Auke Visser's International Esso Tankers site | home
SANK STERN FIRST
MS C. O. Stillman.
The Panama Transport Company tanker C. O. Stillman had completed nearly three years of war service when she sailed from Aruba, N.W., on June 4, 1942, accompanied by the Esso tanker L. J. Drake. The C. O. Stillman was, bound for New York with 125,812 barrels of fuel oil and 39 tons of dry cargo. Having somewhat higher speed, the Stillman drew away from the Drake. The latter, which dropped from sight at sundown, was never heard from again. Long overdue, she was presuma-bly lost by enemy action.
At 9:15 on the night of June 5, when the C. O. Stillman was about 60 miles southwest of Puerto Rico, she was struck without warning by a torpedo. Three workaway seamen from other tankers and a Navy gunner were trapped in their quarters amid-ships, but escaped by smashing a porthole cover.
Three of Crew Lost.
The crew immediately started launching the after lifeboats and life rafts and many of them had left the ship when at 9:35 she was hit by another torpedo. The vessel then began to sink rapidly; all survivors who were still aboard leaped or slid over the side and swam to the nearest rafts. The C. O. Stillman settled by the stern and within 3 minutes of the second attack she disappeared beneath the waves of the Caribbean.
The C. O. Stillman, with a merchant crew of 47 officers and men, 3 workaways, and 8 U. S. Navy gunners, had a total complement of 58.
Three members of the ship's crew lost their lives.
The MS C. O. Stillman was built in 1928 by Bremer Vulkan Schiff. & Maschinenfabrik at Vegesack, Germany. She was the largest oil tanker afloat.
A twin-screw vessel of 24,185 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 33 feet, 10 3/4 inches, she had an overall length of 584 feet, 9 1/16 inches, a length between perpendiculars of 565 feet, a moulded breadth of 75 feet, 4 inches, and a depth moulded of 44 feet, 6 inches. With a cargo Carrying capacity of 163,145 barrels, she had an assigned pumping rate of 4,000 barrels an hour.
Her Diesel engines developed 4,300 indicated horse power and gave her a classification certified speed of 10.7 knots.
The Panama Transport Company purchased the ship from the International Petroleum Company, Ltd., December 31, 1936. Following repairs at Rotterdam, she was transferred from British to Panamanian registry on March 24, 1937.
September 3, 1939 found the C. O. Stillman at Aruba, where she loaded her first wartime cargo, 125,-220 barrels of fuel oil consigned to Quebec and delivered there on September 21. At that time the vessel had an American crew which had re-cently replaced the German crew taken off on August 20. Captain Alexander J. Zafiros was in command and Chief Engineer Manuel A. Soria was in charge of the engineroom.
The C.O. Stillman sailed from Cartagena, Colombia, October 30 with her next loading-138,171 barrels of Colombian crude for Le Havre, France.
With this cargo she went to Newport News for engine repairs and on November 9, 1939-five days after the signing of the Neutrality Act-was manned by a Danish crew, with which she sailed from Halifax in convoy, arriving at Le Havre on Decem-ber 22.
The C. O. Stillman then recrossed the Atlantic and during the rest of her war service carried 28 cargoes of crude and fuel oil from the Caribbean area to New York; she also carried fresh water to Aruba. On August 12, 1940, the vessel was again manned by an American crew.
Had Loaded 31st War Cargo.
When the C. O. Stillman was torpedoed, she had loaded her 31st wartime cargo.
Her transportation record from September 3, 1939 to the date of her last delivery, April 20, 1942, at New York, was in summary as follows:
During the war years the American masters of the C. O. Stillman were Captains Alexander J. Zafiros, John Tweed, Harry E. Heffelfinger, Frank I. Shaw, Andrew B. Jakobsen, Patrick S. Mahony, and Daniel H. Larsen.
Serving with them were Chief Engineers Manuel A. Soria, Harold J. Meek, Joseph F. Lafo, Edwin C. Cox, and Fred Lewis.
The Scandinavian master of the C. O. Stillman in the war years was Captain Alfred Koed. Associated with him were Chief Engineers Jorgen Svarer, R. V. Pedersen, and Christian Madsen.
The story of the torpedoing of the C. O. Stillman is told in the report of Captain Daniel H. Larsen:
"In conformity with instructions received from the British Naval Routing Officer at Aruba," Captain Larsen stated, "we sailed on June 4, 1942 at 6 a.m., in company with the U. S. tanker L. J. Drake. However, owing to the fact that our speed was 91/2 knots, whereas the speed of the L. J. Drake was 9 knots, the latter gradually dropped astern and went out of sight at nightfall. Our vessel was all blacked out at night according to orders.
Warned of Submarine.
"On June 5, at 7 p.m., we received several coded messages warning us of the presence of enemy submarines in the vicinity and instructing us to change our course. Accordingly, at 8 p.m., our course was altered 95° and from then until about 9:10 p.m. I stood in the chart room decoding messages with the assistance of Chief Officer Harry Bansen. I figured out that at this time the L. J. Drake was about 20 miles astern.
"The sea was moderate, the sky overcast, night pitch dark, wind southeast. Force 4.
"Third Mate Joseph B. Winters, on watch, was standing atop the wheelhouse with a lookout who had phones enabling him to talk with the Navy lookouts aft. Another lookout was on the foc'sle head and an A. B. was at the wheel.
Torpedoed and Afire.
"At 9:10 p.m. I went below with the chief mate to his room for a cup of coffee. Suddenly, at 9:15 p.m., a violent explosion, with a deep low sound, lifted me off my feet.
"I realized at once that we had been torpedoed and immediately rushed up to the bridge. As I got to the wheelhouse I saw the glare of flames abaft the midship house. Thinking that one of the tanks was afire I instructed Chief Mate Bansen to open the valves of the smothering system.
"Our position at the time we were hit by the first torpedo was about Latitude 17°30' North, Longitude68°20' West (or about 41 miles southwest of Mona Island, which is between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico).
"The third mate had already sounded the general alarm and I rang the engineroom to stop the engines, as we were unable to manoeuvre the ship from the bridge on account of the fire. When I came out of the wheelhouse it was burning aft and the es-cape ladders were cut off by the flames. I proceeded with the men on the bridge to slide down the ropes, previously rigged for the purpose. On reaching the fore main deck we found that lifeboat No. 1 had been destroyed by the explosion; No. 2 boat could not be approached because of the fire. Someone released the starboard forward raft, but it drifted back too close to the flames to be used.
"When sufficient way was off the ship, we tried to unhook the port forward raft, but it fouled and stuck; we were unable to shove it over-board.
Trapped in Midship House.
"At that time I heard shouts; Steward Rafael San-chez reported that some of the men were trapped by the blaze in the mid-ship house.
I ran with him to the fore side of the house, where the three workaways and a Navy coxswain could not get out of their quarters. However, by using an axe they were able to break off a louver covering a port in the forward stateroom, through which they escaped.
"Back down on deck, we found that the forward port raft was still jammed. Seeing an opening .through the fire under the mid-ship house, we went aft. The ship was on an even keel; she was gradually stopping, but did not appear to have settled at all.
"Arriving aft, we saw that No. 4 lifeboat had been launched and that the port life raft was in the water alongside, with several men on it.
Around on the starboard side, we discovered that No. 3 boat also had gone. The chief mate called my attention to a dark shape abeam of the ship to starboard; apparently it was the submarine.
"We then returned to the port side and tried to launch the work-boat, but at that time, about 9:35 p.m., a second torpedo hit the ship, again on the starboard side, between the crossbunker tank and the engineroom. We were showered with fuel oil and debris but fortunately escaped injury.
Stayed with Ship Until Last Minute.
"A seaman on the port raft started shouting, 'Hurry up! She's sinking!' and some of the men with me jumped overboard or slipped down ropes into the sea, which was coming up fast. I was standing on the rail of the main deck and waited a few se-conds to see if all hands had cleared. When the water was up to my knees I began to swim toward a raft about 50 feet away, but kept on and passed it, for fear of the suction. Looking back, I watched the C. O. Stillman as she sank rapidly by the stern, her bow upright. She had entirely disappeared within 2 to 3 minutes of the second torpedo's strike.
"I then swam toward the raft, upon which some men helped me to climb. After picking up two other men we paddled to an empty raft and divided the men between the two, putting 11 men on one and 9 on the other. The survivors on these life rafts, besides myself, included Chief Mate Bansen, Second Mate Henry F. Wichman, Third Mate Joseph B. Winters, and Radio Operator Ernest Gannett.
We lashed the rafts together for the night."
The following morning, June 6, Captain Larsen saw two more life rafts-an empty one nearby and the other at a considerable distance, with five survivors. He and his men propelled themselves over to the empty raft and tied all three together. They drifted all day, all night, and all the following day.
Picked Up by Coast Guard.
"In the morning of June 7," he continued, "we sighted a plane that failed to discover us. However, at 11 a.m. an Army plane approached from the northwest and swooped down to acknowledge finding us. Then it flew back to its base. The same pla-ne appeared late in the afternoon, circled our rafts, and again went over the horizon. This was repeated at intervals as the pi-lot guided a rescue vessel in our direction.
"Just before dark a U. S. Coast Guard patrol boat picked up all hands from the three life rafts. It took some time to locate the men on the fourth raft because they had used up all their flares during the day and could not signal their position. They were finally rescued at about 9 p.m.
"On the four rafts there were 25 men, including 3 Navy gunners, which left 33 unaccounted for. I later learned that 30 men, in Nos. 3 and 4 lifeboats, were safe ashore and that 3 crew members were missing.
Missing Boats Make Land.
"The Coast Guard boat arrived at Ponce, Puerto Rico, at 5 a.m., June 8. We were taken in charge by the Red Cross, who treated us royally. Later we were repatriated on the SS Seminole (owned by Cherokee-Seminole SS Corporation and man-aged by Clyde-Mallory Lines), which put us ashore at Tampa, Florida, June 26."
The two lifeboats drifted until dawn of June 6, when they set sail for the shores of the Dominican Republic. Boat No. 3, with 17 survivors, among whom were Chief Engineer Fred Lewis, Junior Engineer Theodore Schoenberger, and Bos'n Joseph A. Robert, landed in the Bay of Yuma. Boat No. 4, with 13 survivors, including First Assistant Engineer Laurence T. Moore, Third Assistant Engineer Charles
J. Nerbak, Junior Engineer Thomas A. Cairns, and 5 of the Navy gunners, landed at La Romana.
The 25 members of the ship's crew who were among the 30 men in the lifeboats left Ciudad Trujillo by Pan American Air-ways for Miami.
Captain Daniel H. Larsen began his service with the Company as a second mate on April 8, 1920. He was promoted to mas-ter on October 6, 1922. On March 15, 1935, Captain Larsen became a lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve. He retir-ed from Company service on December 1, 1945.
Chief Engineer Fred Lewis joined the Company as a second assistant engineer on February 8, 1929. He has had continuous service as a chief engineer since May 25, 1941.
Three members of the crew of the C. O. Stillman served on other vessels attacked by the enemy. Able Seaman John P. Lang, who lost his life on the Stillman, and Able Seaman Stanislaus Skadovura, who was a survivor, were on the Esso Boli-var when she was shelled and torpedoed, March 8, 1942. Chief Cook Pedro Vergara was the steward of the C. J. Barkdull in December, 1942, when that vessel, long overdue, was presumed to be lost by enemy action.
Merchant Crew Lost on the "C. O. Stillman", June 5,1942 :
Merchant Crew Survivors of the "C.O. Stillman" :
U. S. Navy Armed Guard Survivors of the "C.O. Stillman":
|