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FIRST ESSO LOSS
SS Allan Jackson.
The first Standard Oil Company of New Jersey tanker destroyed by an enemy submarine was the Allan Jackson. Flying the flag of the Unit-ed States, she was voyaging alone and unarmed.
Without warning, on the night of January 17-18, 1942, the tanker, while running up the Atlantic coast off North Carolina, was hit by two torpe-does. The second explosion broke her in two forward of amidships and immediately set her on fire.
Flames swept her decks and blazing oil from shattered cargo tanks spread in a few minutes over the water alongside.
Because of threatening fire and damage to gear, only one lifeboat was launched and many of the men on deck were forced to jump over-board. Under circumstances of great peril to those who succeeded in saving their lives, and with heavy ca-sualties, both parts of the sundered and burning vessel sank within ten minutes.
Of the Allan Jackson's crew, which numbered 35, twenty-two (17 unlicensed men and 5 officers) lost their lives. Among the 13 survivors, 8 were injured, 5 of them seriously.
The SS Allan Jackson (ex Crampton Anderson) was built in 1921 by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Ltd. at its Union Plant, Alame-da Works, Alameda, California. She was a sistership of the Franklin K. Lane.
A single-screw vessel of 11,010 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 27 feet, 1 1/4 inches, the Allan Jackson had an overall length of 453 feet, a length between perpendiculars of 435 feet, a moulded breadth of 56 feet, and a depth moulded of 33 feet, 6 inch-es. With a cargo carrying capacity of 75,289 barrels, she had an assigned pumping rate of 3,500 barrels an hour.
Her triple expansion engine, supplied with steam by three Scotch boilers, developed 2,800 indicated horsepower and gave a speed of 10.2 knots.
On September 3, 1939, the Allan Jackson was in the tied-up fleet in the Patuxent River. However, she was being prepared to resume active service. Sailing on September 5 under the command of Captain Walter B. McCarthy, with her engineroom in charge of Chief Engineer Fred Lewis, she proceeded to Caripito, where she loaded her first wartime cargo, 68,602 barrels of crude oil. This cargo was discharged at Hali-fax. By the end of the year, the Allan Jackson made 8 voyages-3 coastwise and 5 foreign-including stops at Aruba, San Juan, Ponce, and Las Piedras.
In 1940 the Allan Jackson made an unusual number of voyages, but many were of coastwise length or less. During the year she made sever-al trips to Havana and went to Aruba, San Juan, Mayaguez, Caripito, Cumare bo, Recife, and Puerto La Cruz.
In the year 1941 her voyages were similar to those of 1940; she was diverted from coastwise runs for trips to Las Piedras, Aruba, Curacao, Havana, Cartagena, San Juan, Puerto La Cruz, Caripito, and Buenos Aires. On the day of Pearl Harbor the Allan Jackson arrived at Corpus Christi to load a cargo for Havana.
Her first voyage in 1942 proved to be her last.
Not including this, her transportation record during the war was in summary as follows:
The wartime masters of the Allan Jackson were Captains Walter B. McCarthy, James S. LeCain, Frans G. M. Anderson, Elden M. MacCabe, Abel Solli, and Felix W. Kretchmer.
Her chief engineers during the same period were Fred Lewis, Sigurd Steffensen, Ernest T. Troeger, Howard B. Johnson, and Thomas B. Hutchins.
On January 11, 1942, the Allan Jackson commanded by Captain Felix W. Kretchmer, with her engineroom in charge of Chief Engineer Tho-mas B. Hutchins, left Cartagena, Colombia, bound for New York with a cargo· of 72,870 barrels of Colombian crude oil.
In January, Off Hatteras.
In the early morning hours of Sunday, January 18, the tanker was off Cape Hatteras. Second Mate Melvin A. Rand was on the bridge, with Able Seaman Randolph H. Larson at the wheel. Ordinary Seaman Hamon Brown, on lookout duty at the foc'sle head, had arranged to be temporarily relieved at about 1:30 a.m., by Able Seaman Gustave Nox.
On the 12 to 4 watch in the engineroom were Second Assistant Engineer Roy R. Loosemore, Machinist Ralph T. Black, and Fireman Walla-ce A. Lindsey.
As stated in Captain Kretchmer's report:
"The vessel was following a course of about 354 degrees true, so as to raise Winter Quarter Lightship, and was about60 miles E.N.E. from Diamond Shoals. The weather was fine. I was in my bed resting when at 1: 35 a.m. the shipwas suddenly struck without warning by two tor-pedoes, amidships on the starboard side, resulting in two consecutiveexplosions.
"The first explosion was comparatively mild, but the second, which occurred almost immediately afterward, was very severe and threw me against the walls of my cabin. It broke the vessel apart and set her afire."
Vessel Engulfed in Flames.
In an affidavit signed by Captain Kretchmer, Third Mate Boris A. V oronsoff, and Chief Engineer Thomas B. Hutchins, it was stated that "After the vessel was struck, it was engulfed in flames and the oil on the water spread over an area about one-half mile around the ship and was aflame."
Third Mate Voronsoff said in his own report:
"As soon as I heard and felt the first torpedo hit the ship, I rushed out on deck. With some of the other officers, I tried to launch No. 2 lifeboat, but before we could do this the flames from the fire started by the torpedo came so close we had to leap off the ship into the sea. "We jumped from the port side."
To continue Captain Kretchmer's account:
"After the second explosion I found myself on the bathroom floor. Flames were coming into the bedroom through the port-holes and doors. My only means of escape was the porthole in the bathroom. This I was able to get through and I landed on the port side of the boat deck, which was the lee side of the ship.
Captain Carried Under-Lives.
"Seeing no sign of the crew, I started up the ladder leading to the bridge. The decks and ladders were breaking up and the sea was rushing aboard. As the vessel sank amidships, the suction carried me away from the bridge ladder.
"After a struggle I came to the surface, on which oil was afire a short distance away. I never saw any member of the crew or any lifeboat afloat at any time, but later I distinctly saw a large submarine emerge, some distance away.
"'With the help of a couple of small boards, I was able to keep afloat until I was picked up, about seven hours later, by the destroyer USS Roe. I was almost completely exhausted and hardly regained consciousness until I was landed at Norfolk and placed in the Marine Hospital, where I remained until January 31."
Boatswain Rolf Clausen's reports of January 21 and 25, 1942 were amplified for this history in an interview on June 29,1945, when he told the following story:
"The first torpedo hit the forward tank on the starboard side. There was an empty cargo hold above this tank and the effect of the explosion was not serious, judging from the hole I saw later when I was in the lifeboat.
"The second torpedo exploded in way of Nos. 2 and 3 starboard tanks and broke the ship in two about 25 to 30 feet for-ward of the midship house and nearly in line with the foremast. Two men were killed by either the first or second explosion- Able Seaman Nox and Ordinary Seaman Brown.
"The three mates, with some members of the crew who were amidships, started to launch No.1 boat, but found it was a total wreck. I saw it afterward, when we were pulling away from the ship in No. 3, the only lifeboat that was launched.
The outboard side of No. 1 lifeboat was torn away by the explosion so that I could see the inside of it. The davits were smashed.
Marvels at Master's Escape.
"Then the mates and the men with them, incIuding the radio operator, tried to launch No. 2 lifeboat, but found it impossible. They could not get it out of the chocks. The force of the explosion had bent the handle of the reel and they could not swing the boat out. They tried to heave and roU it off, but the lifeboat was leaning toward them and there were too few men to exert the necessary strength. To escape the closely approaching flames on deck, they jumped overboard.
"The most amazing thing to me was how the captain survived. After going overboard he cIung to two pieces of wood so small that when he was rescued I couldn't see how they kept him up. He had a bad arm from a past injury. There were hale and hearty men on the Allan Jackson - men much younger than the captain - who could not save themselves, but he some-how escaped the flames and kept himself afloat for at least seven hours!
"When the torpedoes struck the ship I was in the messroom on the port side aft, playing cards with several members of the crew. We rushed out on deck and made for the nearest lifeboat, No. 4, but we couldn't launch it because the wind was car-rying the flames in that direction. With men who joined us, we all went over to the starboard lifeboat, No. 3, which we imme-diately started to launch, I jumped into the boat with seven other men, including the chief engineer.
Saved by Condenser Discharge.
"When the boat was in the water and held in position by the painter we were 3 to 4 feet from the ship's side. Around us, with-in a short distan-ce, were the flames of crude oil burning on the surface of the sea.
"What saved us was the strong discharge from the condenser pump. The outlet happened to be just ahead of the life-boat. The force of the stream of water, combined with the motion of the ship, pushed the burning oil away to a few yards outboard of the boat.
"I unhooked the falls and cut the painter. At that time, the broken-off bow of the Allan Jackson was listing to port and the main part of the ves-sel was listing to starboard, over our lifeboat. After cutting the painter, I found that in the excitement no one had unlashed the oars. By the time I cut the lashings and the oars were manned, the boat was being sucked toward the pro-peller. The propeller blades hit the boat a numb-er of times before we succeeded in clearing it by shoving with oars against the ship.
Another Lucky Break
"Again we were saved from the surrounding fire because by that time we we re in the backwash of the propeller, which made a clear lane through the flames. Not a man in that boat would have lived except for two elements of luck-the condenser dis-charge and the propeller's backwash. We rowed aft until clear of danger from the fire.
"Our luck held in other respects. The sea was comparatively calm, with a moderate northeasterly wind. We were in the Gulf Stream and it was an exceptionally mild night. The air temperature was about 40 degrees, not dangerously coldeven though we were hardly well clothed, having been below where the portholes were screened for blackouts andthere was little circu-lation of air. The men who jumped overboard and survived were also lucky to be in the Gulf Stream,as the water temperature was about 65 degrees.
"We did all we could to find survivors. In the darkness we heard several calls and about 15 minutes after leaving the ship we picked up the ra-dio operator, Stephen Verbonich.
"Then we sawa white light, low over the sea, which was undoubtedly on a submarine. Putting up sails, we steered for shore in a westerly di-rection.
"About two and a half hours after being torpedoed, we sighted a bluish searchlight east of us. I started using my flashlight as a signal, turning it on the sail and beginning a message in Morse code, but some of my companions objected because we did not know the identity of the vessel. 'It might be an enemy submarine,' they said, so I stopped signaling.
None of us knew until later how important the brief use of the flashlight had been, for the glow turned on and off the sail had by chance been picked up by an American naval vessel.
Cautious Destroyer.
"Shortly before daylight, we could see the silhouette of a destroyer's superstructure (USS Roe) and we sent up two distress signal flares. They were acknowledged by blinker signals asking questions, to which I replied by again signaling with my flashlight on the sail:
" 'Give the name of your ship.' "Allan Jackson".
" 'Name three of the men in your boat.'
" 'Chief Engineer Thomas B. Hutchins, Radio Operator Stephen Verbonich, Boatswain Rolf Clausen.' "We did not know that the destroyer had picked up Voronsoff, Rand, and Larson, who verified the names I signaled.
"The commanding ollicer of the Roe was still wary because of hard experience. Before the United States entered the war, he was an observer on British escort vessels and had survived the sinking of two of them by German submarineslying in wait near the lifeboats of shi ps they had sunk.
"In reply to my answers we got a blinker signal meaning 'Wait'. Then the Roe started circling us, drawing gradually nearer until she stopped and picked us up.
Picked Up Living and Dead.
"After that the destroyer picked up a body and then succeeded in rescuing Captain Kretchmer. Finally, three more bodies were found. The Roe searched for about six hours until further effort seemed useless.
"We were landed on January 18, about 9 p.m., at Norfolk, Virginia."
To return to Voronsoff's story:
"After swimming for a short time, I found a strongback from one of the lifeboats and held on to it about four hours until picked up by the des-troyer.
"When I was in the water I saw the radio operator, Stephen Verbonich; he was swimming in a direction away from me and was picked up by the men in the lifeboat. Francis M. Bacon, junior third mate, joined me some time afterward and clung to the same piece of wreckage I was using. Second Mate Rand, who had also found some wreckage, joined Bacon and me Mr. Bacon started to get cramps and lashed himself to one end of the strongback. About two hours later he died." The joint re-port of Captain Kretchmer, Third Mate Voronsoff, and Chief Engineer Hutchins stated that the four bodies recovered were identified as those of Third Assistant Engineer Walter Hoerle, Ordinary Seaman Hamon Brown, Fireman Domingo Pineiro, and Wiper Carl Z. Webb.
The five seriously injured survivors of the Allan Jackson were Captain Kretchmer, Chief Engineer Hutchins, Third Mate Vo-ronsoff, Boatswain Clausen, and Able Seaman Larson.
"That This Nation Might Live".
An editorial with the title "That This Nation Might Live," published in the Jersey Standard Tanker Officers Association Review for February-March, 1942, is here reproduced as part of the war history of the Allan Jackson. It referred to three Esso tank-ers destroyed by enemy action, but is quoted in part in this chapter because the Allan Jackson was the first of the three ships lost:
"The Jackson, the Steed, and the Resor - twentyone officers killed or missing. These stark figures teIl a story of heroism and devotion that words can never express or portray.
"Victims of a relentless and unremitting submarine campaign in the waters of the North Atlantic, who can point to any whose sacrifice has been greater in order that this nation might triumph over its foes?
"No stripes or bars, to show that war was their profession. It was not. Yet war came to them in its most tragic form as they followed their chosen work -the sea ...
"We who have sailed with these officers, we who knew them ashore, know that in their passing we have lost some of our closest friends, and our hearts are heavy with that 10ss. Yet we are cheered, and we know their loved ones are comforted, in the knowledge that they have left behind a memory that will ripen into a hallowed tradition."
Captain Felix W. Kretchmer entered the Company's service as a third mate on January 6, 1923, and was promoted to mast-er on August 6, 1933. He was assigned to the Allan Jackson on November 29, 1941.
Chief Engineer Thomas B. Hutchins joined the Company as a second assistant engineer on January 26, 1921, and was pro-moted to chief engineer on April 7, 1923. He was assigned to the Allan Jackson on November 7, 1941.
The Liberty ship Carl Zachary Webb, named in honor of Wiper Carl Z. Webb, who lost his life on the Allan Jacksonwas spon-sored by his mother, Mrs. Robert C. Webb, of Baton Rouge, La., when the vessel was launched at the DeltaShipbuilding Company's yard, New Orleans, on December 29, 1944.
First Assistant Engineer William W. Freshwater, Jr., lost on the Allan Jackson, was a member of the Executive Committee and Treasurer of the Jersey Standard Tanker Officers Association. He had just returned from his vacation, spent in Baton Rouge with his wife and three-months' old son, when he reported for duty at Bayonne on December 30, 1941. As he had requested by letter that he would like to return to the Jackson, he was assigned to the vessel and left New York the next day for Norfolk, Va., where he joined the ship on January 1, 1942. Two days later she sailed for Cartagena.
Four members of the crew of the Allan Jackson on J anuary 18, 1942, including one of her officers, were on other torpedoed ships before or after the Jackson was lost:
Third Mate Boris A. V oronsoff later survived the sinking of the Esso Houston on May 12, 1942; Steward Benjamin M. Olsen, lost on the Al-lan Jackson, had survived the sinking of the I.C. White on September 27, 1941; Pumpman Jeremiah J. Donovan was a survivor of the Hein-rich v. Riedemann, sunk on April 16, 1942; and Able Seaman Ross F. Terrell survived the torpedoing of the Paul H. Harwood, July 7, 1942.
Lost on the "Allan Jackson"- January 18, 1942.
Survivors ot the "Allan Jackson";
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