Pull a half dozen fireboats up to any vessel and put that many tons of water on it and guess what happens.
Foam, CO2, Nitrogen, Steam Thrusting, Dry ice encapsulation , and/or a combination of more modern fire suppression technology would be more appropriate to save such a beautiful vessel as the poor old Deepwater Horizon.
The Horizon seems to have been a valuable asset that would have been worth saving after all personnel had left. Flaring off/burning everything coming up seems preferable to months of leakage.