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A VETERAN TANKER
SS Standard.
ON SEPTEMBER 3, 1939, the Standard was a veteran tanker. The fourth oldest vessel in the service of the Standard Oil
Company of New Jersey - her seniors being the Glenpool, C.A. Canfield and Edward L. Doheny - she had delivered millions of barrels of oil to ports all over the world. Her war record was outstanding. She sailed throughout the conflict unharmed by enemy action and her cargoes contributed to the defeat of the Axis Powers.
As part of the tied-up fleet the Standard was in the Patuxent River from April 7 until October 30, 1939, when she returned to active service, under the command of Captain Lionel E. Crowder, with Chief Engineer John Willadsen in charge of her engineroom. Taking departure from Baltimore, she proceeded to Aruba and loaded a cargo of 104,660 barrels of fuel oil which was discharged at New York on November 14.
During this stay in port the Esso tanker was sold to the Panama Transport Company on November 18 and a Danish crew placed on board.
Under the command of Captain Carl M. Andersen, with the engineroom in charge of Chief Engineer Jorgen S. Petersen, the Standard left New York on November 21, 1939 and again went to Aruba, where she arrived on November 29, for another loading. Between then and the end of the year the ship made two round trips to Halifax with cargoes of fuel oil.
Carried Large Cargoes.
In the first six months of 1940 the Standard wok on six cargoes of crude, Diesel, and fuel oils at Aruba. Two deliveries were at New York and one each at Everett, Mass.; Halifax; Las Palmas, Canary Islands; and St. Vincent, Cape Verde Islands. She was at Caripito on June 28 to load 110,809 barrels of fuel oil for Rio de Janeiro and Santos. Returning to Caripito, she loaded for Halifax. Between August 27 and the end of November she made three voyages, loading once at Cartagena and twice at Caripito; these cargoes were discharged at Campana, Teneriffe, and Baltimore. On November 30 she arrived at Baltimore for a repair period.
The last voyage of the Standard in 1940 began on December 13 at Baltimore; proceeding to Las Piedras, she lifted 112,254 barrels of Venezuelan crude for delivery to New York. On her twelve 1940 voyages the tanker established her best wartime record by transporting 1,334,751 barrels of oil and its products.
The Standard began the year 1941 by leaving New York in ballast on January 2, bound for Caripito; she arrived there January 10 to load 120,209 barrels of crude oil. During the year she carried three cargoes across the Atlantic. On February 4 she sailed from Aruba for Freetown with 113,377 barrels of fuel and Diesel oils. On April 3 the tanker departed from Caripito and arrived at Tenerife, Canary Islands, on April 16. On the third transatlantic trip she loaded at Curacao and reached Liverpool on October 4 with a cargo of fuel oil. In the meantime she voyaged in the Caribbean Sea and along the coast of South America. The Standard ended the year by arriving at the River Clyde, Scotland, on December 26, with 105,374 barrels of Pool fuel oil.
Safe-Haven Stopovers.
During the year 1942, when the greatest number of Allied ships were sunk by enemy action, the Standard managed to escape the Axis menace and transported, coastwise and foreign, 472,416 barrels of Pool gas oil.
Precautions taken for the safety of the vessel are shown in many of her itineraries. For example, on June 12, 1942, she left Baytown, Texas, with 118,199 barrels of Pool gas oil for delivery to Glasgow, but before crossing the Atlantic in convoy she made five safe haven stopovers-at Key West, Lynnhaven Roads, New York, Halifax, and Sydney, Nova Scotia. The aggregate time spent in these haven ports was 12 days and 5 hours compared with the aggregate steaming time between Baytown and Sydney-15 days, 17 hours. The total time at sea was 28 days, 10 hours.
The Standard left Baytown at 4:20 p.m. on June 12. She arrived at Glasgow on July 23 at 7:45 a.m. In other words, because of routing instructions for the protection of the vessel, it took 41 days to transport a cargo from Texas to the United Kingdom. These facts give some idea of why the Standard made but four voyages in 1942. Moreover, the time and effort consumed in 41 days serve to emphasize the importance in wartime of 118,199 barrels of oil.
On the return trip she stopped at New York for eight days and then proceeded to Houston. There after the Standard made six more round trips to Scotland. On November 23, 1943, she arrived at New York for annual inspection and repair.
This was the vessel's last Atlantic crossing during the war. On December 18, 1943, she sailed from New York for the Caribbean. The Standard left Aruba on December 30 with 115,426 barrels of special Navy fuel which she transported through the Panama Canal to distant Funafuti, in the Ellice Islands. It was thirty-seven days before she was to see the first signs of the Pacific atoll. After fueling three destroyers and supplying the tanker Fort Sumter she started February 11 on the long trip back to the Canal Zone. Arriving at Balboa March 12, the Standard was again sent to Aruba for 113,897 barrels of special Navy fuel. This voyage took her to Noumea, where she discharged part of her cargo into the SS Albarende; from there she proceeded to Pago Pago, Samoa, to deliver the rest of her special Navy fuel. The vessel lifted her next load of 115,910 barrels at Curacao and after two voyages to Pearl
Harbor returned to New York, via Cartagena, for a six-day repair period. On her next fueling mission in the Pacific she arrived at Espiritu Santo on December 24, Guadalcanal on December 29, and Pago Pago on January 7, 1945.
Between then and the end of the" war the Standard was sent to Manus and Hollandia. Her other ports of call were Pearl Harbor, Balboa, Mobile, and Port Arthur. On V-J Day she was at anchor in the harbor of Cristobal, Canal Zone.
The SS Standard was built in 1914 by Howaldtswerke A. G. at Kiel-Neumuhlen, Germany.
A single-screw vessel of 18,075 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 29 feet, 5 inches, she has an overall length of 539 feet, a length between perpendiculars of 525 feet, a moulded breadth of 68 feet, 6 inches, and a depth moulded of 34 feet, 7 inches.
With a cargo carrying capacity of 118,605 barrels, she has an assigned pumping rate of 4,000 barrels an hour.
Her quadruple expansion engine, supplied with steam by three Scotch boilers, develops 3,300 indicated horse power and gives her a classification certified speed of 10 knots.
The wartime transportation record of the Standard was in summary as follows:
The Scandinavian masters of the Standard during the war were Captains Carl M. Andersen, Hans Groth, Jens Westergaard,
and Arnold Hansen.
Associated with them were Chief Engineers Jorgen S. Petersen, Lauritz K. Sorensen, and Christian H. Hansen.
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