United States Transportation Command

WASHINGTON (USTCNS) --- It may be January, but it's time for two ships to head for the ice -- Antarctic ice, that is. Winter in the Northern Hemisphere means summer in Antarctica, and time for the Military Sealift Command-chartered ships MV Green Wave and MV Lawrence H. Gianella to head south.

Each January, for more than 30 years, MSC ships have carried eagerly awaited and much needed cargo to National Science Foundation researchers working at McMurdo Station.

During the relatively warmer Southern Hemisphere summer months McMurdo's temperature ranges from a high of 20 and a low of 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

These warmer temperatures allow an ice-strengthened ship to make the dangerous trek through ice flows to deliver supplies and equipment that cannot be carried by air.

McMurdo Station is Antarctica's largest community, located on the southern end of Ross Island, just off the coast of mainland Antarctica. According to the U.S. National Science Foundation, it is the southern-most land mass accessible by ship.

During the southern hemisphere's summer months, the population of the station swells to more than 1,000. Normally, there are about 250 personnel assigned during the winter months, according to the National Science Foundation.

The MSC vessels are actually delivering materials that support the U.S. Antarctic Program for the coming winter and following summer season.

"The annual re-supply by the tanker and cargo ship is critical to the overall operation," said David M. Bresnahan, Systems Manager, Operations and Logistics Office of Polar Programs for the National Science Foundation. "The U.S. Antarctic Program could not operate without the support of these two ships."

Green Wave, which has a specially strengthened hull to withstand damage from floating ice, loaded cargo in Port Hueneme, Calif., in early January and should arrive at McMurdo Station in early February.

Green Wave transports approximately 10 million pounds of cargo -- about 1,150 individual pieces of cargo and 506 containers.

"We have everything you can imagine -- from food and toilet paper to construction materials, light bulbs and liquid helium," said Bresnahan. "I doubt you could think of something we don't have on that ship."

Gianella is going from one of the warmest places on earth to the coldest transporting fuel from Greece to Antarctica.

The giant tanker is carrying more than 226,000 barrels of aviation fuel on a 9,000 mile odyssey, which will take it through the Suez Canal to Australia and then onto the freezing waters of the Antarctic ocean.

Gianella loaded fuel at the Greek port of St. Theodore in mid-December.

"The ship is ice strengthened and is well suited to perform this mission," said MSC Europe marine transportation specialist Dennis Debraggio.

Gianella stopped in Fremantle, Australia, on January 8, before continuing her journey to the white continent. About 20 miles from McMurdo Station, the tanker will rendezvous with the U.S. Coast Guard's icebreaker USCG Polar Sea and complete her transit to the ice pier.

Gianella is scheduled to arrive at McMurdo January 23 and depart approximately three days later, and Green Wave is scheduled to arrive at McMurdo February 2 and depart February 10. Both ships will receive escort support from the icebreaker if needed.

When each ship arrives, the ice breaker will first open a channel for the MSC ship. Each ship will then off-load her cargo and the ice breaker will precede each ship out to sea. While in port Green Wave will load returning cargo from McMurdo.

"The annual arrival of the MSC vessels is a much anticipated event at McMurdo Station," said Bresnahan. "The port call of the two ships is not only critical to the success of the U.S. Antarctic Program, it is the final major logistics operation of the summer and signals the summer activities will rapidly come to an end."

Green Wave will return to Port Hueneme with a year's worth of domestic and hazardous waste and recycled material so as to not pollute the Antarctic.

"We recycle approximately 70 percent of the waste material we ship back to the United States. The national average is less than 20 percent," said Bresnahan.

This will be Green Wave's 18th voyage and Gianella's second voyage to McMurdo Sound supporting the National Science Foundation.

Military Sealift Command is the ocean transportation provider for the Department of Defense. The command, part of the U.S. Navy, operates more than 110 active ships around the world. Ship missions vary from the transport and afloat prepositioning of defense cargo; to underway replenishment and other direct support to Navy ships at sea; to at-sea data collection for the U.S. military and other U.S. government agencies. (FROM MILITARY SEALIFT COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS).

Military Sealift Command ships are heading to Antarctica

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