Related: Dismantling the Ship That Drilled for the Ocean's Deepest Secrets

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/26/science/drilling-ship-sci...

https://archive.is/3UMcU

(via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41360598, but no comments there)

So this ship exists, but the funding for the expeditions have been cancelled from the NSF (US).

The wrinkle at the end seems to posit the China challenge - and possibly that's for the best as the US seems to have given up on non-military seafaring ventures.

Right in the middle of the decade of ocean science no less