Richard G. Matthiesen

Just offshore from McMurdo sits the Richard G. Matthiesen.
It's the ship that holds an entire year's supply of fuel
for McMurdo and South Pole and will be docking soon at
our Ice Pier. A few years ago we were wintering and the
Matthiesen couldn't make it as far as the Ice Pier. Fuel
hose had to be run several miles into town from the ship.
As a fun trip, we got to take a tour of the ship. Not
often one gets to walk around a Tanker ship. These photos
are from that trip.


It was a cold and blustery day. Perfect for walking around
on a icy deck of a ship...NOT!


I could envision huge waves washing over these decks.
Luckily while we were on it, we were surrounded by ice
and the nearest waves were miles away.


This is the Captain. He kept a close eye on all of us.
Really? I mean, what trouble were we going to get into?
Taking fuel souvenirs? He struck me as the stereotypical
old salt of the sea.

Fill er Up

This week, the USNS Lawrence H. Gianella has
been in town, offloading the fuel needed to
keep McMurdo and South Pole running for the
next year.


This is probably the busiest time of the year
for the Fuels Department. They have to
organize the hose that will be attached to the
ship and be ultra-careful that there are no
leaks in the hose lines. This would create
an environmental disaster.


After the hoses are secured, they are attached
to the intakes at the other end of the Ice Pier.
This leads to a series of pipes that takes the
fuel to it's destinations (most typically large
round fuel tanks either near town or in the pass
between McMurdo and Scott Base). This year it
was discovered that there were 1 million gallons
of fuel too much on the ship. The reason this
occurred is that there weren't enough flights
to Pole this year to carry fuel. A LC-130 can
typically carry 3400 pounds of fuel and when you
cut back on the number of flights, that fuel has
to go somewhere. In this case, a fuel tank
inspector was sent down here from Christchurch to
re-certify several tanks that were no longer used.
Now that million extra gallons has a home. At
the price the program has to spend to bring fuel
down here, a very valuable home indeed.

The Big Roadtrip

You won't find this roadtrip in any Rand McNally Atlas.
There aren't any 7-11s along the road to stop for a
Big Gulp and bag of Fritos. It's the South Pole Traverse.
The group left McMurdo a couple of days after I got here in
late October and should be arriving in a few days at Pole.
This year they're hauling fuel and materials to both South
Pole and to the remote AGAP camps. Ultimately in years to
come, they want to be able to deliver up to 200,000 gallons
of fuel each year to the Pole but that will be years from
now. Currently, only LC-130's can carry fuel to the Pole
and they use up a lot of fuel in the process to get it
there. There's been some international angst against the
road, but let's get real here. It's not really "a road".
If it weren't maintained, it would be gone in only a few
years, it's existence gone forever. Plus, it's not like
tourists will be moseying along it. How could they? There
aren't any 7-11s along the way!


click on map to enlarge

That's a Big Tank

The "Tank Guys" are finishing up the construction of
the new "2 Million Gallon Tank". The lid went on during
the past few days. It will eventually be painted, receive
stairs, rails and all the acutriments, but for the most
part, it's in the can...ha! There are tanks just as big
here, but this one is the closest to "town" and it's quite
a presence.

Crane In The Gap

Unfortunately, there's been a lot of sad news about
Cranes in the world lately, but fortunately nothing
dramatic is happening with our crane operation here
at McMurdo. The Redundant Bulk Fuel Tank Project is
moving along smoothly even though our main Grove crane
had an engine breakdown last week. This will cause a
brand new engine to be flown in from somewhere (either
the US, New Zealand or Australia) in the next six months.
It's pretty much business as usual though for the
5 "Tank Guys" who are here for the Extended Season to
construct the new tank that will eventually store
2 million gallons of fuel. This is one of 5 that are
planned. In the meantime, the crane itself poses
occasional challenges for the Helo crews as they are
reminded regularly about the "Crane in the Gap". They're
just not used to things being that tall around here.