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A Brilliant Record.
SS Esso Baytown.
From the day she was launched, the Esso Baytown has been for various reasons an outstanding tanker, both in peace and war.
She won international acclaim in 1939 and the official commendation of government authorities in 1940 tor two astonishing rescues at sea. In the first exploit she established and in the second confirmed a reputation for expert navigation at night, unflagging determination in searching for survivors when there was little chance of success, and masterly skill in seamanship.
The significance of these achievements was enhanced by the modest attitude of the commanding officers concerned, Captain Frank H. Spurr and Captain Guy A. Campbell, who said that any other ship could have done the same!
As to her reputation among experienced officers, a single distinguished opinion will suffice. Captain Spurr, one of the senior masters of the Esso fleet, whose name is rightly associated with this ship, stated that the proudest moment of his life was when he was given command of the Esso Baytown.
Justifiable Pride.
In comment on his remark. The Ships' Bulletin said: "That may be true enough, but about the proudest moment in a good many other lives was when this skipper's favorite ship picked up the survivors of the passenger seaplane Cavalier. And just keep in mind the fact that the Esso Baytown was one of twenty-three seacraft that were on the job following the flying boat's SOS. Do we need to say more?"
This publicly known reputation of the Esso Baytown, it should be borne in mind, was chiefly gained in time of peace, when there was no restriction on ship news. It is therefore not generally known that the Esso Baytown's war history was notable for unusual efficiency in the transport of essential oil cargoes to strategic points. She made many important voyages, both coastwise to American convoy ports and overseas to far distant fighting fronts of the United Nations.
The SS Esso Baytown was built in 1937 by the Sun Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company at Chester, Penna. She is a sister ship of the Wallace E. Pratt.
A single-screw vessel of 13,045 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 28 feet, 7s4 inches, the Esso Baytown has an overall length of 459 feet, a length between perpendiculars of 442 feet, a moulded breadth of 65 feet, and a moulded depth of 35 feet. With a cargo carrying capacity of 108,375 barrels, she has an assigned pumping rate of 6,000 barrels an hour.
Her Westinghouse high pressure turbine, supplied with steam by two Babcock & Wilcox water-tube boilers fitted with Todd oil burners, develops 3,960 shaft horsepower and gives her a classification certified speed of 13.2 knots.
During the years of troubled peace and sinister conflict in Europe preceding the entry of the United States into the war, the Esso Baytown, as previously indicated, effected two rescues at sea, making successful searches at night for survivors who, in the judgment of experienced shipmasters, had perhaps one chance in a thousand of being saved.
The first of these achievements, in 1939, was recognized by a number of rare honors conferred upon Captain Spurr, his officers, and the men who manned a lifeboat of the Esso Baytown which picked up the survivors of the passenger plane Cavalier in the swells of an oncoming storm and held the boat steady alongside the tanker while the rescued men and women were taken safely aboard.
On January 21, 1939, a few weeks before the conquest of Czechoslovakia, the Imperial Airways seaplane Cavalier, com-manded by Captain M. R. Alderson, was bound from Port Washington, Long Island, to Bermuda while the Esso Baytown was on her way from Boston to Baytown, Texas, in ballast.
Ten Saved.
When the Cavalier was about half way to her destination she was compelled by engine trouble to make a forced landing. The flying boat hit the waves with a shock which broke her apart. In less than twenty minutes the Cavalier went down, but not before her radio operator, Patrick W. Chapman, had sent SOS calls.
The ten survivors, including five women, were lifted from the sea by the lifeboat crew less than eleven hours after the flying boat had landed on the water at 1:14 p.m. By 2:02 a.m. on January 22 the rescue had been effected and the Esso Baytown had started at full speed for New York, where she docked on the 23rd.
On September 3, 1939, at the outbreak of the European war, the Esso Baytown arrived at New York to discharge 105,307 barrels of mixed cargo. Under the command of Captain Olaf Anderson and with Chief Engineer Leon H. Fessier in charge of her engineroom, she took departure on September 6 and proceeded to Baytown for another cargo of petroleum products consigned to Charleston. Her next round trip, from Bay-town to New York, was repeated five times before the close of the year.
In 1940 she was commanded by Captains Guy A. Campbell, John B. Petterson, Herbert H. Clothier, and Frank H. Spurr; assigned to her engine department were Chief Engineers Joseph A. dark and Josie J. DuBose. During that year, on 22 coastwise voyages, the cargoes transported totaled 2,234,456 barrels, including 4,708 barrels of diisobutylene shipped from New York to Baton Rouge.
Captain Campbell was assigned to command the Esso Baytown on May 15, 1940. On May 16 she sailed from Charleston, S. C. for Baytown, Texas.
What happened during that voyage, on the night of May 19, is on record in the ship's deck log, which includes the following entries:
7:45 p.m. H. L. Baseter reported H. A. Bentsen missing.
7:48 p.m. Turned ship around, retraced course, cleared away No. 3 lifeboat. Various courses and speeds as per
bell book, looking for man.
10:13 p.m. Heard man yell.
10:20 p.m. Lowered No. 3 lifeboat.
10:30 p.m. Picked man up.
10:50 p.m. Boat alongside.
11:00 p.m. Boat aboard.
11:04 p.m. Full ahead.
These terse entries in the log of the Esso Baytown are the eloquent record of an extended search at night resulting in anoth-er brilliant rescue, which, though less well known, was as amazing as the rescue of the Cavalier survivors.
Official Recognition of Seamanship.
In recognition of this feat of navigation and seamanship, a letter of commendation, dated June 8, 1940, was written to Captain Campbell by Commander Richard S. Field, Director of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation of the Department of Commerce. Captain Campbell is also one of the senior masters of the Esso tanker fleet.
In 1941 the Esso Baytown was commanded by Captain Spurr except during his vacation, when he Was relieved by Captain Charles M. Crowell. Her engine department, beginning January 24, was in charge of Chief Engineer John A. Waite. During the vacation period Chief Engineer Charles J. Fox took charge of the engineroom.
In 1941, the Esso Baytown, on 24 coastwise voyages, transported cargoes amounting to 2,281,121 barrels of various grades of oil.
The war history of the Esso Baytown from December 7, 1941, to V-J Day, September 2, 1945, is a story of the transportation of much needed petroleum products to the war areas.
It will be noted that the annual amounts of cargoes become smaller-due to a sharp decrease in the number of voyages, which become longer and longer, reaching distances unprecedented in previous wars.
Paradoxical as it may seem, the significance of the smaller number of voyages and cargoes lies in the fact that after April 20, 1942, when the Esso Baytown was time chartered to the War Shipping Administration, her cargoes became more and more important for military and naval purposes.
Made Great War Contribution.
It may be said that the cargoes carried by the Esso Baytown during the latter years of the war, although fewer in number each year than she had annually transported coastwise, were historically the greatest contribution she had made to the nation since she was built.
In 1942, the Esso Baytown was commanded, for various periods of time, by Captains William J. Manning, Walter V. James, Gustave A. Eklund, and John O'Kelly-the latter from June 4 to the end of the year. Throughout 1942, her engine department was in charge of Chief Engineer John A. Waite.
Captain James was master of the vessel when she was chartered to the War Shipping Administration on April 20, 1942. From that time on, although the Esso Baytown was operated by her owners, she was under government orders.
Coastwise voyages continued to be her mission until June 27, 1942, when, under the command of Captain O'Kelly, the Esso Baytown left New York for Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, beginning a period of overseas service which, with the exception of a few return voyages to New York, was to take her first to Caribbean and South American ports, then across the Atlantic, and finally, after encircling the globe, to her voyages in the Pacific.
Loading in ports as far apart as Caripito in Venezuela, San Pedro in California, and Abadan at the head of the Persian Gulf, she traveled the sea lanes to
Rio de Janeiro and Santos in Brazil, Avonmouth in England, Algiers and Cape Town in Africa, Aden in Arabia, and Bombay.
From Bombay, where the Esso Baytown delivered two cargoes loaded at Abadan, the tanker returned to Abadan for another cargo which she transported across the Indian Ocean to Sydney, Australia.
In 1943 the Esso Baytown was commanded by Captains John O'Kelly and Ole A. Faran; her engine department was in charge of Chief Engineers John A. Waite, Harold 0. Laffitte, and Joseph M. Farrell.
Around the World.
From the time she left Aruba on February 25, 1943, commanded by Captain Faran, until she returned to Aruba from Sydney, Australia, on March 5, 1944, she had circumnavigated the world. Meanwhile, however, she had voyaged a total distance considerably greater than that of the earth's circumference. During those thirteen months she had transported ten cargoes.
Leaving Aruba in March, 1944 in convoy, the Esso Baytown returned to New York, where she went into dry dock for overhaul, repairs, and a new coat of war gray before setting forth to load at Curacao in preparation for her service under Navy orders in the Pacific.
Commanded by Captain Frank G. T. G. Bootz, with her engine under the care of Chief Engineer John F. Reites, the Esso Baytown left New York on April 16, 1944, to load at Curacao and sailed from there April 28, via the Panama Canal, with a cargo of fuel oil, which she discharged at Pearl Harbor.
Departing from Pearl Harbor May 18 and arriving at Aruba June 6 the Esso Baytown took on a cargo of special Navy fuel. This cargo was transported to Eniwetok, in the Marshall Islands, where she arrived July 6 and discharged into the tanks of the USS Neosho (second vessel so named).
One Cargo-15,536 Miles.
Leaving Eniwetok July 9, 1944, the Esso Baytown returned to Aruba. Incidentally, Captain Bootz and Chief Engineer Reites each kept a personal record of the nautical miles covered on the Baytown's voyages in the Pacific and the length of time of each voyage. From Aruba to the Marshall Islands the tanker steamed 7,800 nautical miles in 27 days, 15 hours, 30 minutes. On the return leg of the voyage, to Aruba, she covered 7,736 nautical miles in 29 days, 15 hours, 36 minutes. To deliver one cargo in the Marshall Islands she had gone 15,536 miles and it had taken more than 57 days to complete this one important mission.
Again loading special Navy fuel at Aruba, the Esso Baytown once more headed for the Pacific, this time traveling 9,219 nautical miles to Seeadler, Manus Island, in the Admiralty group. Her running time was 31 days, 2 hours, 29 minutes. At See-adler she transferred her cargo to the USS Neches.
In the Marshalls and Carolines.
Returning in ballast from Manus to San Pedro, California, October 15, the Esso Baytown loaded a characteristic cargo, 79,512 barrels of special Navy fuel. Although this was consigned to Pearl Harbor, Captain Bootz, on change of orders, stopped there only a few hours to take on bunkers and fresh water. The cargo was to be discharged partly in the Marshall Islands and the rest in the Carolines.
The experience of the Esso Baytown in the Marshalls and Carolines on this voyage was described by Chief Mate Fred N. Sigman, in an interview for this history, when the tanker returned, months later, to New York:
"We arrived at Eniwetok November 15 and joined a heavily guarded convoy of five ships-two tankers and three freighters-bound for Ulithi. Each ship was escorted by a destroyer, possibly because we were following a route which took us within bombing distance of islands on which the Japanese still had airfields in operation.
"At Ulithi, in the Carolines, November 21 to 23, we discharged into naval vessels. Water was strictly rationed. We saw naval officers ashore who had only one helmet of fresh water a day. They were sleeping on cots in tents. But air strips were being finished by the Seabees while we were there. The palm trees had been shattered by bombing and gunfire and only tree stumps remained.
"We had no charts to guide us into the harbor through the reefs. Navy patrol boats led us into the lagoon and gave us mimeographed sheets showing the bearings which would indicate our anchorage, as there were no buoys.
"While we were alongside a Navy oiler, we learned that a former Esso third mate. Commander Edwin P. Teague, USNR, had been her executive officer. He was very popular and efficient.
"We were told that the day before we arrived, six Japanese midget submarines had made an attack and that all of them had been destroyed.
"The Esso Baytown left Ulithi November 23 in the same kind of convoy with which we arrived. A destroyer escorted each ship. While we were on our way back to Eniwetok to complete discharge of cargo, U. S. bombers flew overhead and drop-ped flares at night.
Eniwetok to San Pedro to Pearl Harbor.
"Leaving Eniwetok we proceeded to San Pedro, arriving December 15. After loading there, we had orders to go to Leyte, but we were diverted to Pearl Harbor and discharged our cargo into Navy tanks ashore.
"Our next orders took us through the Panama Canal to Aruba. Captain Bootz had not been in good shape and when we arrived at San Nicolas on January 23 he was taken to the hospital. A week later he went by plane to New
Orleans for an operation.
"I became temporary master of the ship until we reached New York, where Captain Karl S. Johansen assumed command.
"Recently we have been going coastwise-down to Corpus Christ! and up to Providence, then to Trinidad and back to New York."
Mileages Covered.
When the Esso Baytown had just arrived from Trinidad, and was anchored off Stapleton, Staten Island, March 13, 1945, Chief Engineer Reites discussed the great distances in the Pacific. He kept a notebook which showed that the Esso Baytown, leaving Curacao on April 28, 1944, and arriving at Pearl Harbor May 26, covered a steaming distance of 5,427 nautical miles. From Aruba to the Admiralty Islands, the distance traveled was 9,219 nautical miles.
Thanks to Chief Engineer Reites' notebook, it can be stated that the Esso Baytown, from the time she left New York in April, 1944, en route to the Pacific, until she returned to New York in January, 1945, a period of nearly ten months, steamed a total distance of 65,986 nautical miles, or 75,986 statute miles.
Her last year of wartime operation found her on coastwise runs with the exception of a trip to Pearl Harbor in June, when she delivered 80,247 barrels of Navy fuel oil. As the war ended the Esso Baytown was discharging cargo at Cristobal, Canal Zone.
The transportation record of the Esso Baytown during World War II was in summary as follows:
The wartime masters of the Esso Baytown were Captains Olaf Anderson, Frank Spurr, Guy A. Campbell, John B. Petterson, Herbert E. Clothier, Charles M. Crowell, William J. Manning, Walter V. James, Gustave A. Ekiund, John O'Kelly, Ole A. Faran, Frank G. T. G. Bootz, Fred N. Sigman, and Karl S. Johansen.
In charge of her engineroom during the same period were Chief Engineers Leon H. Fessier, Joseph A. Dark, Josie J. DuBose, John A. Waite, Charles J. Fox, Harold 0. Laffitte, Joseph M. Farrell, Florence A. Daniels, John F. Reites, John B. Ireland, Jr., and Thomas J. O'Brien.
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