Images of

ANTARCTICA

Matthiesen

Photos © 2002 Seth White

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After the fuel offload was complete, management decided to do recreational trips out over the ice to the fuel tanker Matthiesen, which was parked 4 miles from station. They did these trips one Sunday, and I had signed up since I thought it would be nice to see the ship itself. Plus, I had heard from other members of the offload crew that there were penguins out near the ship, since the ice was broken up at that spot. Having worked the offload, I had priority to get on the excursion. But as luck would have it, my friend Steve had to go out to the ship later in the day to take down an Optaphone system that he'd installed onboard so that the ship's crew could have internet access while the ship was here. A good idea, and it was much appreciated by the crew. But the ship was due to depart the next morning, so the system had to come back. He invited me to come along with him and Helen, so I opted for that instead......there would be fewer people and I would be able to get onto the ship (the recreational trips didn't get on board). So we got a Mattrack and headed out. Here is a view of the ship and the road that was built out to it along the sea ice. An apple hut was placed along the route for use by people who were working the offload.

Here are the Matthiesen and Polar sea in the distance. Kind of an overcast day, but very calm and warm.

The ship itself.

Another closer pic of the ship.

The ship's bow, with a bunch of flags the SAR team had put up as a boundary. When the ship parked here, it created a couple cracks in the sea ice. So they marked the unsafe areas with flags.

Another one of the bow.

So we climbed up the gangplank and were greeted with this (obvious) warning. Yes, this is a fuel tanker! But chewing, on the other hand, was quite alright. So Steve and I put in some Red Man Golden Blend (courtesy of my buddy Matt back home, who sent down 5 bags along with some DEVO CD's). Good times, good times.

So here's the bridge, where the system was installed.

Well lookie here! Plants! And on the windowsill.....cactus!! Yeah!

The crew's palm tree....aptly named...

For a little while, there was nothing we could do to help, so with a crewman's blessing Helen and I headed out to walk around the ship. First stop: on top of the bridge. Here's the forward view from this vantage point.

OK, so it's an oceangoing fuel tanker. Aesthetics are not a priority. But...the ship's stack was painted this ungodly combination of colors. Why? Is there some symbolism to this color pattern or was somebody just color blind? My morbid side forced me to get a picture of this...

Me, with the Polar Sea in the background.

The Polar Sea again...but this time with penguins! The little blobs on the left side are Emperor penguins. Too bad they weren't closer though. Earlier in the day, people said they were right up next to the tanker. Oh well.

Back to walking around the ship...here's a bizarre sight. A chair and a table, with a busted printer and a couple keyboards sitting outside near the bridge. I have no theories about the origin of this.

Turns out, the crew has their own hot tub. Nice! (This is Helen with the tub).

Some piping. I found this quite interesting, actually.

Yep, interesting enough to take two pictures.

The ship's comms tower.

Back inside the ship, here is a picture of the ship itself with a message board. This thing extends WAAAY under the waterline!

A few placques hanging near the bridge. This ship has been to at least McMurdo 4 times before.

Some more pictures...including a thank-you from the Air Force base at Thule, Greenland.

The official Matthiesen Life Preserver, with a nice painting commemorating Deep Freeze '92. The M.V. in front of the name stands for "Marine Vehicle".