It is with a huge sigh of relief that we can announce the demise of ‘Tank’ Tres.
This is not the first such demise at Mawson. Seicento Mila met a similar fate back in the early 2000s, caught unprepared in a kick-ass 100 plus knot blizzard, his integrity ripped from him at such a young age. It was prior to the summer of 2016/17 that he was declared non-revivable and his remains were finally returned to Kingston for reincarnation that summer. Seicento Mila has now returned to Antarctica, to have a role in stores at Davis in the not too distant future, with his two brothers at his side.
Tank was taken ‘off line’ early in July as this health and fluid levels dropped to concerning levels. Even with the application of more fluids his health was by no means improved and his mental state had deteriorated beyond retrieval. Tank had a cancer eating him up from within. On 19 September the word from the top came down that it was time to euthanise the big fella. This was not a decision taken lightly as Tank had been a member of the team since the station rebuild program back in the early 80s, his contribution to the program outstanding, a vessel of great clarity and purity.
Being such a big fella, Tank had to be dissected to be removed from his dwelling and placed into three steel sarcophagi for his repatriation back to a suitable recycling plant in his adopted state.
Roof mounted monorail crane beams and chain blocks had to be installed so as to move the dissected pieces of Tank to a position to facilitate egress. This took over 200 man hours to achieve.
We’ll miss you Tank Tres (not)
But here is some exciting news! We have a new crew member joining the storage crew at the Green House in the not too distant future. Settanta Chilo is yet to be incarnated, but all his bits are here awaiting……resurrection!
Brett Sambrooks (Building Services Supervisor)
