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HEAVY FIRE LOSS
MS J. H. Senior
The J. H. Senior, of the Panama Transport Company tanker fleet, was manned by German crews until the day before the Nazis
invaded Poland. She arrived at Newport News for repairs on August 30, 1939, and on the following day an American crew was placed aboard and the Germans were taken off. American crews continued to man the J. H. Senior until replaced by a Danish crew
on April 29, 1942.
On August 14, 1943, the J. H. Senior left New York for the United Kingdom, via Halifax, with a full cargo of gasoline supplied from the New York Petroleum Pool and consigned to the British Petroleum Board. She had a deck cargo of airplane fuselages, 21 cases of airplane wings, and one case of guns, consigned to The Commanding Officer, U. S. Forces, United Kingdom. The vessel was manned by a Danish crew of 46 officers and men and carried a U. S. Navy gun crew of 28 — an officer and 27 enlisted men.
Collision in Convoy, in Fog
Late at night on August 19, the J. H. Senior was proceeding in convoy when, in a dense fog and at a point about 600 miles due east of Halifax, she was in collision with the American flag freighter J. Pinckney Henderson, owned by the United States Maritime Commission and operated by the United Fruit Company. As a result of the collision and an ensuing fire, the two ships were gutted throughout. All but 9 men of both vessels were lost.
Tanker and freighter were eventually brought to port; the J. H. Senior was removed in tow from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Halifax and thence to New York, where she arrived in a damaged condition in November, 1943.
When the War Shipping Administration released details of the catastrophe to the press in March, 1944, the New York Herald Tribune noted that "the J. Pinckney Henderson was loaded with an inflammable cargo, which included thousands of bales of cotton,
tons of magnesium, glycerin, resin, wax, and oil."
The MS J. H. Senior was built in 1931 by the Vereinigte Stahlwerke A.G .— Nordseewerke, at Emden, Germany. She was a sistership of the Peter Hurll, F. H. Bedford, Jr., J. A. Mowinckel, and Heinrich v. Riedemann.
A twin-screw vessel of 17,620 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 30 feet. 6 1/4, inches, the J. H. Senior has an overall length of 542 feet, a length between perpendiculars of 520 feet, a depth moulded of 38 feet, 9 inches, and a moulded breadth of 70 feet. With a cargo carrying capacity of 139,605 barrels, she has an assigned pumping rate of 4.000 barrels an hour.
Her Diesel engines give the J. H. Senior a brake horsepower of 5,300 and a classification certified speed of 12.3 knots.
Under the command of Captain Andrew W. Ravand with her engineroom in charge of Chief Engineer Everett N. Edes, the J. H. Senior, upon completing a repair period, left Newport News October 5, 1939. On her first voyage of World War II, the vessel proceeded to Cartagena and loaded 119,743 barrels of Colombian crude oil which were delivered at Aruba October 13. She finished .1939 by carrying three other cargoes from the Caribbean to Canadian and U. S. east coast ports.
Transporting seventeen cargoes of crude and "dirty" products in 1940, the J. H. Senior added Buenos Aires to her list of discharge ports. She took on cargo six times at Caripito, where the harbor formation requires ocean tankers to load up to a safe draft inside Maturin Bar and then proceed outside the Bar to complete loading full cargoes. Also in 1940, the vessel made one two-port loading, taking on 66,447 barrels of fuel oil in two grades at Aruba and then completing the rest of a full cargo with 41,638 barrels of Venezuelan crude oil at Las Piedras.
In 1941 the J. H. Senior completed fifteen voyages to Canadian and to North and South American east coast ports. After delivering ten cargoes in 1942. the vessel went to dry dock in New York.
In North Atlantic for "Clean" Service
The J. H. Senior entered the North Atlantic service for the first time in 1943 and returned to New York on May 31 after delivering the second of two cargoes of Pool gas oil to United Kingdom ports. The need of the British for "clean" oil tonnage was acute and between May 31 and June 30, at the request of the British Merchant Shipping Mission through the U. S. War Shipping Administration, the vessel's tanks were cleaned and necessary repairs made to her pumps and pipelines to enable the J. H. Senior to handle "clean" products. Between July 15 and 24, she delivered her first cargo of gasoline to the United Kingdom, 126,005 barrels, plus deck cargo comprising 15 boxed units of technical devices for account of the U. S. Army. This was her last completed voyage; it ended at New York on August 7.
During her World War II service, to the end of 1942, the J. H. Senior had proceeded in convoy to and from her Caribbean loading ports. She was close to danger on several occasions. Nils Gjerde, her radio operator from October 8, 1941 to April 29, 1942, was
relieved when a Danish crew replaced the Americans on board. In an interview for this history, Mr. Gjerde reported that he was in radio contact with the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey tanker W. L. Steed on February 2, 1942, when she was torpedoed and
sunk off the Delaware Capes, and with the Panama
Transport Company vessel Heinrich v. Riedemann on April 16, 1942, when she was lost northwest of Trinidad.
The World War II transportation record of the J. H. Senior was in summary as follows:
One of the five merchant crew survivors of the disaster to the J. H. Senior on August 19, 1943, was Messman Karl O. Ruud. He described his experience in an interview for this history:
"We were in a convoy of 64 ships with an escort of about ten destroyers and corvettes. Some time after 10 p.m. on August 19, while I was in the messroom playing cards with Messman Eskild Lundsgaard, Able Seaman Sixten Johansson, and Junior Engineer Levi Eliassen, I felt a terrific jar. Someone said the ship was afire, so I ran to my room, grabbed a life jacket, and went up on the poop deck. I hadn't seen any fire while below, but bythe time I came out on deck, the messroom and galley were ablaze. I forced my self through the fire and jumped overboard on the port side aft.
Flames Spread on Water
"The flames were like a torch, and burning oil had spread on the water to 100 feet from the vessel's side.
I swam underwater away from the flames, coming to the surface only to breathe. I was severely burned about the face and hands, but continued swimming around in the water. Then I ran into Junior Engineer Frank Freundlich, who was also badly burned, and we stayed together. Second Engineer Harry Sondergaard finally drifted along on a small life raft and picked us up. Later, one of the lifeboats passed by with Navy gunner Walter A. Gawlik, S1c, and Oiler-Fireman Sture Wihlborg in it. I jumped from the raft and Wihlborg pulled me in.
"The other lifeboats were destroyed in the flaming oil around the ship when the fire burned away the falls. Our boat was burning, but Gawlik and Wihlborg managed to put out the fire before it ignited the gasoline stored in cans for the outboard motor. My hands were burned so badly I couldn't give any help.
We had been in the lifeboat over an hour when we were rescued by a hospital ship. We were taken to St. John's, Newfoundland, plaeed in a British hospital, and then transferred to the U. S. Army Hospital at Fort Peppered. I was in the hospital under treatment for two months."
All survivors had been landed and hospitalized at St. John's by August 30, 1943.
Vessel Brought to Bay Bulls
The tanker was salvaged, brought to port, and anchored on August 24 in Bay Bulls, in the vicinity of St. John's, where the owners' representative, Mr. Guy L. Bennett, arrived on the 27th to assess the damage to the vessel. Imperial Oil Company's representative at St. John's described the condition of the J. H. Senior as "one of the worst we have seen in our experience here." After being in collision the tanker was instantly enveloped in flames, which completely gutted her main deck, superstructure, and living quarters. The conflagration was so severe that there were only six survivors — five members of the vessel's crew and one member of the armed guard.
The J. H. Senior left Bay Bulls on September 28 in tow of tugs, arrived at Halifax, discharged cargo — the larger part of which was salvaged — and effected temporary repairs. The aircraft which comprised the deck cargo at the time of the disaster were completely destroyed and in most cases reduced to molten metal.
Damage Survey
When the J. H. Senior reached New York on November 14, a survey of the damages disclosed them to be so extensive that the owners decided not to carry out repairs at that time. They therefore laid the J. H. Senior up at New York, where she remained un
repaired when this chapter was written.
The American masters of the J. H. Senior from the start of World War II until April 29, 1942 were Captains Andrew W. Ray, Harold G. McAvenia. and Harold Griffiths.
During the same period the Americans in charge of her engineroom were Chief Engineers Everett N. Edes, Constantine P. Zannaras, Seth T. Miller, O. Tilghman Redden, Percy O. Gill, Victor O. Gage, and Harry L. Hovland.
The Danish master of the J. H. Senior at the lime of the catastrophe on August 19, 1943 was Captain Niclas Joensen and her engineroom on that trip was in charge of Chief Engineer Borge Ostrup.
Captain Niclas Joensen joined the Panama Transport Company fleet as a masier on January 6, 1939.
He was in command of the Esso Copenhagen when she was sunk by enemy action on February 25, 1942.
Chief Engineer Borge Ostrup joined the fleet as a third engineer on February 14, 1940. He was promoted to second engineer on April 18, 1940 and to chief engineer on August 20, 1941. He had served on five other vessels of the Panama Transport Company.
Messman Ruud, in his interview for this history, reported that he had served on the following vessels attacked by the enemy, prior to his experience on the J. H. Senior: the Norwegian flag freighter Randsfjord, sunk in June, 1940; the Norwegian flag freighter Bralldal, sunk in April, 1941; and the Norwegian flag tankers Katy and Strinda, attacked but still afloat.
Captain Joensen had received the following letter of commendation for efficiency in handling his vessel while in convoy:
GULF CONVOY CONTROL PORT
P. O. BOX 989
KEY WEST, FLORIDA
July 31, 1942
Captain N. Joensen
M/V J. H. Senior
Key West, Florida
Dear Captain Joensen,
I wish to express my appreciation for the excellent cooperation extended to me by you and your officers while acting as commodore of the recent convoy.
I consider your ship very efficiently run in all respects and it was a great pleasure to travel with you.
Sincerely,
TOM SMITH
Lt. Comdr., USNR
Convoy Commodore
Merchant Crew Lost on the "J. H. Senior" — August 19, 1943
Merchant Crew Survivors of the "J. H. Senior"
U. S. Navy Armed Guard Lost on the "J. H. Senior" — August 19, 1943
U. S. Navy Armed Guard Survivor of the "J. H. Senior"
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