Auke Visser's International Esso Tankers site | home
S.S. CHARLES PRATT
From a Newport News Shipbuilding publication
S.S. CHARLES PRATT
Hull No: 186
Owner Standard Oil of NJ
Launched: February 12,1916
Delivered: March 18.1916
Dimensions: 516.5 x 68 x 38 ft.
Gross Tonnage: 10,050
Displacement: 21,250 tons
Machinery: Triple Expansion Engines, 3 Boilers, Twin Screw
Horsepower/Speed: 3,000/10.5 knots
Fate: War Loss, 1940
|
CHARLES PRATT was the firts of eight similar tankers delivered to the Standard Oil Co. and two otherr owners between 1916 and 1923. Her contract was signed on January 11,1911, and her keel was laid on the following April 26. The hull construction of CHARLRS PRATT was unusual in that she was built with three longitudinal bulkheads and had two decks. Above her lower deck, coal bunkers were located outboard and her expansion trunks were inboard. Below this deck were summer tanks outboard and main cargo tanks inboard. She was one of the largest tankers of her day, and shipyard naval architect William Gatewood made a special trip to London to obtain approval of her design.
CHARLES PRATT was christened by Miss Mary Caroline Pratt, granddaughter of Mr. Pratt, on February 12,1916. The new twin tanker was delivered and entered Standard's Gulf Coast-East Coast service on March 18 of that year. With Bayonne, NJ. as her hailing port, she served her original owner routinely for the next 25 years.
In 1923 her shelter deck was opened up and her gross tonnage decreased to 8,982 tons. From 1927 to 1935 her owner was known as the Standard Shipping Co., then became Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey. In July 1939 she was sold to the Panama Transport Co., a Standard affiliate, and passed to Panamanian registry.
After repairs at the shipyard in November 1940, she left for what was to be one of her last voyages. She arrived at Aruba and loaded cargo for Sierra Leone in Africa. On December 22 she was struck by a torpedo and was set on fire a day out from her destination. All but two of her crew were able to escape in her lifeboats before a second torpedo hit and, strangely, put out the fire Almost a week passed before her crew was picked up by British steamers, none the worse for their ordeal. CHARLES PRATT, however, went to the bottom, her neutral flag having provided her with little protection against the enemy's torpedoes.
|