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FUELING AT SEA
SS Beacon.
After running coastwise from 1939 to 1942 with the exception of a few overseas trips, the Beacon made a number of event-ful voyages and was successful in carrying many cargoes of fuel to fighting fronts in three oceans.
On January 12, 1943 the tanker sailed from New York in her first Atlantic convoy and was called upon to fuel escort vessels at sea. At that time she was commanded by Captain Andrew W. Ray and her engineroom was in charge of Chief Engineer Laurence B. Jones. Captain Ray reported that his men, without standard equipment, improvised a hookup to fuel naval ves-sels under way by means of a derrick. With an ordinary fire hose they then transferred enough bunkers
to enable destroyers to remain with the convoy and provide adequate protection for the entire voyage. A British fueling hose was given to the Beacon to supply escorts on the way back to the United States.
Fueling Instructors
"At Loch Ewe, on February II, 1943," Captain Ray said, "the Beacon was ordered to proceed to Londonderry for the purpose of instructing British and American destroyer personnel in this method of receiving fuel at sea. The main difficulty was to get the hose across from ship to ship with heavy seas running. The destroyer had to come alongside while even in moderate weather fueling a destroyer at sea is a tricky piece of work, calling for skill and vigilance. Note hawser and fuel line maintain-ing speed; the vessels were from 10 to 50 feet a part and the hose was from 20 to 100 feet in length.
"'When the sea was very rough we transferred the fuel over the stern. The hose was about 4 inches in diameter. In this way we fueled a Polish destroyer four times while crossing the Atlantic in convoy on a return trip.
Saw the "H. H. Rogers" Torpedoed
"On February 21, 1943, while sailing from Londonderry to New York, the Beacon was bunkering one of the destroyers while remaining in formation. The ship ahead of us was the Panamanian flag tanker H. H. Rogersy distant about 600 feet. Suddenly the H. H. Rogers was torpedoed. The destroyer we were fueling immediately disengaged the line and dropped, many depth charges in a determined effort to make a kill.
"Another incident occurred while we were in convoy from Milford Haven to New York, in May, 1943. The Beacon's position was directly astern of the Panama Transport tanker H. M. Flagler. When we were northeast of Cape Farewell, Greenland, the ship ahead of the Flagler was torpedoed and after exploding sank in 45 seconds. As the Beacon sheered out of line, destroyers came alongside and hailed, asking me if I had seen the submarine. I informed them that at that moment the U-boat was under my ship! We had tried to ram her, but she submerged too fast for us. Depth charges were dropped which shook the Beacon from stem to stern. We reached New York without further mishap on May 27."
Eight Months Overseas
In 1943 -1944, the Beacon carried out her most extended mission of petroleum supply to distant fighting fronts and strategic bases. Leaving Norfolk, Va., on July 12, 1943, under the command of Captain Bernard May, with her engineroom in charge of Chief Engineer Ferdinand Villamore, the tanker did not return to a United States port until she arrived in New York on March 18, 1944 - having been overseas for more than eight months.
During this time she traveled unharmed across the Atlantic, through the Mediterranean, Suez Canal, Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Indian Ocean. On long voyages she transported five cargoes, consisting mainly of U. S. Navy special fuel, marine Dies-el, and fuel oil. The first of these cargoes, from Norfolk, was discharged at Algiers, Malta, Syracuse and Augusta in Sicily, and Aden. The second, loaded at Abadan in the Persian Gulf, went to Bandar Abbas, Persia, and Bombay, India. The other three, also from Abadan, were delivered respectively at Durban, Aden, and Augusta.
By the time the Beacon came home across the Atlantic and arrived in New York, she had steamed 36,361 nautical miles and delivered 447,963 barrels, or 18,814,446 gallons, of vital war supplies.
While the Beacon was on these voyages, history was being made in World War II and the Esso tanker was one of the ships that played a definite part.
In April of 1944 the Beacon resumed coastwise runs from Texas and the Caribbean to United States east coast ports and re-mained in this service until October 6, 1944. On October 9 she left Baltimore for Aruba; on November 15 she was sent through the Panama Canal for duty on the west coast and at the termination of hostilities with Japan she was making passa-ge from Balboa to Pearl Harbor.
The wartime transportation was in summary as follows :
The SS Beacon (ex Agwistone) was built in 1921 by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company at Newport News, Va. Her sisterships were the Charles Pratt; H. H. Rogers; F. Q. Barstow; and Wm. G. Warden.
A twin-screw vessel of 16,130 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 28 feet, 7 inches, the Beacon has an overall length of 516 feet, 6 inches, a length between perpendiculars of 500 feet, a moulded breadth of 68 feet, and a depth moulded of 38 feet, 3 1/2 inches. With a cargo carrying capacity of 119,390 barrels, she has an assigned pumping ra-te of 3,500 barrels an hour.
Her triple expansion engines, with steam supplied by three Scotch boilers, develop 3,000 indicated horsepower and give her a classification certified speed of 9.5 knots.
The masters of the Beacon in the war years were Captains James S. Poche, Charles M. Crowell, Carden Dwyer, Herman G. Schmidt, Charles Warner, Gunnar Gjertsen, August Bosch, Maurice W. Carter, Andrew W. Ray, Bernard May, and Olaf Andersen.
During the same period the Beacon's engineroom was in charge of Chief Engineers William H. Ahrens, John A. Waite,
Laurence B. Jones, Aksel E. Lundin, William O. Wilkinson, Frank J. Balling, Ferdinand Villamore, Charles E. Swedburg, Ole E. Unhjem, and Edward A. Snyder. Chief Engineer Wilkinson was in charge of her engineroom at the end of the war.
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