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George G. Henry as US Victoria II (AO-46)
Victoria II
(AO-46: dp. 13,179 (n.); 1. 435'0"; b. 56'0"; dr. 26'6"; s. 11 k.; cpl. 59; a. 1 5", 1 3")
The second Victoria was originally built in 1917 as the steel-hulled, single-screw tanker George G. Henry. Constructed at San
Francisco, Calif., by Union Iron Works, the ship was chartered by the United States Navy from her original owners, the Los
Angeles Petroleum Co., on 23 August 1918; and commissioned at New York City the same day, Lt. Comdr. George F. Weed-
en, USNRF, in command.
Designated Id. No. 1660, George G. Henrv departed New York on 29 August 1918, bound for European waters carrying aviation
gasoline and Army medical stores. After discharging that cargo at Le Havre, France, the tanker touched at Spithead and
Plymouth, England, before setting out across the Atlantic on her way back to the east coast of the United States.
At 0850 on 29 September George G. Henrg sighted the German submarine Ui52 on the surface, 5,000 yards off her port beam,
went to general quarters, and opened fire at once with her forward gun. Attempting to keep the submarine directly astern, the
tanker steered a northerly course and brought her after gun to bear on the enemy.
George G. Henrv's gunners at the after mount managed to hurl 21 rounds at the enemy, landing several shells close aboard
and forcing the surfaced submarine to maneuver radically. At 0905, U-152 managed to score a hit on the tanker. The German
shell pierced the American ship's after deck, damaging the steering gear and destroying the after magazine.
While flames enveloped the fantail, George G. Henrv steered to bring her forward gun to bear while damage control parties
fought the fires aft. Well placed salvoes managed to keep the enemy away, while six smoke floats dropped over the side
produced a dense, impenetruble smoke screen that shielded the tanker for some 20 minutes.
U-152, however, passed the weather side of that bank of smoke and renewed the action, landing shells close aboard.
Shrapnel flailed the superstructure of the tanker, wounding 14 men. The after gun, though, still had some fight left. Its crew
managed to get off two remaining rounds at 1015. Ten minutes later, the submarine gave up the chase and broke off the
action.
In subsequent reports, Comdr. Weeden credited his ship's survival to Ens. George R. Thompson, USNRF the head of the
engine room force. Working amidst flames and acrid smoke, Thompson and his men remained below, working the vital
machinery, allowing George G. Henry to maintain speed throughout the running battle. Three men under Thompson's
command —members of the "black gang"—received honors: Chief Water Tender Hal Neargardt, USN, and Fireman First
Class W. W. Reese received Navy Crosses and Fireman First Class W. T. Vail was awarded the Distinguished Service
Medal.
Having escaped one danger, George G. Henrv encountered another before she reached New York. Shortly after midnight
on 3 October 1918, about 110 miles east of Cape Sable, she made an emergency turn to avoid an oncoming convoy, but
to no avail. Her bow cut deeply into the collier Herman Frasch (Id. No. 1617) forward of that ship's poop deck. The latter's
bow rose perpendicularly, slipped back and crushed George G. Henry's port rail, hung suspended in the air for a few
fleeting moments, and then slid off into the sea. George G. Henrv immediately put over life rafts and boats, and with her
searchlight beams sweeping the waves, searched for survivors. She picked up 65 men during the hunt which lasted until
daybreak.
George G. Henry returned to New York on 6 October. After repairs at Shewen's Dry Dock, Brooklyn, N.Y., George (~.
Henry shifted to Bayonne, N.J., where she loaded a cargo of ammunition, gasoline, and military stores between 7 and
11 November. On the latter day- the day that the armistice ending World War I was signed—the ship touched briefly at
Staten Island, N.Y., before sailing for France.
George G. Henrv made three peacetime voyages to French ports—Le Havre, Rouen, Paulliac, Furt, and Blaye—carrying
cargoes of oil from New York and Louisiana. After completing her last NOTS voyage upon arrival at New York on 5 May
1919, George G. Henry entered Shewen's Dry Dock for voyage repairs three days later. There, she was decommissioned
and returned to her owner on 21 May 1919, and her name was simultaneously struck from the Navy list.
Over the next two decades, George G. Henrv plied the trade routes of the Atlantic and Pacific, first under the colors of
the Pan-American Petroleum and Transport Co. and then for the Standard Oil Co. In July 1940— due to the restrictions
of the Neutrality Act—the ship was sold to the Panama Transport Co., a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey, and
continued operating under Panamanian registry.
Laid-up for two months at Solomons Island, Md., for repairs, she was placed in service between South American
(Caribbean) oil ports, the east coast of the United States, and the Canary Islands. She made six voyages m 1939;
17 in 1940; and 19 in 1941.
Her Far Eastern voyage in 1941 proved eventful. On 28 April 1941, George G. Henry sailed from New York; she
subsequently loaded a cargo of petroleum products at Aruba, in the Netherlands West Indies, early in May and—
after discharging that cargo at Balboa, Canal Zone, and at the ports of Golfito and Quepos Point, Costa Rica—pro-
ceeded to San Pedro Calif. There, she loaded a cargo earmarked for Far Eastern ports. She touched at Honolulu,
Territory of Hawaii, to top off her own fuel bunkers and then pushed on to the Philippines, reaching Manila on 29
June, a little over two months out of New York.
Over the next six months, time-chartered to the Standard-Vacuum Oil Co., George G. Henrg carried oil from Balik-
papan and Palembang, Dutch East Indies
Tarakan, Borneo; and Miri, Sarawak, to ports in the Philippines, to Shanghai, and to Hong Kong. Meanwhile, war
clouds were thickening in the skies over that area of the world, as the Rising Sun of Japan began to cast a
lengthening shadow over American, British, and Dutch colonial possessions. In fact, as the tanker steamed
toward Manila during the first few days of December 1941, Japanese invasion forces were already headed toward
their jump-off points—their arrival timed to coincide with a diversionary strike to be launched against the ships of
the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii.
However, oblivious to those events, George G. Henry arrived at Manila on 4 December 1941 with a cargo of 69,550
barrels of oil that had been taken on board at Palembang, Java, and at Tanjong Oeban, on Bintang Island, near
Singapore. By 8 December 1941 (7 December east of the International Date Line), the tanker had already dis-
charged the part of her cargo consigned for delivery at Manila and was preparing to leave that port for Cebu, in
the southern Philippines, to discharge the remainder. That, however, was not to be.
As she stood out of the harbor area, George G. Henrv received a signal from the Army signal station on the island
of Corregidor, the fortress standing like a sentinel at the entrance of Manila Bay: "No ships are allowed to leave
port." It was not long before the merchant seamen on board found out the reason for that order: Pearl Harbor had
been attacked. The United States and Japan were at war.
Although in civilian colors at the outset of hostilities, George G. Henry had acquired a coat of "war gray" by 10
December. On that day, she lay anchored in Manila Bay when Japanese planes came over just after noon and
leisurely pounded the Cavite Navy Yard, almost erasing it from the face of the map. During the raid, bombs
splashed near the tanker, between George G. Henry and the Filipino freighter Sagoland. "The nearest explosion,
" wrote a member of the tanker's crew later, "caused our ship to roll and vibrate as if she were breaking up on the
rocks." Fortunately, the tanker emerged unscathed.
After that raid, it was obvious that Cavite and Manila Bay were not safe for surface ships. Hastily assembled
convoys began heading southward, but George G. Henry remained behind where her vital cargo was needed.
On 12 December—the day on which Japanese troops splashed ashore at Aparri and Vigan in northern Luzon
and at Legaspi on the southeast coast of that island—George G. Henry was moored at Pier 7, the largest
commercial pier in Manila's port area and an easily distinguishable landmark, to discharge her remaining
cargo. By that evening, the tanker had pumped ashore 69,500 barrels of oil to storage tanks ashore. That
task completed, George G. Henry returned to her anchorage to await further orders.
Two days later, her master, Capt. Jens G. Olsen received the authorization to take George G. Henry south—
provided that the escape be made at night. Thus, at sunset on the 15th of December, George G. Henry
headed for the channel through the minefield that had been sown between Corregidor and the Bataan peninsula.
She soon discovered, however, that the channel— supposedly lighted with three buoys—was dark. As she
slowed a strong current carried the tanker inexorably towarl the deadly minefield. George G. Henry went full
speed astern and got out of immediate danger but still found herself in a very perilous situation.
Fortunately for George G. Henrv, Bulmer (DD-222) came along and, when her commanding officer learned of
the tanker's plight, led George G. Henry through the swept channel to safer waters. The tanker then proceed-
ed unmolested across the Sulu Sea, steamed southward past the island of Tawi Tawi, and reached Balikpap-
an, Borneo, on 20 December, having made the passage from Manila in four days, eight hours, and three
minutes—a record run according to her engineer's log.
There, George G. Henry filled her bunkers with 75,000 barrels of fuel oil and sailed on Christmas Eve for the
Netherlands East Indies. She reached Soerabaya on the 26th and anchored offshore the next day to await
further instructions When she finally received those orders, the tanker proceeded to the south entrance of
Soerabaya harbor, directly through unswept areas of minefields laid by the Dutch Navy.
Underway again on the last day of 1941, George G. Henry departed Soerabaya, bound for Australian waters
Convoyed by Boise (CL-47), Pope (DD-225) and John D. Ford (DD-228)—as well as by two submarines and
the destroyer tender Black Hawk (AD-9) —the tanker reached Port Darwin, Australia, on 6 January 1942.
Her first job was to pump 13,900 barrels of fuel oil into the depleted bunkers of Pecos (AO-6).
George G. Henry remained at Port Darwin into early February, fueling ships of the Asiatic Fleet and, upon
occasion, Australian naval vessels. Among her American customers were Langley (AV-3), TUIBa' (PG-22)
Lark (AM-21), Heron (AVP-4), Alden (DD-211), Barker (DD-213), Bulmer (DD-222), John D. Ford Parrots
(DD-218), Parry (DD-226), Pope, and William B. Preston (AVD-7).
By the second week of February, George G. Henry's Balikpapan cargo was largely depleted, she thus departed
Port Darwin on 11 February, bound for Fremantle. Barnacles and seaweed hampered the old tanker's progress,
and she crept along at 7 knots, ultimately reaching her destination on 22 February.
George G. Henry, Trinity (AO-13), and Pecos provided the hard-pressed units of the Asiatic Fleet with the vital
fuel oil with which the men-of-war of that fleet battled against heavy odds, as did the dwindling numbers of
Dutch, British, and Australian ships pushed before the Japanese tide of conquest. Ultimately, Japanese force
proved too much. The Battle of the Java Sea on the last two days of February nud the fall of Java less than a
week later meant that the Japanese had managed to destroy the pre-war Dutch colonial empire and also
conquered many British possessions as well. Within two months, the Philippines, too, would be in Japanese
hands.
George G. Henry fueled the four surviving American ships that took part in the Battle of the Java Sea, the
destroyers John D. Ford, Alden, Paul Jones (DD-230) and John D. Edwards (DD-216), soon after they arrived
in Australian waters. By the end of March, there was less of a need to fuel surface ships of the Asiatic Fleet,
so the tanker was dispatched to Melbourne, Australia, turning over hoses and fittings to the government-
chartered tanker Erling Brovig, before she set sail for Melbourne on 29 March.
Reaching her destination on 8 April, George G. Henry began fueling Army transports for their return voyages
to the United States. Her first customer at Melbourne was the former luxury liner President Coolidge which
would embark former Philippine President Manuel Quezon for transportation to the United States. From her
moorings, the men of the George G. Henry saw General Douglas MacArthur escort his friend Quezon on
board President Coolidge before she sniled.
On 15 April 1942, while at Yarraville, a suburb of Melbourne, George G. Henry was taken over by the Navy
under a bareboat charter. The ship's mast~r Capt. Jens G. Olsen (who, incidentally, had sailed in George
G. Henry as a boatswain and had been the last civilian crewman to leave the ship when she was taken over
by the Navy in World War I)—a member of the Naval Reserve—was called to active duty as a lieutenant
commander and given command of the ship.
Taken to Sydney for extensive conversion, overhaul and fitting-out for naval service, George G. Henrg was
first renamed—erroneously—Victor on 20 April, before the correct name, Victoria, was received upon the
ship's arrival at Sydney on 25 April. Classified as AO-46, Victoria was fitted out for service at Mort's Dock
and Engineering Co. (Chapman's Branch) under the supervision of Royal Australian Naval authorities at
Garden Island. Survivors from Langley, Peary, and Pecos made up the ship's new crew.
Following the completion of the conversion—during which she received a battery of two 3-inch guns and
machine guns—Victoria awaited further orders in Sydney harbor. Underway on 18 November 1942 with a
cargo of Navy special fuel, she joined a convoy of merchantmen, SS Paul Revere, SS Benjamin Franklin,
and SS William Williams—the future USS Venus (AK-135)—escorted by two Australian corvettes HMAS
Whgalla and HMAS Townsville. En route, they were joined by another Australian corvette that served as an
antisubmarine screen. After touching briefly at Brisbane on the 21st for further orders, the convoy now con-
sisting of Victoria (guide) and Benjamin Franklin got underway for Townsville the following day. Reaching
Cleveland Bay, Brisbane, via Townsville, Victoria commenced fueling Allied warships in those waters and
continued those duties at Challenger Bay, Palm Islands, on 3 December. She subsequently alternated
serving at Challenger Bay and at Dunk Island Harbor before returning to Brisbane on Christmas Eve.
Victoria there became a unit of Task Force (TF) 60. The other ships in that group were Gold Star (AK-12) and
Mizar (AF-12). As ordered, the tanker fueled the warships of TF 44—HMAS Australia (heavy cruiser), HMAS
Hobart (light cruiser), Phoenix (CW46), and various destroyers. Victoria remained at Brisbane through New
Year's Day 1943.
Shifting to Townsville in company with the Australian minesweeper HMAS Geelong and the merchantman
SS Jason Lee between 4 and 8 January, Victoria reached her destination on the 8th, where she remained for
three days before shifting her operations back to Challenger Bay. For the next eight months, Victoria operated
off the coasts and harbors of the Australian continent, ranging from Townsville to Cairns; from Brisbane to Dunk
Island Harbor; from Sydney to Stoker Bay, Flinders Island, and to the Queensland ports of Mackay and Glad-
stone. During that time, the ship picked up the nickname "The Galloping Ghost of the Aussie Coast."
After that stint of operations, Victoria departed Townsville on 28 August 1943, in company with six merchantmen.
On the 29th, four Australian naval vessels joined as escorts, as did LST-470 and APc-2. Victoria and the rest of
the convoy reached Milne Bay New Guinea, on the last day of August.
Subsequently, Victoria, the Australian ammunition ship RFA (Royal Fleet Auxiliary) Yunnan, and APc22 departed
Milne Bay on 2 September, bound for Porlock Harbor, New Guinea. Victoria and her escorts reached that port on
the 3d, concurrently with the first assault echelon slated to land on the Huon Peninsula
near Lae, New Guinea. The next day, Australian troops of the 9th Division went ashore in conjunction with a
parachute landing in the Markham Valley.
Victoria—no stranger to danger—remained at Porlock continuously for over two months, in an undefended harbor,
in company with Yunnan, providing advance logistics base services. She furnished support for Destroyer Squadron
5 and other ships and was the only source of fuel oil north of Milne Bay during the Lae-Salamaua campaign. Early
in October, the ship's fuel supply was replenished from the bunkers of the British tanker, SS Luxor.
Although the enemy resistance on shore at Lae, and later at Salamana, was initially light, enemy air attacks, in
strength, commenced about noon on the first day and continued at night from that point on. The attacks usually
were conducted by small groups of enemy aircraft. Ships either arriving or departing the landing areas—and resup-
ply echelons—usually came under persistent and determined aerial raids. The first damage occurred to the des-
troyer Conyngham (DD371) on 4 September.
Those air attacks conducted by the enemy never came in Victoria's direction, although the venerable old oiler was
well within range of Japanese air bases on New Britain and New Guinea. Although radarless, the valuable auxiliary
kept her radio tuned on the frequencies of the destroyers in the area. In that fashion, on the radio warning net, she
kept abreast of the latest inbound raids.
On at least two occasions, Victoria interrupted fueling operations upon receipt of the warning and sounded general
quarters. Lookouts picked out the "bogies" visually as Japanese, but the planes did not attack and remained out of
gun range. At other times, men in Victoria could see the antiaircraft fire blossoming in the skies over Oro Bay, 40
miles away, and could hear the explosion of ordnance. "On such occasions," wrote Lt. Comdr. F. E. Clark, then the
ship's executive officer, "we were agreeably surprised that the enemy did not attack the tempting target offered by a
lightly-armed oiler and ammunition ship Iying in an undefended harbor."
Relieved by another old Asiatic Fleet companion— the oiler Trinity on 8 November 1943, Victoria hoisted anchor and
headed for Milne Bay. Even her last day at Porlock Harbor was lively. An Army Air Corps P38 Lightning from the 471
st Fighter Squadron went down nearby, and her pilot, 2d Lt. Fred Durkin, USAAF, parachuted into the water near the
ship. Victoria's crew immedately hauled him on board, thus accomplishing the ship's first rescue.
Reaching Milne Bay on 9 November after proceeding independently from Porlock Harbor, Victoria then pressed on,
without escort, for Australian waters, reaching Brisbane on the 15th for a period of welldeserved recreation for the
crew alla engine repairs for the ship herself.
Five days before Christmas, with a full cargo of fuel, Victoria got underway for Townsville in company with 11 merchant-
men, three LCI's, and three escort vessels. The convoy dispersed on the 21st, and Victoria proeceded independently
to her destination on the 22d, anchoring in Cleveland Bay to await further orders. On Christmas Eve, Convoy TN-197
was formed and sent on its way—Victoria included—to New Guinea. The ships reached Milne Bay on the 28th, where
the convoy was dissolved. The following day, Victoria got underway for Buna, New Guinea. Soon after her arrival there
later that day, she commenced fueling operations.
Transferring the remainder of her cargo of fuel oil to Trinity on the last day of 1943, Victoria headed for Milne Bay on
New Year's Day 1944. After loading fuel oil from SS Corinth, the oiler then proceeded to an anchorage near Milne Bay
and commenced fueling Allied warships. On the 25th, Victoria rendezvoused at sea with Australian heavy cruiser,
HMAS Shropshire, and fueled her. Two days later, she headed for Buna in company with the motor minesweeper
YMS-78 and the subchasers SC-741 and SC-150 to discharge a cargo of fuel oil to Trinity. That mission completed,
Victoria proceeded independently to Milne Bay, reaching there on 30 January.
Departing Milne Bay on 27 February, Victoria headed for Langemark Bay, Finschhafen, with Convoy BG-46 reaching
her destination two days later. The ship subsequently fueled Allied wnrships in that port until 3 April, when she sailed
for Seeadler Harbor, at Manus, in the Admiralty Islands.
Reaching that port on 5 April, Victoria immediately commenced fueling vessels in need. Because the harbor shore
establishments were still not yet in full operating status, the valuable auxiliary ship acted as signal station for the
harbor and cooperated with every activity requiring her assistance. For the work performed by the officers and men,
Victoria was highly commended by the Commander, Subordinate Command, New Guinea Area.
Escorted by HMAS Kiana, Victoria departed Manus on 14 May, bound once again for New Guinea. She reached
Humboldt Bay on the 16th and began the busiest fueling period of the ship's career. The ship frequently conducted
her operations at night as well as during the day. From her anchorage, she could see enemy planes bombing Auied
airdromes nearby. At times like that, only her pumps were stopped while all hands remained ready to resume fueling
when the "all clear" sounded.
During her time at Humboldt Bay, she fueled such ships as Nashville (CL-43), Phoenix (CL-46), Boiee (CL-47), as
well as the Australian heavy cruisers HMAS Au$tralia and HMAS Shropshire and numerous destroyers attached to
those task forces.
After remaining at Humboldt Bay less than a month, Victoria got underway on 5 June, bound for Seeadler Harbor.
Escorted by the fast transport Kilty (APD137) and the frigate Ogden (PF-39), the tanker reached her destination on
the 7th and commenced fueling operations immediately. She subsequently sailed to Hollandia, arriving there on the
28th.
For the remainder of the summer, Victoria continued her vital support operations for the 7th Fleet as they conducted
the "island-hopping" in the Southwest Pacific theater of war. She fueled Allied warships at Mios Woendi, at Humboldt
Bay, and Hollandia. Operating out of Mios Woendi, Victoria fueled ships taking part in the assaults against the Philip-
pines and Borneo that commenced that autumn. While at Mios Woendi she fueled the badly damaged "jeep carriers"
from the Battle of Leyte Gulf: Kalinin Bay (CVE-68) Fanehaw Bay (CVE-70), White Plains (CVE-66;, and Kilkun Bay
(CVE-71), on 29 October, four days after that epic battle.
After refueling Task Group (TG) 78.6 off Biak, New Guinea, on 28 January 1945, Victoria resumed her routine fueling
operations at Mios Woendi, duties she discharged through mid-April 1945. Proceeding independently for Hollandia
on 19 April, Victoria reached her destination the next day, turning over cargo to Aragat (IX-134) and taking on stores
that had accumulated for the ship at that port. She then pushed on for Seeadler Harbor, which she reached on 23 April.
After fueling Allied warships at Seeadler Harbor, Victoria was drydocked in ABSD-4 on 10 June for an overhaul. On
the 16th, she was refloated and shifted to the Repair Base at Lombrum Point, Los Negros Island for engine and hull
work. That overhaul was complete on 21 August, a little less than a week after Japan capitulated.
The ship then loaded a full cargo and—under orders from Commander, Service Force 7th Fleet—departed Seeadler
Harbor on 22 August, tound for the Philippines. "If this 'Galloping Ghost' could speak," the ship's commanding officer
wrote, "~he would surely have said the same words as General MacArthur, 'I shall return.," During the time that
Victoria, ex-George G Henry had been away from the Philippine Archipeiago, she had isued 2,136,228 barrels of
Navy special fuel oil.
Reaching Manila Bay on 2 September 1945—the day that Japan signed the formal articles of surrender in Tokyo Bay-
Victoria commenced fueling operations immediately. Less than a month later, her tour of duty in the Pacific theater at
a close, Victoria departed the Philippines on orders from Commander, Service Squadron 7. The ship departed on that
date with an "exceptionally well done" message from ComServRon 7 and Commander, Service Division 73. With 76
sailors embarked as passengers, Victoria headed for the United States.
Taking the "Great Circle Route" north of Mindanao, Kure, and Rivella Gigardo Islands, Victoria participated in an air-sea
rescue operation a week after leaving Manila. On 18 October, she served as station ship for rescue planes and as radio
ship for smaller ships involved in the operation that led to the rescue of crews from a ditched Boeing B-29 Superfortress
and a Consolidated PBY Catalina. Three days later, the ship sank a large floating mine with gunfire.
Making port at Balboa, Canal Zone, on 15 November, the ship transited the Panama Canal on the next day and reached
Cristobal. She then sailed across the Gulf of Mexico to Mobile, Ala., where she arrived on the 22d. Decommissioned on
14 December 1945 and delivered to the War Shipping Administration (WSA) of the Maritime Commission siTnultaneously,
Victoria was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 8 January 1946.
Victoria earned four battle stars during her World War II service.