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THE ARGUS

The ship, RFA Argus
Digital Art, 2015

This side profile of the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary, the Argus, was created in 2015, using Adobe Illustrator, in order to satisfy art requirements for a possible story on humanitarian efforts by the vessel during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. The Argus, equipped with three heavy-lift Merlin helicopters, landing barges, Toyota pickup trucks, food and medical supplies, and full-equipped 100-bed hospital with 80 medical staff, served as the command center of British aid efforts in the region. Unfortunately, the window of opportunity for a news story on the vessel passed with the diminishing of the crisis by March 2015 and disinterest by mainstream international media.

Nevertheless, the idea of the 28,000-ton Argus, a self-sufficient mobile platform capable of handling all manner of non-combat crisis, renders the ship a compelling subject. Predictably, she appeared in the 2013 Brad Pitt film, World War Z, as a command ship helping with humanitarian efforts during a zombie pandemic.

Peacock badge of the RFA Argus
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