.

From there, his career spanned the world – Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, South Africa, Ireland – but Cyr always called Maine home.

On the Enterprise, his job is three weeks on, three off. A Pennsylvania man is captain when he’s away.

The ship is massive, with a tall tower (a derrick) at its center. There’s a full gym on board, a cinema, a cafeteria for meals and full services, like laundry and housekeeping, for up to a 200-person crew.

The Enterprise can hold 150,000 barrels of oil, but collecting oil isn’t its mission.

“We’re a portable hole factory,” he said. His ship can spend months making one well. It uses global positioning, sub-sea acoustic beacons and thrusters to stay in place.

Once the well is started, a platform or pipeline moves in to take over pumping.

When Transocean built the Discoverer Enterprise in 1999, it was the largest offshore oil-drilling rig in the world. The company has since built two same-size sister ships.

As captain, it’s Cyr’s job to oversee the safety of crew and ship, and protect the environment. He was promoted from another Transocean ship in March.

“I like being in the leading edge of technology,” he said. “I like that I’m part of something that’s larger than me, fueling the nation.”

He and his wife, Marni, keep in touch by phone and e-mail while he’s away. She can slow down her business, Marni Lyn Photography, when he’s home.

Sometimes, the distance is OK, Marni said. Space can be nice. “In the same breathe, I have to mow the lawn, I have to put out the garbage, when it snows, it’s me. You have to be a very independent woman to be married to a merchant marine.”

Cyr works with another man from Maine and one from New Hampshire on the Enterprise, both of whom graduated from MMA. “If there’s work to be done on the water, anywhere in the world, you’re going to find a Mainer doing it,” he said.

Life at sea can be lucrative. Richard Youcis, director of career services at MMA, said students graduating with a bachelor’s degree and able to sail any water, anywhere in the world, earn a starting salary in the range of $40,000 to $99,000 annually.

“There’s more demand than we have students, especially in the engineering side,” Youcis said.

Cyr’s job takes strong math and people skills. Clearly, a penchant for work-related travel helps. (He admits he doesn’t like to travel much in his down time. Or camp, telling Marni, “I’ve been in a box with 200 people for three weeks…”)

Cyr returns to the Enterprise July 25.

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