Page 11: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 2011)

Military Sealift Command-chartered containership MV BBC Ems (pictured right) departed McMurdo Station,

Antarctica, Feb. 13 after delivering more than 84,000 sq. ft. of vital supplies in sup- port of Operation Deep Freeze. ODF is an annual U.S. Air Force-led mission to resupply the remote scientific outpost.

BBC Ems followed MSC tanker USNS

Richard G. Matthiesen, which delivered more than 5.5 million gallons of diesel, gasoline and jet fuel to McMurdo Station

Jan. 29 to Feb. 5.

MSC ships deliver 100 percent of the fuel and about 80 percent of the supplies that the researchers and support person- nel who live and work across Antarctica — up to 1,100 in the summer months — need to survive and work over the course of a year. "Resupplying the Antarctic only happens once a year — it's the window of opportunity," said John Jo- erger, tanker project officer at MSC headquarters in Washington, D.C. "If we didn't provide the fuel and supplies, they would have to shut the station down.

They need it for heat, they need it for their vehicles, helicopters and all the things they do. If they don't have fuel, they can't survive in the Antarctic."

An MSC dry cargo ship and tanker have made the dangerous voyage to

Antarctica since the station was estab- lished in 1955.

BBC Ems arrived at McMurdo Sta- tion's ice pier Feb. 5 carrying cargo that was loaded on board in Port Hueneme,

Calif. Supplies aboard the 469-foot ship including food, household goods and re- search equipment; "everything you need to run a small city for a year," said Tim- othy Pickering, cargo project officer at

MSC headquarters.

It took 59 Sailors from the Williams- burg, Va.-based Navy Cargo Handling

Battalion One and 65 members of the

New Zealand Defence Force working around-the-clock three days to offload

BBC Ems' cargo. They then loaded the empty ship with cargo to be transported off the continent, including ice core sam- ples carried back to the United States in three 40-foot refrigerated containers. The ship also took on trash and recyclable materials for disposal.

This year marks the final Antarctic voy- age for MSC's T-5 tanker class, of which

Matthiesen is a part. Five tankers were built in the mid-1980s and chartered by

MSC until 2003, when the command pur- chased four of the five. "This is the last McMurdo Station port call for a T-5 tanker, a milestone in 26 years of dedicated tanker support by

MSC, the Champion-class tankers and the U.S. merchant seamen who crew them in support of Operation Deep

Freeze," said Rear Adm. Mark H. Buzby, commander, MSC. "MSC will continue support to Operation Deep Freeze, but this marks the end of a proud era for the

Champion-class tankers." The T-5s have been replaced for most Department of

Defense fuel transport missions by two newly built tankers that came under char- ter to MSC in late 2010 and early 2011.

March 2011 www.marinelink.com 11

MSC Completes Antarctica Resupply

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