PMV Valdez

From The Vault

Harboured in San Francisco, Poseidon Merchant/Marine Vessel (PMV) Valdez is an old, decaying oil tanker, that has played a pivotal role in Fallout 2, where it enabled the Chosen One to travel to the Enclave Oil Rig and save the world from destruction.

Despite the energy crisis, the oil tanker ran on oil, rather than fusion. It is propable that converting such a vessel was deemed too expensive or simply that it was impossible due to the limitations of the fledgling fusion technology. However, while utilizing outdated technology as propulsion, the tanker was fully automated and equipped with a navigational computer secured by a door operated with a magnetic tanker FOB. Additonally, the ship was equipped with an IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) transponder, preventing Poseidon Oil defences from sinking it.

[edit] Post-War history

After 2077, the tanker was disabled by the Enclave (security act 9837-334-27A), possibly as a means of preventing access to the Oil Rig, and the tanker FOB was moved to Navarro military base, while the NavCom Parts were sealed in Vault 13.

After it's abandonment, various creatures have taken residencein the tanker (though some say they were deliberately placed there by the Enclave). The happy bunch included centaurs, floaters and aliens. A band of vagrants eventually occupied the deck of the tanker, forcing the creatures to remain in the holds. The vagrants formed a community, using the vessel as their home, turning it into a simple settlement, selling various scavenged items to visitors.

The community was led by captain A. Ron Meyers, a Navarro technician gone AWOL, a tough old military guy (as desribed by Marc). The second community leader was Badger, the local hacker and electronics specialist. The vagrants themselves are a diverse collective of solitary wanderers, social outcasts and survivalists from across the wasteland. The vagrants immigrated to San Francisco for the tolerance and respect for secrecy there.

[edit] Trivia

Exxon Valdez was the original name of an oil tanker owned by the former Exxon Corporation. It gained widespread infamy after the March 24, 1989 oil spill in which the tanker hit Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef and spilled an estimated 11 million gallons of crude oil.

The tanker was 300 m long, 50 m wide, and 27 m in depth (987 ft by 166 ft by 88 ft), weighing 30,000 tons empty and powered by a 31,650 shp (23.60 MW) diesel engine. The ship could transport a maximum of 1.48 million barrels (200,000 t) at a sustained speed of 16.25 knots (30 km/h) and was employed to transport crude oil from the Alaska consortium's pipeline terminal in Valdez, Alaska, to the lower 48 states of the United States.

In the last scenes of the movie Waterworld, when the protagonist sinks the tanker, just before it disappears, the stern of the ship reads 'Exxon Valdez'.

[edit] Appearances in games

The tanker appears only in Fallout 2.