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LATIN AMERICA SUPPLIER
MS Svithiod
While most vessels of the Panama Transport Company fleet during World War II were assigned at the direction of the War Shipping Administration to military and Lend-Lease trades, the Svithiod served in a less romantic but equally necessary way supplying our interior hemisphere Unes of defense in the Caribbean and South American zones. From. the middle of 1940 clear through the war, with the exception of a few spot allocations, she was employed in the Latin American trade and from March of 1943 was in the service of the War Petroleum Administration Supply Committee for Latin America.
This consistent employment was noteworthy considering the changes in the handling of tonnage schedules which occurred during 1942. The Svithiod was not a big carrier but she transported a large number of individual cargoes, most of them on hauls that were relatively short compared with transpacific or par pastern voyages.
From the outbreak of the war in Europe until the early part: of 1942, when the War Shipping Administration took over, alloca-tions in the Panama Transport fleet were controlled by the owners as in peace time, subject only to occasional drafts on their available tonnage by the Maritime Commission.
For some time previous to the commencement of hostilitie in Europe, the Svithiod had been assigned to European trade. On September 3, 1939, the tanker, with a German crew, was at Oslo, Norway, where she discharged cargo remaining after par-tial delivery at Bergen. While en route from Baytown to Helsinki, Finland, with a cargo of 70 octane gasoline, the Svithiod had been diverted by her owners to Bergen, Norway, because of the inadvisability of her entering the Baltic Sea under conditions prevailing just before Hitler invaded Poland.
Norwegian Crew Takes Over
While at Oslo, with the cooperation of her owners' Norwegian affiliate, the tanker's German crew was replaced byNorwe-gians on September 6. The Svithiod left Oslo on the 8th, bound to Aruba for orders, but developed engine trouble on the way and was diverted to New York for repairs, arriving on the 27th.
The Svithiod sailed from Baytown on October 27 with one more cargo for European consignees, discharging at the Italian port of Vado in the Gulf of Genoa. Temporary repairs were then effected at Savona, where a Danish crew, obtained through the owners' affiliate in Denmark,, was placed aboard on January 9, 1940. On February 6 the Svithiod arrived at Ponta Del-gada, in the Azores, for bunkers. Delayed there by engine trouble, she departed for a Gulf port on the 22nd, but had to return on March 7.
An American crew under Captain Ernest C. Kelson, with Nils M. Carlsson as chief engineer, was dispatched from New York. This crew took charge of the vessel at Ponta Delgada on March 14.
South American Service
After further temporary repairs in the Azores, the Svithiod sailed on April 21 and arrived at Caripito to load on May 6. She dis-charged her cargo of 68,749 barrels of gas oil at Baton Rouge and underwent repairs at New Orleans before loading aviation base stock at Baton Rouge for Aruba. Following one cargo of naphtha delivered to Aruba from Caripito, the Svithiod proceed-ed to Talara, Peru. Reaching there July 16, 1940, she began a long period of South American service which, with four excep-tions, lasted through 1943.
The four exceptions were spot allocations - two in 1941 to Teneriffe, in the Canary Islands, one to Halifax by the tanker's owners, and one in 1942 to Reykjavik, Iceland, by direction of the War Shipping Administration. Before leaving for Iceland on this voyage, the last crew change was made at New York in August, 1942 - Americans were replaced by Danes.
From the middle of 1940 through 1943 the Svithiod transported eighteen cargoes from Talara to South American west and east coast ports, eight cargoes from Aruba to east coast of South America and Canal Zone ports, and three from Caripito to Aruba. During this period, the Svithiod also carried three cargoes to New York - one each from Caripito, Curacao, and Aruba.
Except for one load of motor gasoline delivered to New York, the Svithiod was in Caribbean servicethroughout 1944 and took 15 cargoes from Aruba and Curacao to Puerto Rican ports alone. In 1944 her cargoes totaled 28.
In 1945, up to V-J Day on September 2, the Svithiod loaded at Aruba and Curacao for discharge at South American and Ca-ribbean ports. From January through August the vessel completed twelve voyages.
The majority of the Svithiod's cargoes were clean and many were "split".
The World War II transportation record of the Svithiod was in summary as follows:
The MS Svithiod, ex S. V. Harkness, was built in 1917 by the Skinner & Eddy Corporation at Seattle, Washington. She is a sistership of the Josiah Macy.
A single-screw vessel of 9,650 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 26 feet, 1 inch, the Svithiod has an overall length of 441 feet, 7 3/4. inches, a length between perpendiculars of 426 feet, a moulded breadth of 57 feet, and a depth moulded of 31 feet, 6 inches. With a cargo carrying capacity of 75,400 barrels, she has an assigned pumping rate of 2,000 barrels an hour.
Her Diesel engine develops 2,400 brake horsepower and gives her a classification certified speed of 10.1knots.
The American masters of the Svithiod in World War II were Captains Ernest C. Kelson, Robert J. Blair, Herman G. Schmidt, and Chester C. Ballard.
American officers associated with them in charge of the vessel's engineroom were Chief Engineers Nils M. Carlsson, Cecil M. Guthrie, Stewart H. Bright, Walter H. Berg, Bernhard R. F. Olsson, Raymond Prew, Frank A. Pawl, Harry K. Stringer, Vic-tor C. Gage, Reginald R. Woodbury, James E. Borden, Max J. Voss, and Max D. Petersen.
The Danish masters of the Svithiod between August, 1942 and V-J Day were Captains Adolf J. Andersen and Christian H. Jensen.
Associated with them was Chief Engineer Peter B. Mortensen.
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