Esso Gettysburg HAER No. CA-354 Page 3 PART I. HISTORICAL INFORMATION A. Physical History: 1. Dates of construction: The Esso Shipping Company signed the contract for construction of the Esso Gettysburg and its sister the Esso Washington on August 1, 1955. Two additional ships in the class were built under a second contract with the same builder signed in 1956. Construction began in April 1956. The ship was launched October 11, 1956, and delivered March 1, 1957. 1 2. Designer: The Esso Shipping Company’s in-house magazine The Ships’ Bulletin credited the Esso Gettysburg’s design to E. L. Stewart, manager of the company’s Construction and Repair Department. He was also a company vice president and director. 2 3. Builder: Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia The vessel was constructed in the yard’s shipway no. 8. Progress photographs demonstrate that construction began amidships and worked outward toward the bow and stern. The ship was sponsored at its launching by Irene Kearns Stott, the wife of William R. Stott, a director of Esso Shipping Company’s parent, the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey). 3 4. Original plans and construction: The Esso Shipping Company designed the Esso Gettysburg to carry crude oil and refined petroleum products pri-marily in coastal trade, with additional speed beyond the company’s commercial needs built in to meet national-defense requirements. The ship was built as a single-hull tanker powered by a single set of cross-compound steam turbines driving a single screw. The ship’s hull was made of welded and riveted steel and subdivided by longitudinal and transverse bulkheads into thirty cargo tanks plus engine, fuel, and ballast compartments. A forecastle, bridge deckhouse, and poop deckhouse were included to house crew accommodations and work spaces. 5. Original cost: The total cost of the vessel’s construction has not been found. The cost of increased horsepower included in the ship’s design to meet national-defense requirements was paid by the Maritime Administration in the amount of $1,540,000 for both the Esso Gettysburg and the Esso Washington. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Additional government 1 “Esso Gettysburg,” The Ships’ Bulletin 37, no. 2 (Mar.–Apr., 1957): 5, copy in Ralph E. Cropley Scrapbooks, Mari-time Collection, National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C.; “Transport news and notes,” New York Times, Aug. 27, 1956, 40; U.S. Department of Commerce, Annual Report of the Federal Maritime Board and Ma- ritime Administration, 1957, 16. 2 “Esso Gettysburg,” 5. 3 “A Picture Story of the Super Tanker Esso Gettysburg from Keel Laying to Maiden Voyage,” insert in The Ships’ Bulletin 37, no. 2 (Mar.–Apr., 1957), n.p., copy in Cropley Scrapbooks; Felicity Barringer, “William R. Stott, 91, ex-official at Standard Oil of New Jersey,” New York Times, Aug. 16, 1999, B8.

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