Auke Visser's International Esso Tankers site | home
ESCAPE FROM FLAMES
MS Penelope
The Panama Transport Company tanker Penelope, manned by a crew of mixed nationalities, mainly Netherlanders, Norwegians, and Danes, took departure from Caripito on March 10, 1942, with a full cargo of crude oil in her tanks. She stopped at Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, for convoy instructions and her master reported to the Naval Routing Office at that port. He was instructed to heave anchor at 6:45 the next morning and sail with two cargo ships until about fifty miles from Trinidad; then the Penelope was to continue her voyage to Halifax alone.
The tanker proceeded on her own during the night of March 12 and most of the day of March 13 until she was approximately 300 miles from Trinidad and 200 miles from Puerto Rico. Then, on the evening of Friday the 13th, she was hit by three torpedoes, set on fire and sunk.
The Penelope had a merchant crew of 39 officers and men and a U. S. Navy armed guard of 10. One of the Navy gunners went down with the ship. Of the 48 men picked up by a British tanker in the late afternoon of March 14, one was buried at sea and 47 were landed at Aruba on the 16th.
The MS Penelope was built in 1925 by Howaldtswerke A.G. at Kiel-Neumuhlen, Germany. She was a sistership of the Leda.
A twin-screw vessel of 12,915 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 27 feet, 3 inches, the Penelope had an overall length of 489 feet, 1 inch, a length between perpendiculars of 469 feet, 7 inches, a moulded breadth of 63 feet, and a depth moulded of 35 feet, 6 inches. With a cargo carrying capacity of 102,270 barrels, she had an assigned pumping rate of 4,000 barrels an hour.
Her Diesel engines developed 3,000 brake horsepower and gave her a speed of 10.5 knots.
On the day war was declared in Europe, the Penelope was in the port of Baltimore, Md. She had been manned by an American crew since August 31, when her German crew was taken off. Commanded by Captain Ben M. Koerner and with her engineroom in charge of Chief Engineer William H. Sharpe, the vessel left Baltimore on September 4, 1939 and arrived on the 10th at Aruba, where her crew repaired the main engines, took on bunkers, and awaited orders. Sailing on the 17th, the tanker went to Las Piedras and loaded her first wartime cargo, 84,534 barrels of crude oil consigned to Le Havre, France. Before the end of the year she carried two more cargoes, one from Caripito to Aruba and one from Aruba to Iquique, Chile, via the Panama Canal.
The Penelope left Iquique on January 11, 1940 for Talara, Peru, where she lifted 93,864 barrels of crude for Montevideo. She voyaged 4,686 nautical miles around South America and on March 9 reached Caripito. The rest of the year she operated between South American, Caribbean, and Gulf coast ports and east coast ports of Canada and the United States.
Continuing much the same schedules until July 27, 1941, the Penelope departed from Aruba on that day with 82,793 barrels of fuel oil, went through the Panama Canal, and again visited west coast ports of South America. These ports included Taltal, Toco-pilla, Talara, Callao, and Valparaiso. In the last three months of the year she went to the east coast of South America and transported cargoes to Campana, Argentina, and Santos, Brazil.
The transportation record of the Penelope from September 3, 1939 until her last delivered cargo reached New York on January 28, 1942, was in summary as follows:
In her last year, 1942, the Penelope loaded three cargoes. The first, Jusepin crude oil from Caripito, was discharged at Aruba; the second, Venezuelan fuel lifted at Aruba, was taken to New York; the third, loaded at Caripito, was lost with the ship on March 13.
The Penelope sailed from Caripito, Venezuela, on March 10, 1942, bound for Halifax with a cargo of 79,967 barrels of Jusepin and Quiriquire crude oil. She was commanded by Captain Kjeld N. J. Hansen and her engine department was in charge of Chief Engineer Gijsbrecht Buter.
On March 13, 1942, at 7:45 p.m., at Latitude 15°W North, Longitude 64°20' West, the Penelope was struck by a torpedo and burst into flames. Within the next few minutes two more torpedoes were fired at the burning hulk, to hasten her end, and she sank within fifteen minutes after the initial hit.
Story of Torpedoing
Captain Hansen submitted a joint report, signed by Chief Mate Edward Ely, Chief Engineer Gijsbrecht Buter, Third Engineer Cornelius Koker, Fourth Engineer Anthony Van Batenburg, and Able Seamen Aage Andersen and Poul Andersen.
They told the following story:
"We left Newport News in ballast on February 27, after being degaussed and loading ammunition. The ship was armed with a 4-inch stern gun, two 50-caliber machine guns aft, two 50-caliber machine guns on the foc'sle, and two 30-caliber machi-ne guns on the bridge.
"We proceeded according to routing instructions and without incident arrived on March 9 at Caripito, where we loaded a full cargo of 11,499 tons of crude oil.
"On March 10 we left Caripito and called for routing orders at Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, arriving about 7 p.m.
"We left our anchorage on March 12 at 7 a.m., bound for Halifax, with two other ships. We kept in company until approximately fifty miles off Dragon's Mouth and the Penelope then proceeded alone according to orders.
"The weather was moderate, with an easterly wind and sea - Force 4 to 5 - and partly overcast.
"At 7:45 p.m., local time, March 13, a torpedo suddenly struck the Penelope at No. 2 tank, starboard. I was then in my room, on my way to the bridge to change the ship's course.
"Chief Mate Bly was on the bridge, standing on the port side; Ordinary Seaman Finn Moller was at the wheel; Able Seaman Frans De Koning, lookout, had just left the bridge to awaken the relieving watch; and Able Seaman Albert K. Rasmussen was standing lookout on the foc'sle head. One U.S. Navy gunner was in the crow's nest and three other gunners were standing by aft, at their gun stations.
"The explosion threw me to the deck; it blew out the front plates of my quarters and a wave of burning oil rushed in, setting the place afire. The whole front of the midship house was damaged and burning oil was hurled mast-high.
"I rushed up to the bridge, where the chief mate had already pulled the general alarm signal, but it did not work and the wheelhouse was already on fire. I thought of getting the ship's papers that were by the door of the wheelhouse, but they were ablaze.
"Considering the situation, I gave orders to abandon ship and proceeded to my boat station. No. 1. As No. 1 lifeboat was afire, I went to the port boat, No. 2, which Chief Mate Bly, with other members of the crew, was endeavoring to launch, but because of burning oil below, I realized it could not be safely done and ordered all hands to the after boats. When I looked over the port side, I saw the water full of burning oil, which was spreading all around the vessel amidships.
"The engines had been stopped immediately after the explosion, in accordance with my instructions.
"At this time - that is, about four minutes after we had been struck by the first torpedo - another torpedo hit the vessel on the starboard side, amidships.
"Nevertheless, we were able to launch lifeboats No. 3 and No. 4, as well as a raft. I took charge of No. 3 and Chief Mate Bly commanded No. 4, while the gunners used the raft. All hands left the ship except one of the Navy armed guard (AS Stout R. Cheyne, Jr.), who was lookout in the crow's nest, and Able Seaman Rasmussen, who could not be found at that time but was later picked up."
Motor Lifeboat's Service
In another statement by Captain Hansen regarding the lifeboats and safety equipment, he said:
"Two of our boats were fitted with outboard motors, but we could launch only one of these; the other had been destroyed at the time of the torpedoing. The motor boat proved most satisfactory and useful. It was due to this that we were able to save nine men on the raft, which unquestionably would otherwise have been caught in the burning oil. The motor boat also enabled us to go back later to the place where the ship had sunk and pick up one of the men in the water."
To continue Captain Hansen's main report:
"I managed to tow the life raft and in doing so my lifeboat was carried around the stern and over to the port side of the Penelope. Suddenly a very large submarine, painted gray, appeared right in front of our boat and fired a third torpedo at the tanker, hitting her abaft the port quarter; this torpedo caused the ammunition to explode. The whole ship was now ablaze from stem to stern. She lighted up the whole horizon and, we saw her go down, bow first, shortly before 8 p.m., leaving a stream of burning oil behind her.
"When our lifeboat was alongside the submarine, which had maneuvered to give us the lee, I noticed that she had two 4 or 5 inch guns. She was painted light gray and had two distinctive marks on the starboard side of her conning tower; one was a goat and the other a circle around a star. U. S. Navy Coxswain C. O. Peden, who was beside me, recognized the submarine at once as being of a French type; he later even identified her as a 'Renault' from a silhouette book which he secured on board the British vessel that rescued us. I agreed that the picture he picked out obviously corresponded to the unusual type of submarine that had sunk our ship." (The submarine that sank the Esso tanker M. F. Elliott, June 3, 1942, was "decorated with a goat insignia.")
Strange Interview
"An officer on the U-boat addressed me in excellent English; there were several Belgian crew members in my boat and they all agreed that his language had no trace of accent. He questioned me as to the tanker's identity, her armament, and the number of men aboard, but it appeared that he already knew all the answers. For instance, when I replied that we had a crew of fifty, he said 'No, you have thirty-nine men and ten U. S. Navy gunners.' He also knew our tonnage and that we were 'out of Trinidad'.
"He gave us a bucket of distilled water, inquired if we needed medical attention, told us the course and the distance to the nearest land, said that he was sorry, and then left.
"I took the boat back to the place of the sinking to look for any possible survivors and we were fortunate enough to find Able Seaman Rasmussen, who was floating in his lifebelt. He was in the best of spirits when we picked him up.
"We spent the whole night in company with the raft; lifeboat No. 3 was hove to by means of the sea anchor. Early in the morning of March 14 we found No. 4 boat and divided the men on the raft between the two boats. We then set sail toward Puerto Rico, steering northwest by north.
Picked Up by British Tanker
"In the late afternoon we were sighted by the British tanker Iroquois, which rescued us after sunset and gave us all necessary care and assistance. Ordinary Seaman Finn Moller, who had been badly burned, died aboard the Iroquois and was buried at sea March 15.
"On March 16 we were safely landed in Aruba and from there proceeded in small groups to U. S. ports."
The merchant crew survivors of the Penelope were repatriated by a Company representative who sent them home as follows: four men on the F. H. Bedford, Jr., six on the Peter Hurll, ten on the Orville Harden, seven on the Leda, seven on the R. W. Gallagher, and four on the F. Q. Barstow.
Captain Kjeld N. J. Hansen entered the Company's employ as a chief mate on October 1, 1939 and was made master on November 23, 1943. He served in that capacity until he resigned on March 9, 1946.
Chief Engineer Gijsbrecht Buter joined the Company as a chief engineer on April 11, 1940. After the war, on February 12, 1946, he returned to the service of the Standard American Petroleum Company, Antwerp.
The American wartime masters of the Penelope were Captains Ben M. Koerner and Guy A. Campbell. American officers in charge of her engineroom during the same period were Chief Engineers William H. Sharpe, Max J. Voss, Alfonse F. Pawlitzky, Knute Strand, Norman V. Hall and Harold J. Meek.
The Scandinavian and Belgian masters of the Penelope during the war were Captains Wolter Muller, Jacques V. A. De Paep, and Kjeld N. J. Hansen.
Associated with them were Chief Engineers Bronger Brongers, Simon S. Ulrich, Cornell Hurts, and Gijsbrecht Buter.
Merchant Crew Lost on the "Penelope" - March 13, 1942 :
Merchant Crew Survivors of the "Penelope" :
|