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Spare Parts Cargo
MS Phoebus.
The wartime history of the Panama Transport Company tanker Phoebus began on July 22, 1939, when she left
Aruba with a German crew bound for Bremerhaven with a cargo of fuel oil. The vessel reached the Weser River
port on August 10 and after a four-day discharge stopover took departure for the Elbe River. She arrived at Ham-
burg on August 16 and underwent an extensive two months' repair period.
As this work was still in progress at the inception of the war, the Phoebus seemed to be in a precarious position.
However, she maintained normal procedure and took on about 150 tons of general cargo, a small towboat, and
two launches for discharge at Aruba. The general cargo consisted of spare parts for Panama Transport Com-
pany vessels, many of which were German built. This shipment of parts was one of the last to come out of the
Nazi-dominated country.
On the day before the Phoebus left Hamburg her German crew was replaced by Danes and on October 17 she
traversed the fifty-one mile Kiel Canal, proceeded through Kiel Bay, and entered the harbor of Nyborg, Denmark,
where a stop was made to take on bunkers and stores. She sailed for Aruba on October 22.
Two days passed as the Phoebus made her way through the Great Belt, the Kattegat, the Skagerrak, and the
North Sea, and was finally ordered into Kirkwall, Orkney Islands.
Arrested-Released.
The press on October 27, 1939 quoted Prime Minister Chamberlain's weekly report and in it there appeared a
statement that a number of enemy ships had been arrested and brought into English ports by 'blockading squa-
drons for adjudication in the regular way. Among the ships named appeared the Phoebus. It was later learned
that she was released promptly.
Arrival was recorded on November 15 at Aruba, where she lifted her first wartime cargo, 83,128 barrels of fuel
oil delivered at Santos, Brazil, on December 4. The return passage to Caripito was made with a stop at Bahia
and the Phoebus closed the year by taking on 87,587 barrels of Diesel and fuel oils for Rio de Janeiro.
In 1940 and 1941 the tanker loaded at Caribbean and South American ports, making deliveries at North and
South American discharge points. In 1942, after trips from Aruba to Bermuda and from Caripito to Recife, she
began a series of runs from Gulf ports to Portland, Maine, where the Portland Pipeline Company took delivery.
These voyages extended to April 28 and were all run through the same waters with a stop at New York and a
passage through Long Island Sound and the Cape Cod Canal.
Good War Record.
The first voyage of the Phoebus in May, 1942, began at Harbor Island, Texas, and after visits to New York and
Boston she arrived at Halifax on June 8 to discharge 93,788 barrels of crude oil. She closed the year 1943 by
loading at Harbor Island 93,964 barrels of crude, which were delivered at New York on August 9.
Beginning her next year of operation on January 12, 1944, the Phoebus left New York for Aruba to pick up
86,891 barrels of Navy fuel oil for discharge at New York. Two more trips to Aruba followed. On May 5 she ar-
rived at Baytown to load a cargo for Melville, Rhode Island, and then proceeded to Caripito. The vessel then
made two voyages from Curacao to New York and later two visits to the Panama Canal.
In 1945 the Phoebus discharged at New York three times, the Canal Zone four times, and once at Norfolk.
These cargoes were loaded at Caribbean and Venezuelan ports.
The wartime transportation record of the Phoebus was in summary as follows:
Year
|
Voyages (Cargoes)
|
Barrels
|
1989
|
2
|
170,715
|
1940
|
10
|
833,510
|
1941
|
9
|
771,625
|
1942
|
5
|
452,315
|
1943
|
5
|
464,145
|
1944
|
13
|
1,114,863
|
1945
|
8
|
674,556
|
Total
|
52
|
4,481,729
|
The MS Phoebus was built in 1923 by Howaldts-werke A. G. at Kiel-Neumuhlen, Germany. She is a sister
ship of the Vistula and the Prometheus.
A twin-screw vessel of 13,370 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 26 feet, 10 1/2 in-
ches, the Phoebus has an overall length of 517 feet, l 5/8 inches, a length between perpendiculars of 500
feet, a moulded breadth of 64 feet, and a depth moulded of 32 feet. With a cargo carrying capacity of
103,773 barrels, she has an assigned pumping rate of 3,500 barrels an hour.
Her Diesel engines develop 3,200 brake horsepower and give her a classification certified speed of 10.5 knots.
The Scandinavian masters of the Phoebus were Captains A. M. A. Christensen, Hans Groth, and Magnus
T. Andersen.
Associated with them were Chief Engineers Robert Havkrog, Andreas P. Scheuer, Fritz Mogensen, Lauritz
K. Sorensen, and Niels G. Jensen.
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