Auke Visser's International Esso Tankers site | home
OLD WARRIOR RENAMED
SS Esso Dover
In peace time the Esso Dover was the Cerro Ebano, an old but efficient ship. She was renamed on February 23, 1940 at Wilmington, N.C., in accordance with the Company's policy of beginning the names of vessels with "Esso".
When war broke out, September 3, 1939, the tanker was en route from New York to Baytown and arrived there September 9 to take on her first wartime cargo, 104,819 barrels of gasoline and heating oil, which she discharged at Philadelphia. Her master was Captain Charles M. Crowell and Chief Engineer Carl F. Eickhoff was in charge of her engine department.
The Esso Dover remained in coastwise service until June, 1942. Surviving the most dangerous period of the war at sea, she loaded, at U. S. Gulf and Caribbean ports, cargoes of various grades of refined and crude oils for discharge at east coast terminals and at Halifax and Cristobal.
The Esso Dover was time chartered to the War Shipping Administration on April 20, 1942 at Cari-pito, Venezuela.
The first wartime transatlantic cargo carried by the Esso Dover was 77,910 barrels of Diesel oil, with which she sailed June 29, 1942 from Corpus Christ! for Liverpool. This was one of nine consecutive transatlantic voyages which occupied about eighteen months. They began when the Battle of the Atlantic was at its peak and continued through the period when the U-boat menace was met and conquered by Allied might and ingenuity."
Turnaround Achievement at Glasgow
Following the Corpus Christi-Liverpool trip the Esso Dover carried gas oil from Texas City to Avon-mouth, Houston to Ellesmere Port, and twice from New York to Avonmouth. Next she transported fuel oil from New York to Glasgow, twice from New York to London, and once from Curacao to London. The New York to Glasgow voyage was noteworthy for the quick turnaround achieved at Glasgow. At that time, when port facilities in the United Kingdom were taxed to the utmost by the great volume of shipping in connection with preparations for the invasion of the Continent, the usual time in port was a week or more. The Esso Dover arrived in Glasgow at 5:16 a.m. on June 15, 1943 and sailed the next day, June 16, at 8:17 p.m., after 39 hours in port - a remarkable achievement.
Returning to Western Hemisphere schedules, the Esso Dover sailed February 10, 1944 from Guiria with 90,016 barrels of crude oil for Montevideo, Uruguay. Her remaining wartime missions consisted mainly of voyages to South America with crude and fuel oil. In all, she carried 12 cargoes to Uruguay and Brazil, be-sides making several runs from Caribbean ports to New York, Philadelphia, and Aruba.
The wartime transportation record of the Esso Dover was in summary as follows:
The SS Esso Dover, ex Cerro Ebano,, was built in 1921 by the Sun Shipbuilding Company at Chester, Pennsylvania. She is a sistership of the Esso Providence, ex Cerro Azul.
A single-screw vessel of 13,860 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 28 feet, 1 1/2 inches, the Esso Dover has an overall length of 498 feet, 6 inches, a length between perpendiculars of 480 feet, a moulded breadth of 65 feet, 9 inches, and a depth moulded of 37 feet. With a cargo carrying-capacity of 111,382 barrels, she has an assigned pumping rate of 4,000 barrels an hour.
Her quadruple expansion engine, supplied with steam by four Scotch boilers, develops 4,300 indicated horsepower and gives her a classification certified speed of 11.7 knots.
The Esso Dover was commanded during the war years by Captains Charles M. Crowell, Karl M. Larsen, Gunnar Gjertsen, Harry K. Nielsen, James S. LeCain, Ralph E. Thomas, Lawrence J. Hasse, Alfred J. Thorson, Walter B. McCarthy, John O'Kelly, and Harold Griffiths.
Her engineroom was in charge of Chief Engineers Carl F. Eickhoff, Clyde P. Williams, James S. Home, John J. Harty, James A. Johnston, Karl B. Nelson, Frank J. Balling, and John F. Reites.
|