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SUPPLYING ALL FRONTS
S.S. Esso Bayway
So far as enemy action was concerned the Esso Bayway came through the war without a scratch on her paintwork, but she was in great danger many times on the sea lanes to all the fighting fronts of global conflict. On many voyages in the Atlantic and Mediterranean the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey tanker discharged cargoes at Casablanca and Algiers, Glasgow and Avonmouth, Rio de Janeiro and Montevideo. Over the vast stretches of the Pacific she carried a cargo to Brisbane, Australia, and thereafter supplied Navy oilers and warships at distant fueling bases, visiting Milne Bay, Cape Sudest, Majuro, and Eniwetok.
The Esso Bayway was an essential unit in the coastwise transportation of oil for the nation's domestic economy and transshipment overseas. She voyaged steadily and unharmed through the worst period of sinkings along the United States Atlantic coast. Her supply services were unusually important, however, from late 1942 straight through the whole tremendous Allied effort until final victory was won on V-J Day.
The pre-Pearl Harbor wartime voyages of the Esso Bayway were uneventful but vital. Summed up, they signified the transportation of more than 5,000,000 barrels of petroleum products.
On the evening of September 3, 1939, when the vessel was commanded by Captain Jens G. Olsen and her engineroom was in charge of Chief Engineer Claude S. Davis, she arrived from Ingleside, Texas, at Wilmington, N. C., with her first wartime cargo - 104,470 barrels of Essolene.
The Bayway ran coastwise for the rest of 1939 and continued to do so in the years 1940 and 1941, with the exception of a short period in 1940 - May 14 to June 13 - when she went from Baytown to San Juan and Ponce, Puerto Rico, and Coco Solo in the Canal Zone, before reloading at Caripito.
U. K. and Mediterranean
Joining her first transatlantic convoy, the Esso Bayway left New York on October 18, 1942, and from that time to October 27, 1943, carried her cargoes either to the United Kingdom or the Mediterranean.
After a short interval in dry dock at Newport News, Va., for overhaul, followed by U. S. inspection, the tanker began a series of long voyages in the Pacific. From November 18, 1943 to November 13, 1944 she helped fuel our fighting fleets and landing craft in the war with Japan.
With this year of supply missions in the Pacific concluded, the Esso Bayway returned to New York on November 13, 1944. Starting out again on December 4, she made six trips to Montevideo; her other ports of call, before the surrender of Japan, were Caripito, Halifax, Aruba, and Las Piedras. She arrived at Boston under peace conditions on September 8, 1945.
On her first voyage to the Mediterranean, the Esso Bayway left New York in convoy on December 12, • 1942. She was commanded by Captain Harry F. Murray and her engineroom was still in charge of Chief Engineer Davis. Her cargo, 71,156 barrels, consisted of Pool gas oil and Admiralty fuel.
The convoy commodore's flagship was the Navy oiler USS Mattaponi. Some distance out of New York the convoy slowed down for assembly and the Esso Bayway took her assigned position, which was 4-5, fifth ship in the fourth column. As reported by Captain Murray, the Panama Transport Company tanker C.J. Barkdull was about No. 7-4 and the Esso Charleston in position 8-5.
"The next day," Captain Murray stated, "we missed the C.J. Barkdull and did not see her during the rest of the voyage.
"The Esso Bayway reached Casablanca with other vessels on December 30. I went ashore in the launch of the Mattaponi, with her captain and also our commodore, who was a commander in the U. S. Navy. The commodore told me that the Barkdull had some trouble and dropped out of sight. She was never heard from again." (The vessel did not arrive at her destination and on January 30, 1943, a communication from the War Shipping Administration reported that the C.J. Barkdull was "long overdue and presumed lost as a result of enemy action".)
Stalked by Submarines
"The convoy," Captain Murray continued, "was trailed by enemy submarines from about mid-Atlantic to Africa. Our safe journey can be credited to the immediate response of the merchantmen to orders given by the commodore and the splendid protection provided by U. S. Navy Task Force No. 33.".
These ships arrived at Casablanca about seven weeks after the invasion of North Africa on November 8 and the subsequent destruction of the French battleship Jean Bart at her moorings in the Casablanca area.
As the campaign in North Africa proceeded, gasoline and Navy fuel were urgently needed. On January 4, 1943 the Esso Bayway sailed from Casablanca in convoy for Algiers, where sea passage ended January 7. With cargo discharged at Algiers she headed westward, reaching Gibraltar January 16. The convoy she joined on the 19th arrived at Guantanamo February 8. Leaving the next day, the Esso Bayway loaded at Curacao and by February 26 was in New York, ready for another voyage to North Africa.
The next convoy took her directly from New York to Oran; on the day of her arrival, March 22, there was an air attack. After returning to New York, via Gibraltar, on April 12, she made two voyages to Glasgow, delivering 176,653 barrels of Admiralty fuel and 80 octane gasoline.
On July 9 the Esso Bayway again sailed for Algiers and Oran.
In an interview for this history. Chief Mate Charles L. Llewellyn told the following story :
"I joined the Esso Bayway," he said, "on April 12, 1943. After two trips to Glasgow, we left New York in convoy on July 9 and on the 31st arrived at Algiers.
Extreme Danger
"The weather was fine and no trouble was encountered at sea. However, while we were in the harbor of Algiers the British tanker Empire Commerce caught fire. Her bow was only 50 feet from our stern. The flames from burning 100 octane gasoline climbed higher than her mainmast. We were loaded with 99,091 barrels of 80 octane and there was extreme danger of fire reaching our vessel.
"As the master, Captain Robert J. Blair, was ashore, I gave orders to close all tank tops and stretch hoses to wet down the decks. While Chief Engineer Davis was getting the engine ready, I took in all the lines,except one forward and one aft. The ship's crew was assisted by' the Navy gunners. Soon afterward. Captain Blair arrived with a pilot and tow boats. We let go the bow and stern lines, steamed out of the harbor, and anchored beyound the breakwater. The next morning we returned to the dock."
After a voyage to Avonmouth, England, the Esso Bayway loaded at Aruba for the Pacific. Captain Blair and Chief Engineer Davis were still assigned to the vessel when she went through the Panama Canal and traveled 7,785 nautical miles to Brisbane, Australia, with 77,428 barrels of special Navy fuel. The long sea passage ended December 31, 1943, about two weeks after U. S. landings oh New Britain. Cargo was discharged at the U. S. Army base in Brisbane, Bretts Wharf. On the homeward trip the Esso Bay-way, departing January 5, 1944, docked at San Nico-las, Aruba, February 6.
Fuel to New Guinea - For the Navy
At Aruba, a cargo of 80,326 barrels of special Navy fuel was pumped aboard for delivery to the U. S. Navy Fleet Base at Cape Sudest, New Guinea. Stopping at Milne Bay on March 16 - the day U. S. troops landed on Manus Island - the Esso Bayway loaded a supply of fresh water, sailed on the 22nd, and by March 25 reached Cape Sudest, where she discharged into the USS Trinity and SS Alcibiades. Five days later our carrier task forces attacked the western Carolines and Palau.
(The USS Trinity was one of the two Navy oilers available to the U. S. Asiatic Fleet when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. In company with the Trinity and the USS Pecos, the Panama Transport Company tanker George G. Henry fueled our Asiatic Fleet at Port Darwin and Fremantle, Australia, during the early months of the war, as related in the chapter on the George G. Henry.)
Transferring cargo to the Alcibiades proved difficult. It was necessary to suspend operations because of heavy ground swells which caused pounding of the two vessels, but within a short time the task was resumed and successfully accom-plished.
Stopping at Milne Bay for naval routing intructions, the Esso Bayway again set her course for Aruba, where she took on 80,235 barrels of special Navy fuel for Pearl Harbor. With her next Aruba cargo, 79,949 barrels of Navy fuel, the vessel arrived at Eniwetok atoll, Marshall Islands, on July 31, to supply the USS Manatee (AO 58) and the USS Sebec (AO 87) .
On the succeeding voyage, at Eniwetok, the Esso Bayway discharged into the USS Atascosa, ex Esso Columbia (second vessel so named) . This task completed, she received orders to proceed to Cartagena, Colombia, for another cargo to add to her fine record.
Home
When the Company ag.ent came aboard at Mamonal Terminal, Cartagena, the crew gave an enthusiastic cheer; he brought the good news that the ship was ordered home to New York. The Esso Bayway's log for November 13, 1944, includes the routine but eloquent line:
"8:47 p.m., anchored Stapleton."
Just one month later, on December 13, after repairs and painting, the Esso Bayway headed southward to Caripito for the first of a series of South American runs, on which she transported cargoes to Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, Aruba, and Las Piedras. A week after V-J Day, on September 9, 1945, she was in Boston with her last war cargo.
The wartime record of the Esso Bayway was in summary as follows:
The SS Esso Bayway was built in 1937 by the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company at Kearny, N. J. Her sisterships were the Esso Bayonne, Esso Boston (lost on April 12, 1942), Esso Houston (lost on May 12, 1942), Esso Montpelier, and Esso Concord.
A single-screw vessel of 13,075 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 28 feet, 1/2 inch, she has an over-all length of 450 feet, a length between perpendiculars of 440 feet, a moulded breadth of 66 feet, 6 inches, and a depth moulded of 34 feet, 6 inches. With a cargo carrying capacity of 105,415 barrels, she has an assigned pumping rate of 6,000 barrels an hour.
Her turbine engine, supplied with steam by two water-tube boilers, develops 3,300 shaft horsepower and gives her a classification certified speed of 12.7 knots.
The masters of the Esso Bayway in the war years were Captains Jens G. Olsen, Robert W. Overbeck, John L. Johnson, William J. Manning, Alexander J. Zafiros, Patrick S. Mahony, Daniel H. Larsen, Charles Warner, Harry F. Murray, Robert J. Blair, and Walter B. McCarthy.
In charge of the vessel's engineroom during the same period were Chief Engineers Claude S. Davis, James L. Yent, Laughton D. Angel, Francis R. Zeiler, and Clarence M. Furlow.
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