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Wanted-compressed air
MS Calliope.
The Panama Transport Company tanker MS Calliope (which, on December 18, 1945, was renamed Ampetco), arrived Au-gust 22, 1939, at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from Aruba with a cargo of fuel oil. At that time the vessel had a German crew. War was imminent and all German shipmasters had been instructed by their government to proceed to German or friendly ports. Outside the harbor of Rio the British cruiser HMS Ajax was patrolling. The master of the Calliope refused to sail until he re-ceived from his government "assurance of safety for crew and vessel."
Accordingly, the Company sent American licensed officers to Rio de Janeiro in charge of Captain William J. Ryan.
The group included Chief Engineer John H. Patterson (now Senior Assistant Manager of the Marine Department's Construc-tion and Repair Division) and Chief Mate George E. Christiansen, who was soon to become master of the Calliope.
The German captain refused to relinquish the tanker until he received a written guarantee that he and his crew would be car-ed for properly pending their repatriation. After considerable negotiation the American officers took charge of the vessel on September 7, 1939.
Getting Ready For Sea.
Making the Calliope ready for sea was no simple task, as the vessel had previously broken down owing to excessive wear on the crank pin of No. 4 cylinder of the port motor. Repeated efforts to correct the difficulty by filing the crank pin bearings and installing the spare crank pin brasses failed; the cylinder finally had to be disconnected entirely. The connecting rod and crank pin bearing were removed and secured in the lower engineroom.
At Chief Engineer Patterson's request, he and his men were assisted by the German chief engineer, the second assistant engineer, and the electrician.
Finally, when all four cylinders were operative on the starboard main motor, but only three on the port, the Calliope was ready for sea.
In the meantime, a Company agent from Buenos Aires had reported that the Harry G. Seidel was in a similar predicament at that port; she also had a German crew that must be replaced. It was decided that Captain Ryan and Chief Engineer Patter-son would proceed to Buenos Aires, where they would recrui.t a crew and take charge of the Harry G. Seidel.
Remaining with the Calliope were Captain Christiansen as master and Chief Engineer Walter H. Berg, promotedfrom first assistant engineer, in charge of the engine department. Chief Mate Simpson W. Logan was promoted from second mate; Second Mate Frederick W. Bowden was promoted from third; First Assistant Engineer Joseph E. Greene was promoted from second; and Second Assistant Engineer Edgar D. Oliver was promoted from third. The rest of the crew, mainly Brazilians, were recruited in Rio.
The Telephonic Code.
Captain Ryan estimated that the Calliope might have engine trouble on the voyage north. In the interest of security he there-fore devised an ingenious code by which messages could be transmitted between the Calliope and the Harry G. Seidel. Tearing identical sets of pages from two copies of the Rio de Janeiro telephone book, he designated certain names to repre-sent complete messages and others to represent letters and figures. Thus the name 'Juan Garcia' would mean: "Engines broken down; am drifting," and so on.
The Calliope sailed from Rio on September 12, and the Harry G. Seidel left Buenos Aires on September 18.
On the Calliope it was soon found that the ice machine was inoperative. All refrigerated stores had to be thrown overboard.
To add to the difficulties, Second Mate Bowden was ill most of the voyage and Second Assistant Engineer Oliver fell down a ladder and badly injured his arm. The Brazilian third mate could not speak English.
The British cruiser Ajax came alongside the Calliope the first night out, but disappeared after playing a searchlight over the ship.
After three days, on September 15, the Calliope's engines broke down. While the Brazilian third assistant engineer was on watch, the pump supplying cooling water for both the main and auxiliary engines failed. Chief Engineer Berg rushed below immediately and stopped the engines, but it was too late to prevent the freezing of one of the two auxiliaries.
Shortly afterward the second auxiliary was started, but it also froze and was almost ruined.
Diesel motors are started with compressed air. In the case of the air injection type of motor such as was fitted to the Calliope once started, they can continue to operate only so long as compressed air is available to inject fuel into the cylinders. Normally, for starting, air is supplied by compressors which may be electrically powered, obtaining current from dynamos which are in turn driven by the auxiliaries. The injection air used while the engine is operating may also be supplied by this means or by an attached compressor. A reserve supply of air is usually kept in several steel bottles, and this is used to start up the auxiliaries or the main motor. The reserve supply on the Calliope was used up in unsuccessful attempts to start the damaged auxiliary engines.
Ingenuity Produces Results.
Completely without the all-important air, the Calliope drifted helplessly on the sea. Using the code devised by Captain Ryan, she radioed word of her plight to the Harry G. Seidel.
The engineers attempted to repair the damage. The frozen auxiliaries were dismantled and overhauled. This work would a-vail nothing, however, unless some means could be found of obtaining at least one bottle of compressed air. It remained for First Assistant Engineer Joseph E. Greene to solve the problem.
The only source of power now available on the Calliope was a small generator used to furnish lights and operate small ma-chine shop units while the vessel was in port and the engines stopped. The current was far too weak to operate one of the large compressors. However, the Calliope had aboard a small air compressor, weighing about 35 pounds. This compressor was intended to be operated by hand, but with hand operation, days would be required to pump up one bottle of air. First As-sistant Greene therefore mounted the small compressor on a lathe, power for which was supplied by the small generator, and began to fill a bottle with compressed air.
In the meantime the Harry G. Seidel had sailed September 18 from Buenos Aires and she overhauled the Calliope on Sep-tember 23, when the latter vessel had been drifting 8 days.
Captain Ryan brought food and medical supplies aboard and Chief Engineer Patterson came to assist with therepairs.
. . . And So To Bed.
"I found," Mr. Patterson said, "that the engine department of the Calliope had the situation well under control.
The work of repairing the auxiliaries was completed and they were about ready to attempt to start an auxiliary engine. Mr. Greene's small compressor was recharging an air bottle. The short-handed engineer officers were, however, worn out with their labors and tempers were short, so I sent everyone to bed for a good night's sleep.
"The next day we carefully checked over the reassembled auxiliaries and managed to start up the emergency Diesel air compressor with First Assistant Engineer Greene's one bottle of precious air. By using this emergency engine and its small attached compressor we were in turn able to charge the auxiliary bottles and ultimately succeeded in starting one auxiliary engine. Hot water had been circulated through the main engines and with this preparation the engines started up without any trouble and the Calliope got under way."
A Bit Late-But Safe.
Proceeding on her voyage, the Calliope arrived at Aruba October 7, 1939-twenty-five days after departing from Rio de Janei-ro.
Following very necessary repairs in the United States, the vessel was returned to service with Norwegian officers and a Da-nish crew. Except for two voyages-one from Las Piedras to Southampton and one from Talara to Yokohama in 1940-she re-mained in the Western Hemisphere for the duration of the war. She was time chartered to the United States War Shipping Administration on May 14, 1942.
The Scandinavian masters of the Calliope during the war years were Captains J. Holmboe Oxaas and Einar E. V. Brandt.
Associated with them were Chief Engineers Pieter Krul, Christian H. Hansen, Valdemar Pedersen, Niels G.
Jensen, and Andreas Scheuer.
Delivered Fifty War Cargoes.
The wartime transportation record of the Calliope was in summary as follows:
mpetco.
A twin-screw vessel of 13,070 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 27 feet, 3 3/8 inches, the Calliope has an overall length of 488 feet, 31/2 inches, a length between perpendiculars of 469 feet, 7 inches, a moulded breadth of 63 feet, and a depth moulded of 35 feet, 6 inches. With a cargo carrying capacity of 102,270 barrels, she has an assigned pumping rate of 3,500 barrels an hour.
Her Diesel engines develop 3,000 horsepower and give her a classification certified speed of 10.5 knots.
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