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RESCUE AT SEA
MS Baltic.
The wartime career of the Panama Transport Company motor tanker Baltic was distinguished by the rescue at sea of the
survivors of the British freighter Henzada, off the Brazilian coast, in 1943.
The Henzada, of Glasgow, a vessel of 7,830 deadweight tons capacity, owned by the British & Burmese Steam Navigation Co., Ltd., and manned by 64 officers and men, was torpedoed at 10 a.m., July 24, 1943, approximately 100 miles off Santos, Brazil.
Penetrating the hull, the torpedo exploded in the fireroom, killing two coal trimmers and breaking the back of the ship, which
buckled in a few minutes, almost broke in two, and sank rapidly. The 62 survivors, none of whom was injured, barely had time to launch the three undamaged lifeboats and pull clear of the dangerous suction as the sea closed in.
As they bent desperately to the oars, they saw their ship literally fold up as it sank. The bow and stern, approaching as the midship section went down, almost came together like the closing of a jack-knife. Survivors said that just before the stricken vessel disappeared, the radio direction finder on the pilot house actually met the top of the smoke stack and could be seen breaking from the impact before descending into the sea.
The German submarine surfaced near the lifeboats and her commander appeared on the conning tower. He looked down at
each boatload of survivors, but asked no questions, and went below. The V-boat submerged and was not seen again.
Soon afterward the captain of the lost freighter gave orders to hoist sails and set a course for the coast of Brazil.
Captain Andrew vVeiler, master of the Baltic, described the rescue:
"'We were en route from Caripito to Montevideo with fuel oil and had separated from our convoy at about 8 p.m. on July 23, 1943, when we were off Rio de Janeiro, to proceed to our destination on our own.
"At 1:45 p.m., July 24, we were about 100 miles off Santos, Brazil. Second Mate Frank A. Gross, who was on watch, called me to report that he had sighted three lifeboats ahead. At a distance of seven miles the red sails were plainly visible.
"Sounding the general alarm and heading the Baltic for the boats, I ordered the officers to instruct the crew to put on their life
belts and keep a sharp lookout for any sign of a submarine or torpedo wake.
"Chief Mate Martinus H. Uding assembled the crew and made ready to receive the survivors. He supervised the rigging of a
Jacob's ladder on each side of the ship and prepared heaving lines to pull the lifeboats alongside.
Sixty-two saved
"We stopped the Baltic at 2:30 p.m. and picked up two of the boats on the starboard side. I maneuvered the tanker so as to pick up the third lifeboat on the port side. We turned two of the boats adrift. An effort was made to hoist one of the boats on board, in view of the added number of people. However, its forward eye pulled loose, leaving it hanging by the after falls. In order to disengage the then useless lifeboat quickly and to save the block and fall, Chief Mate Uding slid down the fall with a heavy line, which he made fast to a thwart. The crew relieved the strain with this line until Mr. Uding unhooked the block, to which he clung as he was hoisted on board.
"Of the 62 survivors, 24 were British and 38 were natives of India. vVith the cooperation of all the ship's men, I arranged to accommodate the British personnel in the officers' and crew's quarters. The Indians, who are accustomed to being quartered together, were put in the 'tween deck space amidships and supplied with mattres~es and blankets. The Baltic's crew members donated clothing, blankets, and other articles to supplement the supplies provided from the ship's stores.
"Steward Douglas Jackson and the men in his department did a masterly job of feeding the survivors. At 3 p.m., the rescued men were given sandwiches, coffee, and tea, and at 5 o'clock they were served the regular tanker's supper, except for the Lascars, whose diet consisted mainly of rice. There were two sittings for each meal. The Baltic's provisions were ample for the feeding of the 62 extra men, although supplies were running low when we reached Montevideo on July 28. We would have been on short rations had the voyage lasted any longer."
As related by Chief Mate Uding in an interview for this history:
"The Henzada's carpenter, W. J. Murphy, had previously survived the sinking of a vessel in a convoy bound from Glasgow to
Halifax, in May, 1942. In the same convoy was the Dean Emery, of which I was chief mate. Murphy said to me, 'My luck seems to be improving. This time I was rescued in a few hours. The last time, after my ship was torpedoed in that convoy, I was in a lifeboat ten days."
The commencement of the war in Europe on September 3, 1939 found the Baltic bound from New York to Aruba in ballast. Arriving at Aruba September 7, she loaded her first wartime cargo, 80,986 barrels of fuel oil, and sailed September 9 for Recife, Brazil. She was commanded by Captain Charles Warner and Chief Engineer Alfonse F. Pawlitzky was in charge of her engines.
Her American crew had replaced Germans on August 25, 1939, and she was manned by Americans for the duration.
The Baltic remained in coastwise and South American service all through the war, except for one voyage each to Freetown and Yokohama in 1940 and two to Pearl Harbor in 1944. She was once more en route to Pearl Harbor when hostilities officially ceased on September 2, 1945. The vessel was time chartered to the United States War Shipping Administration on April 30, 1942.
War Record
The performance record of the Baltic during World War II was in summary as follows:
The MS Baltic was built in 19]9 by Nordseewerke Emden G.m.b.H. at Emden, Germany.
A twin-screw vessel of 13,580 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 26 feet, 1 1/4 inches, the Baltic has an overall length of 525 feet, a length between perpendiculars of 508 feet, 2 1/2 inches, a moulded breadth of 64 feet, and a depth moulded of 32 feet. With a cargo carrying capacity of 101,905 barrels she has an assigned pumping rate of 3,500 barrels an hour.
Her Diesel engines develop 3,200 indicated horsepower and give her a classification certified speed of 10.3 knots.
The wartime masters of the Baltic were Captains Charles Warner, Harold Griffiths, Walter B. McCarthy, Frederick S. Anderson, Andrew W. Ray, Andrew Weiler, and George E. Christiansen.
During the same period her engineroom was in charge of Chief Engineers Alfonse F. Pawlitzky, Harry L. Hovland, Constantine, P. Zannaras, and Harold A. Morris.
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