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ARUBA SUPPLY SHIP
SS Esso Raleigh (II)
Aruba is a 69.9 square mile island in the Caribbean near the coast of Venezuela. About 16 miles long by 5 miles wide, its claim to fame is the fact that it is the home of the huge refinery of the Lago Oil & Transport Company, Ltd., an affiliate of the Standard Oil Company (N. J.). The refinery is located on the southeastern part of the island, in the port town of San Nicolas.
There are nationals of fifty-six countries among the 6,500 employees who are connected with the operation of the refinery.
Aruba's inhabitants are almost entirely dependent on outside sources for supplies - including drinking water, food, and clothing - brought by tankers.
Type of General Cargo
In order to guarantee a sure supply line, a number of Company tankers have been assigned to the run from New York to Aruba and they arrive on schedule at San Nicolas with the needed commodities. Among these supply ships is the Esso Raleigh (second vessel so named). Others are the Esso New Orleans (second vessel so named), Esso Aruba, Esso Bolivar, F. H Bedford, Jr., and Peter Hurll. Commissary store items carried by these tankers range from egg-slicer parts to surgical instruments and from brass fittings to lintless glass towels. A general cargo for the Esso Raleigh usually weighs about 200 tons.
Special Features
As distinguished from the Esso Aruba and other tankers adapted for Aruba service after they were built, the Esso Raleigh is one of two vessels originally designed to serve as Aruba supply ships - the other being the Esso New Orleans. Special features of the Esso Raleigh are two refrigerator boxes, under the midship house, which have a combined capacity of 36 tons. She is also fitted with additional winches to facilitate the handling of cargo stowed in the forward hold and on deck.
Built in 1942 by the Sun Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company at Chester, Penna., the SS Esso Raleigh is a sistership of the Esso New Orleans (second vessel so named) ; the second Esso Albany, which became the USS Housatonic; and the second Esso Trenton, which became the USS Chicopee.
A single-screw tanker of 16,585 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 30 feet, li/g inches, the Esso Raleigh has an overall length of 520 feet, a length between perpendiculars of 500 feet, a moulded breadth of 68 feet, and a depth moulded of 37 feet. With a cargo carrying capacity of 130,774 barrels, she has an assigned pumping rate of 7,000 barrels an hour.
Her turbine engine, supplied with steam by two water-tube boilers, develops 9,900 shaft horsepower and gives her a classification certified speed of 16.2 knots.
"Side Trips" to Canal Zone
The Esso Raleigh was delivered to the Company on December 19, 1942, about a month after the invasion of North Africa.
Commanded by Captain Harry Stremmel and with Chief Engineer Paul H. Franzen in charge of her engineroom, the vessel left New York on December 26 bound for Aruba, where she lifted her first bulk cargo, 112,991 barrels of Diesel oil, asphalt, and fuel oil for delivery to Balboa, Canal Zone. From the Panama Canal she returned to Aruba on January 25 and loaded 101,613 barrels of fuel oil consigned to New York. This first round trip proved to be fairly typical of the new tanker's wartime voyages. However, during her first year of operation, 1943, the Esso Raleigh was occasionally diverted from her regular schedules, as, for example, when she left Aruba on March 12 for Balboa, returned to Aruba on the 18th and again sailed for Balboa on the 21st before loading her New York cargo at Aruba on the 26th. Again, on her return trip from Cristobal in April, she stopped at Cartagena to load 108,000 barrels of Colombian crude oil for Aruba.
In the latter part of May, 1943, the vessel's loading port was Curacao, where she took on 94,329 barrels of Pool fuel oil and on the 22nd began her first and only Atlantic crossing of the war. She arrived at Glasgow on June 5 and departed for Aruba on June 11 to resume her New York-Aruba-Canal Zone voyages.
During her initial year the Esso Raleigh delivered 2,445,673 barrels of bulk cargo while covering 67,786 nautical miles.
In 1944 the Esso tanker, departing from New York on January 11, continued to supply Aruba. One of the island's landmarks Mount Hooiberg, 541 feet high, became a familiar sight to the lookouts of the Esso Raleigh as the vessel approached Aruba. Smoke from the refinery first came in sight; later the huge tank farm appeared, followed by Colorado Point; and finally the cracking towers of the refinery itself.
The Esso Raleigh continued on this run until November 25, when she left Cristobal for her first Pacific voyage, on which she delivered 102,635 barrels of Navy fuel oil at Pearl Harbor. In 1944 she covered 94,005 nautical miles and delivered 2,638,134 barrels of fuel.
During the first six months of 1945, while under the command of Captain Frank H. Spurr and with Chief Engineer Franzen again in charge of her engine-room, the Esso Raleigh made twelve round trips from New York to Aruba. On June 12, however, she departed for Cristobal with 118,419 barrels of special Navy fuel oil and returned on June 16 to lift 100,527 barrels of Navy fuel and crude for New York. She then resumed her regular trade and on V-J Day was discharging at the Canal Zone.
The transportation record of the Esso Raleigh from January 16, 1943, the day on which she lifted her first cargo at Aruba, until September 2, 1945, was in summary as follows:
The masters of the Esso Raleigh in the war years were Captains Harry Stremmel, Frank H. Spurr, and Adolv Larson.
In charge of her engineroom during the same period were Chief Engineers Paul H. Franzen, Earl Williams, Laughton D. Angel, and Sigurd Steffensen.
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