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SEVENTY-TWO CARGOES
SS Dean Emery.
The Dean Emery a sturdy as weIl as a lucky ship, was built in 1919 and launched about a year after the close of the first World War. She had therefore been in service 20 years and was an "old" tanker when the German army crossed the borders of Poland on the fateful morning of September 1, 1939. Nevertheless, in the following six years of World War II, she transported 72 cargoes of crude petroleum and its products, escaping all dangers in the Atlantic as weIl as in the Gulf and Caribbean.
This record, including many long voyages in addition to coastwise runs, was made despite a tie-up in the Patuxent River which reduced the vessel's time in the active fleet by two and a half months. Also, by V-J Day, the veteran tanker was 26 years of age.
The Dean Emery met the rigorous conditions of· wartime service with consistently satisfactory performance. She maintained normal speed, kept regular schedules, and made good on her commitments throughout the war.
A Leader in the Batde of Supply.
Unharmed by enemy submarines, mines, and bombing planes, this vessel has no "action story" of war damage and no narrative of adventure either aboard ship or in lifeboats. Vet the Dean Emery made more actual history in the long and perilous battle of supply than did many newer, larger, and faster tankers which, being less fortunate, we re sent to the bottom by enemy action. Her war service, exciting as it was to her officers and men because of almost constant danger, does not ap-pear so in print, but the point of her story, as told in this chapter, is that the Dean Emery won a triumph of transportation with-out encountering tragedy.
In considering the wartime voyages and cargoes of the Dean Emery it should be borne in mind that her cargo carrying capacity is 81,080 barrels, th at her speed is approximately 10 knots, and that throughout the war she usually loaded heavy oils. It is therefore significant that on her 72 voyages, between September 3, 1939 and September 2, 1945, the vessel transported petroleum products amounting to a grand total of more than 5,000,000 barrels, or 210,000,000 gallons.
In the year 1941, for example, the Dean Emery on 14 voyages, steamed 49,552 sea miles in 219 days and 5 hours.
In other words, she covered an average distance of about 226 miles a day at an average speed of about 9.4 knots.
Three Sisterships Sunk.
The SS Dean Emery was built in 1919 by the Sun Shipbuilding Company at Chester, Penna. She is a sistership of the S.B. Hunt (damaged July 7, 1943 repaired and returned to service November 4, 1943) and the Elisha Walker.
Other sisterships were the Geo. H. Jones (sunk June 11, 1942), the J.C. White (sunk September 27, 1941), and the Joseph Seep (sunk May 25, 1940).
A single-screw vessel of 11,310 deadweight tons capacity on international summer dra ft of 26 feet, 81/2 inches, the Dean Emery has an overall length of 445 feet and a length between perpendiculars of 430 feet. She has a moulded breadth of 59 feet and a depth moulded of 33 feet, 3 inches. With a cargo carrying capacity of 81,080 barrels, she has an assigned pumping ra te of 3,500 barrels an hour. Her triple expansion engine, supplied with steam by three Scotch boilers, develops 3,000 indicated horsepower and gives her a classification certified speed of 10.3 knots.
During the 72 months of the war the Dean Emery was manned by American crews for an aggregate of about 28 months and for approximately 44 months by foreign crews-Danish, British, and Canadian.
On September 3, 1939, the Dean Emery then an Esso tanker, was en route from Texas City to Havana with a cargo of 79,402 barrels of East Texas crude oil. She was commanded by Captain John J. Cienciva and her engineroom was in charge of Chief Engineer John T. Anderson. Thereafter, while sailing under the American Flag, she carried seven more cargoes of crude and fuel oils from Caribbean and Gulf to United States east coast ports beforeNovember 24, 1939, when she was sold to the Panama Transport Company.
For the rest of the year and until mid-January of 1940 the Dean Emery manned by a Danish crew, operated in the same general areas.
On January 13, 1940, the vessel was manned by a Canadian crew. U nder the command of Captain Arthur B. Tanner and, later, of Captain J. F. Watson, she transported six cargoes of crude oil from Gulf and Caribbean loading ports to discharge terminals in the western Atlantic and, on three voyages, to Southampton, Le Havre, and Santos in Brazil. Then, when tanker tonnage exceeded the demand, the Dean Emery joined the tied-up fleet in the Patuxent River on August 18, 1940.
Re-entering service on November 4 of that year, the Dean Emery left Baltimore, bound for Aruba. Still under the flag of Panama, but manned by an American crew, she was again commanded by Captain Cienciva; her engineroom was in charge of Chief Engineer J ackson B. Springs.
In the next ten months the Dean Emery completed fourteen voyages, transporting one cargo of fuel oil from Aruba to Free-town, Africa, three of crude oil across the Atlantic from Caripito and Las Piedras to Teneriffe, and ten cargoes of crude and fuel oils from the Caribbean to various ports on the United States Atlantic seaboard and to Cuba.
Sailing on the firs t of three voyages under British registry, the Dean Emery left N ew Y ork on August 31, 1941, bound for a United Kingdom port with a cargo of fuel and Diesel oils. A similar cargo was taken, on the second of these trips, to Ponta Delgada, Azores, and a third, consisting of fuel and crude oils, loaded at Curacao, was discharged at Kingston, Jamaica. Her British masters were Captains D. C. Barton and Anthony L. Cresswell; in charge of her engineroom were Chief Engineers G. G. Reeves and Charles E. Thompson.
Then the Dean Emery arrived at N ew Y ork on March 5, 1942, an American crew was again placed on board.
Under the Panamanian flag, the vessel was commanded by Captain John Stegen and her engineroom was in charge of Chief Engineer Jens C. Christensen. After taking a cargo of fuel and Diesel oils from N ew Y ork to Halifax and one of Diesel oil from Beaumont, Texas, to Avonmouth, the Dean Emery completed the year by transporting six cargoes of Oficina-San Joaquin blend crude oil from Puerto La Cruz to Curacao and then three of fuel oil from Curacao to N ew Y ork. In all she delivered 12 cargoes during the worst year of losses by enemy action.
Early in 1943 the Dean Emery made two voyages from New Vork to Liverpool and Swansea. Before April 5, when the vessel sailed for Swansea, Captain Ivar Boklund was assigned as master, relieving Captain Stegen; on March 29, Chief Engineer Christensen had been relieved by Chief Engineer William M. Strang.
On June 2, 1943, the vessel was manned by a Danish crewand placed under the command of Captain Magnus Jorgensen. For the rest of the year she carried gasoline and fuel oil, making two voyages to Manchester, one to Liverpool, and a fourth to Bizerte, Bone, and Casablanca.
During the greater part of 1944 the Dean Emery made deliveries of fuel oil. Six cargoes were from Caripito to South American ports, four to Rio de J aneiro, one to Recife, and one 'lo Belem. In addition, three cargoes of fuel oil, from Puerto La Cruz, Corpus Chris ti, and Aruba, were discharged at New Vork and Philadelphia.
Of the twelve voyages completed by the Dean Emery between J anuary 1 and September 2, 1945, the first was a long one from Caripito to Santos, BraziL On the other el even she went from Caribbean and Gulf loading ports to Cristobal, Balboa, Norfolk,. Philadelphia, and New Vork.
The wartime transportation record of the Dean Emery was in summary as follows:
The American masters of the Dean Emery in the war years were Captains John J. Cienciva, Nicholas. G. Kessaris, Gustave A. Eklund, John Stegen, Clinton W. Hayes, and Ivar Boklund.
During the same period, while the vessel was sailing with American crews, her engineroom was in charge of Chief Engineers John T. Anderson, Jackson B. Springs, Thomas J. O'Brien, William R. Burrell,. Jens C. Christensen, Harry R. Peck, Frank J. Burchalewski, and William M. Strang.
The Scandinavian master of the Dean Emery during the war was Captain Magnus Jorgensen.
Associated with him were Chief Engineers Carl M. Pedersen, Peter Aeroe, and Erik Hansen.
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