Local high school graduate assists with mission to aid Russian tanker

Posted: Jan 19, 2012 12:07 AM by Dan Shadwell, KSBY News
Updated: Jan 19, 2012 8:14 AM

A graduate of a local high school, Coast Union, is on-board a Coast Guard ice-breaker, working to keep an Alaskan town's engines running.

Tonight, that ice-breaker is waiting while the Russian tanker "Renda" off-loads its fuel. Then the two massive vessels will head back out into the frozen ocean ice.

Seaman Third Class, Mathew Rupp, has been aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Healy since late May. The Healy is a research vessel that routinely works shepherding scientific expeditions to the arctic regions. It's also the largest ship the Coast Guard has, measuring 420 feet in length. He and the rest of the crew were due back in their home port on Christmas Eve, but thick ice stranded the "Renda," and the "Healy" was sent to the rescue.
"It's kind of like an earthquake," says Rupp, of the sound and feel of being on-board as the ship's massive hull rides up on the ice, then smashes through the layer to the sea below. He compares it to popping a wheelie in the ocean, with the bow of the ship working as a hammer.

"The hull shape is designed to ride up on the ice and crash down thru it, using the weight of the ship," he says.
That process had to be repeated countless times to free the Renda, which became ice locked on a daily basis.
"We had a close escort," Rupp explains..."so we broke through fresh ice and they followed in our track line.

Wednesday afternoon, the Healy and Renda finally reached Nome... and the fuel tanker stretched its hoses about 500 yards toward the pier to send its cargo ashore. Had the Renda not made it to port, Nome's residents would likely have run out of gasoline and diesel by mid-March--with air-lifts, the only option for refueling... a risky proposition in this climate. "Just a couple days ago, when we were escorting the Renda into Nome, it was as cold as negative 30," says Rupp, "... negative 40 with the wind-chill."
With that mission accomplished, now the battle to get home begins.

"Once they complete their fuel off-load and store their hoses, we are going to break them out of where they're sitting right now, because they've become frozen in, just like we have," says Rupp. "So we're going to have to break them out and escort them back to the ice edge and hopefully make a bee-line toward Seattle."
Rupp currently lives in Seattle and while he says he enjoys his work, this has been an 8-month plus deployment, and he says he's looking forward to some time off.