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PETROLEUM AND PLANES
MS Franz Klasen
Throughout World War II the Panama Trans-port Company's motor tanker Franz Klasengave a good account of herself by steadily plying the sea lanes with cargo after cargo of petroleum products, augmented by many deck loads of war equipment, particularly lighter planes.
The Franz Klasen left Aruba on September 3. 1939, for Cartagena, where she loaded 115.140 barrels of Colombian crude oil for Montreal. She had an American crew aboard in command of Captain James W. Fraser, and Chief Engineer James F. Maher was in charge of her engine department. Her American complement was replaced by a Danish crew while the vessel lay at Halifax early in November. During the remainder of the year she carried five more cargoes of various crude and fuel oils from Gulf and Caribbean ports to New York. Halifax, and Montreal.
There was no material change in her service in 1940; in that year she made nineteen voyages and delivered more than 2,000,000 barrels, mostly crude oil, wilth a few cargoes of fuel oil. Eighteen of these voyages followed the schedules of the preceding year: the nineteenth was a half-day's inland run from Montreal to Quebec.
The Franz Klasen continued in the Western Hemisphere service in 1941, carrying fourteen cargoes of fuel and crude oils from Aruba, Cartagena, Caripito, and Puerto La Cruz to Atlantic seaboard ports, and one cargo of fuel oil from Aruba to Buenos Aires. Although the vessel was still sailing under the Panamanian flag, her Danish crew was replaced by Americans on July 29. Captain John Tweed took command of the tanker, and Chief Engineer Seth T. Miller was given charge of her engine department. On June 3 of the following year, a Danish crew was again placed on board.
Seven and Seven
During 1942. the Franz Klazen made five coastwise-voyages as well as one trip from Aruba to Cristobal and one transatlantic voyage from Bayown to Glasgow, via New York and Halifax: her cargoes that year consisted of crude, fuel, Diesel, and gas oils. Due to delays caused by waiting for convoys and making stopovers in safe haven ports to avoid submarines, the voyages in 1942 consumed more time than in previous years. In consequence, the Franz Klasen made only seven voyages that year.
It was a coincidence that in 1943 she also made seven voyages, although not coastwise: each voyage was to a European port two to Liverpool, three to Avonmouth, and one each to Glasgow and the Mediterranean, where the vessel discharged at Algiers and Gibraltar. The cargoes carried on these voyages varied, consisting of Pool gas oil, aviation and motor gasolines, and Diesel oil. It was in 1943 that the Franz Klazen started her extra war service, taking deck loads of P-38 and P-47 fighter planes to ports near the fighting fronts. She transported sixteen on one voyage, nineteen on each of three other voyages, and so on, well into the following year.
In 1944 the Franz Klasen made four transatlantic voyages. Starting each lime from New York, she went twice to Avonmouth and once each to Naples and Oran with gasoline: in addition, she carried a small cargo of kerosene and gasoline from Casablanca to Marseille.
Significant War Supply Service
The war supply service of the Franz Klasen, in delivering 137,141 barrels of 80 and 100 octane gasoline at Naples. July 7 to 14, and 137,243 barrels of the same two grades of gasoline at Port de Bouc, September 14 to 21, was significant in relation to war events in the Mediterranean area in die summer and fall of 1914. In July of that year the American Fifth Army and the British Eighth Army, with strong air support dependent on aviation gasoline, gained 50 miles in the Italian campaign. By the end of August, Florence and Pisa were taken and soon afterward the Allies were at the German army's fortified Gothic Line guarding the Po valley.
"On 15 August operation ANVIL," as later reported by General of the Army George C. Marshall, "was executed by the U. S. Seventh Army under Lt. Gen. Alexander M. Patch in landings on the southern coast of France..." Marseille and Port de Bouc - the latter at one of the mouths of the Rhone, west of Marseille - became supply ports for the Seventh Army.
In an interview for this history, given aboard the Franz Klasen at New York on December 12. 1944. Captain Poul Kildegaard told the story of his voyages to Naples and Port de Rouc.
In 80-Ship Convoy
"On the trip from New York to Naples," he said, "the Franz Klasen was in a convoy of about eighty ships, escorted by a large fleet of destroyers and destroyer escorts. When we arrived at our destination on July 7. the harbor had been sown with mines, but a channel had been cleared, and with the aid of instructions regarding bearings we managed to keep the ship safe. Toward hte latter part of the week the Franz Klasen spent at Naples, a threatened air raid resulted in an alarm and there was a very heavy antiaircraft barrage. A few days later, while leaving port, the Franz Klasen's propeller caught in the anti-submarine net; after an all night job, a salvage boat diver finally freed the vessel and we continued on our voyage. No damage had been done to the propeller.
"The Franz Klasen's next stop en route to New York was at Augusta. Sicily, July 16 to 18, to join a convoy. The havoc of war was evident to our officers and crew; the shore was littered with wrecked German and Italian planes. Our convoy left Augusta on the 18th and on July 25 we arrived at Casablanca, where United States soldiers, using French cranes, unloaded our deck cargo of nineteen tighter planes in the fast time of two hours and fifteen minutes.
"On the next voyage th Fanz Klazen left New York August 21. We proceeded to Lynnhaven Roads to await a convoy and on the 23rd sailed in a formation of about sixty-five ships, guarded by approximately twenty destroyer escorts. On September 8 we arrived at Oran, where I received orders to lake our cargo of 80 and 100 octane gasoline to Port de Bouc. The Franz Klazen was the second tanker to discharge cargo at this port after the Germans left. We spent a week unloading into the lighters Cotton Valley and Empire Gain and then went to Toulon. where I received orders to proceed in a convoy made up of fourteen ships to Oran, and thence to Fedala, Morrocco, and Casablanca for a small cargo, about 40,000 barrels, of kerosene and 80 octane gasoline, for discharge at Marseille and Port de Bouc.
600-Foot Space to Turn a 542-Foot Ship
"Fedala is suitable for 3,000 to 4.000 ton vessels, but not for a large ship. We had a channel -space of about 600 feetl in which to turn the 512 foot Franz Klasen without the aid of tugboats. On November 12, at Port de Bouc, we heard the first air raid alarm sounded there since the port was captured.
"Before returning to New York we went from Port de Bouc to Oran. Arriving there November 15, we look aboard a deck cargo of seven small U. S. Navy craft and their personel, who were ordered to return to the United Stales for further transportation to the Pacific.
"Our deck cargo, weighing 200 tons, consisted of five aircraft rescue, or crash boats, each manned by an officer and seven men, a PT boat, with an officer and twelve men, and an LCC, or landing craft control boat, which had no personnel at that time. We also accommodated two lieutenants - PT boat skippers - whose boats had remained in the Adriatic.
"In all, the Navy personnel numbered 55. Most of them slept in the boats, but we provided sleeping space for the two officer passengers. One was quartered in the chart room and the other in my office.
"We arrived in New York harbor and anchored off Stapleton in the evening of December 10. On the day before, the two Navy officers wrote a letter commending Chief Steward Niclsen. I am sending a copy to our Port Steward, Mr. Levey."
The letter was as follows:
9 December, 1944
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
The efficient and unselfish manner in which Niels Peter Nielsen, Chief Steward aboard the MS Franz Klasen, has pursued his duties, urges us to write this unsolicited recommendation.
Having traveled several times on ships in the Merchant Marine, we both feel that his work and kindness overshadows by far that of any other we have seen in his capacity.
Being both industrious and thoughtful, over and above that which was required of him, he is an outstanding representative both of his captain and his company.
Aboard the Franz Klasen, which carried 55 Navy personnel in excess of its regular complement, he skillfully and cheerfully managed his galley, in particular, and we did not sit down to a meal that was not of the highest quality.
We write this note of recommendation purely on our own initiative because he and Captain Kildegaard have made an otherwise tiring journey more than pleasant.
Charles A. Caldwell
Lieut., USNR
Robert F. Morion
Lieut., USNR
At a time when Allied air forces in Italy needed tremendous amounts of fuel, the Franz Klasen sailed from New York in convoy on January 12, 1945 with a cargo of 138,426 barrels of aviation and motor gasoline which she delivered at the Italian ports of Bari and Ancona and at Algiers.
During the fall and early winter of 1944-1945, while the Allied armies in Italy were struggling for three months to penetrate the Gothic Line in the jagged Apennines, our Tactical and Strategic Air Forces pounded away at communications over the Alps and in northern Italy.
The handling, condition, and shipshape appearance of the Franz Klasen, under the stress of war service, when she arrived at Bari on February 7, 1945, were commended by Captain Patrick J. Reidy, civilian expediter of tanker operations in the Italian area at that time; he was attached to the Petroleum Section, Allied Force Headquarters, 15lh Air Force Service Command.
Leaving Bari on February 9, the Franz Klasen proceeded to Ancona and Algiers, discharging the remainder of her cargo at those ports. At Algiers she loaded 140.500 barrels of 80 octane gasoline, delivered at Port de Bouc on March 1.
Between the time of her arrival at Philadelphia on March 23 and V.J Day, September 2, 1945, the Franz Klasen made four more transatlantic voyages.
The wartime transportation record of the Franz Klasen was in summary as follows:
The MS Franz Klasen was built in 1932 by the Deutschewerft A.G., at Hamburg, Germany. She is a sistership of the D. L. Harper.
A twin-screw vessel of 18.070 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 30 feet, 614 inches, the Franz Klasen has an overall length of 542 feet, 1 inch, and a length between perpendiculars of 520 feet; her moulded breadth is 70 feet and her depth moulded is 38 feet, 9 inches. The vessel's cargo carrying capacity is 140,925 barrels and her assigned pumping rate is 4,500 barrels an hour.
The Franz Klasen's Diesel engines develop 4,500 brake horsepower and give her a classification certified speed of 11.6 knots.
The American wartime masters of the Franz Klasen were Captains James W. Fraser and John Tweed. In charge of her engineroom were Chief Engineers James F. Maher and Seth T. Miller.
The vessel's Scandinavian wartime masters were Captains Christian Spangsberg, Magnus Jorgensen, Jens Westergaard, and Poul Kildegaard; in charge of her engineroom were Chief Engineers Jens C. Nielsen, Torben C. Tor-bensen, Jakob Jahnsen. Peder I. Andersen, and Axel Somod.
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