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TORPEDOED TANKER AVENGED
SS Wm. Rockefeller
On may 19, 1942, af ter an unescorted voyage from Curacao to Cape Town, South Africa, with 140,389 barrels of fuel oil, the huge tanker Wm. Rockefeller was on her way to Guiria, Venezuela, tor another large cargo.
Also on "May 19, 1942" - to quote from Depth Charge, a special article in the New York World-Telegram of October 16„ 1945 - "The Nazi submarine U 701 left Brest for the hunting grounds of our coastal waters, with Hatteras her goal." And, as the article stated, it was the U 701 which, off Hatteras, sank the Wm. Rockefeller.
Having delivered her Guiria cargo of crude at Aruba, the Esso ship was loading bonded fuel when, "on June 11," as related in Depth Charge, "the U 701 reached the Atlantic shelf. At 3 p.m. on June 19 (the day the Wm. Rockefeller sailed from Aruba for New York), the trawler USS YP 389 was patrolling the Hatteras mine field when she sighted a huil 'low in the water' and fired tracer bullets to establish the range. The sub (it was the U 707) replied with a shell from her 3-inch gun. One of the trawler's crew was killed and three seriously injured by the shot."
In the ensuing action the YP 389 was set on fire and sunk.
While the Wm. Rockefeller was steaming up the coast toward Hatteras, the U 701 resumed her huntingand on June 27 torpedoed but failed to sink the tanker British Freedom.
On June 28, 1942, about noon, the weather in the vicinity of Cape Hatteras was fine and clear. Under practically ideal conditions for a submerged submarine lying in wait, the commander of the U 701 maneuvered into position and trained his periscope sights on the Wm. Rockefeller. Suddenly there was a blast as the torpedo struck on the port side amid-ships. A clean hit in way of the pumproom, it was the beginning of the end for one of the world's largest tankers. She did not go down immediately but died a lingering death and at about 11:30 p.m., on June 28, 1942, finaly sank-nearly 12 hours af ter she was hit.
A Killer Killed
Not many days later, on July 7, the U 701 met a similar fate. As related in the World-Telegram's story:
"The captain of the sub, his executive officer, and a machinist's mate were on watch. They sighted a plane and started to crash dive, but it was too late.
"The pilot of Army patrol plane 41-23392, out of the base at Cherry Point, N. C., noting the swir.1 of the submerging U-boat, loosed three depth charges in train. Two of them smacked the sub soundly."
Oil bubbles rose to the surface, and that was the end of the Nazi raider. "Of the 17 men who escaped from the sunken U 701, 10 died." The Wm. Rockefeller and öther Allied ships stood avenged.
At the time of her sinking the Wm. Rockefeller had a merchant crew of 44 officers and men and 6 U. S. Navy gunners in charge of her 3-inch stern gun. Allhands were saved.
The SS Wm. Rockefeller was built in 1921 by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Doek Company at Newport News, Va. She was a sistership of the John D. Archbold.
A twin-screw vessel of 22,390 deadweight tons ca-pacity on international summer draf t of 31 f eet, 81/3 inches, the Wm. Rockefeller had an overall length of 572 feet, 6 inches, a length between perpendiculars of 555 feet, a moulded breadth of 75 feet, and a depth moulded of 43 feet, 3 inches. With a cargo carrying capacity of 146,745 barrels, she had an assigned pumping rate of 7,000 barrels an hour.
Her triple expansion engines, supplied with steam by three Scotch boilers, developed 4,100 indicated horsepower and gave her a classification certified speed of 10.3 knots.
From the beginning of the war in Europe until June 28, 1942, the day she was torpedoed, the Wm. Rockefeller made 49 voyages and delivered a total of 7,209,524 barrels, or 302,800,008 gallons, of cargo. She traveled along the coast from September 3, 1939 to March 15, 1942; her cargoes were loaded at Corpus Christi with one exception-146,201 barrels of crude oil, pumped aboard at Baton Rouge on October 11, 1939. Her schedules were maintained during the dark days when the German U-boats were carrying on an intensive and devastating campaign along our east coast.
In March of 1942 the Wm. Rockefeller voyaged in the Caribbean to the island of Curacao, where she took on a cargo of fuel oil tor Cape Town, South Africa. Departure was made on March 30 and after sailing alone for 29 days she arrived at Cape Town on April 28. The vessel discharged her cargo and returned to Guiria on June 2. The round trip was recorded as uneventful. At Guiria she loaded crude oil for Aruba, where she took on fuel oil-her last cargo. It was on the ensuing trip to New York that she met the U 701.
The Wm. Rockefeller left Aruba, N. W. I., at 7 a.m. on June 19, 1942, bound for New York with a cargo of 136,697 barrels of fuel oil. Her master was Captain William R. Stewart and her engine department was in charge of Chief Engineer Edward A. Snyder.
As stated in Captain Stewart's report:
"We proceeded according to routing instructions received from the British naval authorities at Aruba, steering various courses as prescribed. The vessel was all blacked out at night.
"On }une 27 we arrived off Ocracoke Lighthouse at about 3:30 p.m. and were ordered to heave to. Within a short time we were approached by a U. S. Coast Guard patrol boat which instructed us to proceed toward our ultimate destination.
The com-manding officer of the patrol craft came aboard the Wm. Rockefeller and while hè was laying out courses for us we received new orders. Accordingly, the patrol boat escorted us to a designated haven, where we anchored
overnight.
"Early in the morning of June 28 we hove anchor and proceeded for several hours under the escort of the same Coast Guard vessel that had left us the night before. We w^ere then met by another patrol boat which took over as escort. Several planes were observed overhead.
Attacked Near Diamond Shoal
"At 12:16 p.m., while I was in the chart room, a torpedo suddenly struck the tanker without warning on the port side amid-ships in way of the pumproom. I went into the wheelhouse and ordered the general alarm sounded and the engines stopped. The fuel oil valves were closed and the steam smothering lines opened.
"Our position was then 16 miles east northeast of Diamond Shoal Lighted Buoy, Latitude 35° 11' North, Longitude 750 02' West.
"Third Mate Harry C. Sullivan was on the bridge, with Ordinary Seaman Jessie D. McDonald at the wheel. Abie Seaman Vin-cent P. Shine was on lookout in the mainmast head; Abie Seaman John J. Johnson was on lookout in the crow's nest, and Ordinary Seaman Harry Utratil was on lookout atop the wheelhouse. The ünited States Navy gunners were at their stations.
"I went to the lower bridge and walked to the after end of the midship boat deck, but could determine little as to the damage because of the dense smoke and fire. Practically the whole after end of the ship was shut off from view. Later, when we abandoned the Wm. Rockefeller, l could make out the upper part of a huge hole in her side, which appeared so similar to torp-edo damage I had seen that I was sure a ^ torpedo, rather than a mine, had hit the vessel."
Judging from reports of the men aft, the explosion and fire were intense. To quote the statement of Ghief Engineer Snyder:
"When the torpedo struck I was in the starboard alleyway and tried to get to the fuel oil valves on deck on the port side; this I found impossible, owing to smoke, oil, and debris. I went to the engineroom and called out. As there was no response, I proceeded aft and up on the boat deck. Here I stopped the port engine by means of the deck hand control and also closed the starboard engine. Later, with the assistance of First Assistant Engineer John V. F. Brown, I opened the deck steam smoth-ering lines. I then re-turned to the engineroom to make sure all hands were out, after which I went down the Jacob's ladder on the starboard side and climbed aboard the after starboard life raft."
Fire Forced Abandonment
Returning to Captain Stewart's account:
"Third Mate Sullivan was with me on the boat deck. At first I concluded that there was no emergency requiring the abandonment of the ship and was planning to turn the Wm. Rockefeller landward and beach her if necessary. However, when I realized that the fire amidships prevented anyone from passing be-tween the forward and after parts of the vessel, I decided there was no alternative to abandoning the ship.
"About 12:28 p.m. all the boats were lowered; I took a final walk around the lower bridge to make sure that no one remained on board. I was the last to enter No. 2 boat. The vessel had not settled to an appreciable extent and I thought it would still be possible for me to return later, when the fire had subsided, with a view to deciding whether the Wm. Rockefeller could be navigated and beached if necessary. However, about 20 minutes after a Coast Guard patrol boat had picked up the last man, the fire on the vessel increased considerably, extending over at least half of the ship and burning fiercely until we lost sight of her.
"The patrol boat took us to the Ocracoke Coast Guard Station, where we arrived about 5 p.m. and I ascertained from the commanding officer that another Coast Guard vessel, out of Norfolk, was standing by the W m. Rockefeller.
"Some of the men who were smeared with oil, which had got into their eyes, and others with minor cuts and bruises, were treated at the Coast Guard Station."
About 3 a.m., June 29, Captain Stewart learned that the fire on the Wm. Rockefeller had got out of control and that the vessel sank about 11:30 p.m. the previous night.
About 7:30 p.m., June 28, all the crew were taken from Ocracoke Island to Cherry Point, near Morehead City, N. C., and obtained lodgings in the Navy Barracks. Later they were sent to Raleigh, N. C., where they entrained for New York, arriving June 30.
Nine members of the crew of the Wm. Rockefeller received medical treatment at the Ocracoke Coast Guard Station:
Chief Mate Peter V. Olsen, Third Mate Harry C. Sullivan, Abie Seamen Henry Gock, John ]. Johnson, and Vincent P. Shine, Ordinary Seaman Harry Utratil, Oilers Fernando Bahamon and Nathan Stein, and Petty Officers' Messman Harry J. Bennett.
Captain William R. Stewart pined the Company as a second mate on November 4, 1919. He was promoted to chief mate on October 29, 1920 and to master on March 31, 1923. On February 28, 1933, hè became master of the Wm. Rockefeller and was there-after regularly assigned to that vessel until the time of her sinking. He retired on April l, 1945.
After the loss of the Wm. Rockefeller, Captain Henry Coyle, USCG, of the Coast Guard Station on Ocracoke Island, N. C., where the survivors were landed, had this to say of Captain Stewart:
"I cannot speak too highly of the character of the captain of the Wm. Rockefeller and his grief over the loss of his vessel.
Having spent most of my life on ships, I can appreciate his feelings. The vessel was his pride and home."
Chief Engineer Edward A. Snyder entered the Com-pany's service as an oiler on December 24, 1921. He has been a licensed officer since February 14, 1923, and was promoted to chief engineer on June 26, 1934.
One of the crew of the Wm. Rockefeller, on June 28, 1942, Ordinary Seaman Jessie D. McDonald, later survived, as an able seaman, the sinking of the Esso Gettysburg on June 10, 1943.
Between September 3, 1939 and June 28, 1942, the performance record of the Wm. Rockefeller was as follows:
During her wartime voyages the Wm. Rockefeller was under the command of Captains Waker J. Healy and William R. Stewart.
In charge of her engineroom were Chief Engineers Clifford H. Grace, Fred Lewis, Horace L. Wilson, and Edward A. Snyder.
Merchant Crew Survivors of the "Wm. Rockefeller"- June 28, 1942:
U. S. Navy Armed Giiard Survivors of the "Wm. Rockefeller":
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