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S.S. F.D. ASCHE
From a Newport News Shipbuilding publication
S.S. F.D. ASCHE
Hull No: 209
Owner: Standard Oil of NJ
Launched: October 24,1918
Delivered: December 10.1918
Dimensions: 477,75 x 60 x 37.17ft
Gross Tonnage: 8.293
Displacement: 16.850 tons
Machinery: Quadruple Expansion Engines, 3 Boilers
Horsepower/Speed: 2,600/10.5 knots
Fate: Scrapped, 1958
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F.D. ASCHE was the second tanker delivered to the Standard Oil Co. in 1918, and she was sister ship to H.M. FLAGLER and to the eight naval oilers which followed in 1919 and 1920. Her keel was laid on December 10, 1917, and she was launched by the following October. F.D. ASCHE was sponsored by Mrs. F.D. Asche and slipped off Shipway 7 at noon on October 24,1918. The tanker was completed and was delivered to Standard Oil exactly a year after her keel had been laid, and she took up routine coastal service.
Her first three years were uneventful, but in October 1921 she was caught in a hurricane off the Florida coast while in ballast and was driven aground on October 27. She suffered massive bottom damage, but after a heroic salvage effort, she was refloated and was towed to New York and then to Newport News on the cushion of air in her tanks. She entered Dry Dock 3 on January 19, 1922, and provided four months of much needed work in view of the imminent cancellation of naval work at the shipyard.
She stayed in dock until May 12, then was redelivered to her owner, only to be sold to Danish interests and renamed SCANDIA the following September. She stayed with this affiliate of her original owner until 1940, at which time she passed into the Service of the British Ministry of War Transport.
After war service without casualty, she returned to her former owner. SCANDIA served with Det Danske Petroleum until 1951 when she was sold to Cia. Maritima Iguano and, renamed AMADA, was placed under Panamanian flag. She served this owner in European, Mediterranean, and Mideast trade until being sold for scrap in 1959.
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