Auke Visser´s Esso UK Tanker's site | home
TORPEDOED WITHOUT WARNING
SS T. J. Williams
The T. J. Williams was sunk as the result of a submarine attack in the North Atlantic in the vicinity of Iceland, on September 19, 1941, with the loss of 17 of the 39 men aboard; she was en route from Baltimore to the United Kingdom with a cargo of aviation and motor gasoline's.
When the war broke out in Europe the T. J. Williams, sailing under the American flag, was returning to the United States after delivering a cargo of gas oil at London; she arrived in Baytown on September 10 and during the rest of 1939 carried six cargoes of heating oil from Gulf area refineries to New York.
In 1940, the tanker delivered eleven cargoes of gasoline and heating oil, also from the Gulf, to Atlantic Coast ports ranging from Miami to Boston, and two cargoes from the Caribbean to the United States. After discharging at New York, the T. J. Williams was sold on August 9 to the Panama Transport Company and raised the Panamanian flag. Due to the excess of tanker tonnage over the demand for cargo carrying capacity, she was laid up in the Patuxent River until the latter part of October.
Flying the same flag but manned by an American crew, the T. J. Williams left Baltimore on October 24 for Baytown, lifted a cargo of gasoline and kerosene for Fort-de-France, Martinique, and Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, and then passed through the Panama Canal to engage in the South American west coast service. From Talarathe T. J. Williams made eight voyages to various ports along the coast from December, 1940, to the end of June,1941, and returned to Aruba July 3 of that year. Thereafter she carried two cargoes of motor gasoline from Aruba,one to New York and one to Halifax.
Delivered Thirty Cargoes.
The cargoes delivered by the T. J. Williams from the start of the war until this unloading at Halifax were as follows:
After the T. J. Williams discharged her cargo at Halifax on August 13, 1941 she was taken over by the U. S. Maritime Commission and assigned to United Kingdom service. From Halifax the vessel proceeded to the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company's yard for repairs and the installation of degaussing equipment and armament; she was then transferred to British registry.
Seventeen Men Lost.
Manned by a British merchant crew of 36 officers and men in command of Captain R. T. C. Wright, with Chief Engineer J. Hutcheon in charge of her engineroom, and a gun crew of three men, the T. J. Williams loaded 87,984 barrels of aviation and motor gasoline's at Baltimore and sailed on September 2 for the United Kingdom, with a stop-over at Sydney, Nova Scotia, to join a convoy which left there on the 11 th. Eight days later she was torpedoed - 17 men killed - 88,000 barrels of precious gasoline lost-a 12,-000 ton tanker gone to the bottom of the sea.
Captain Wright described the sinking of his vessel in the following report:
"At 11:45 p.m. (G. M. T.) on the 19th, I was on the bridge with Third Mate P. A. Sutherland and the men of his watch. The weather was fine and clear with moderate northwesterly wind, moderate southwesterly swell, and visibility good but dark. At this time I saw the white trace of a torpedo rapidly approaching the starboard side of the tanker, followed by a violent explosion on that side in way of the engineroom.
"The T. J. Williams immediately commenced to settle by the stern and appeared to be sinking quickly, where-upon the lifeboats were ordered to be made ready with a view to abandoning ship. She continued to settle down by the stern and at 0:15 on the 20th she was abandoned.
"Of the 36 crew members and 3 gunners, 22 were saved, but as the result of the explosion seventeen men were lost. Eight of us in No. 2 lifeboat were rescued by one of His Majesty's corvettes and subsequently fourteen other men, who were in No. 4 boat, were taken on board by the same vessel.
"The corvette cruised around in the vicinity of the T. J. Williams until 4 a.m. when, pursuant to orders, she pro-ceeded on course. The last I saw of the tanker was when she had settled down by the stern and her main deck was awash to the mainmast.
"I was landed with the other rescued members of the crew at Reykjavik, Iceland, on September 22."
The SS T. J. Williams was built in 1921 by the Oscar Daniels Company, Tampa, Florida.
A single-screw vessel of 12,555 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 27 feet, 7 3/4 inches, the tanker had an overall length of 481 feet, 1 inch, length between perpendiculars 465 feet, 7 inches, a moulded breadth of 60.2 feet, and depth moulded of 36 feet, 3 inches. With a cargo carrying capacity of 88,580 barrels, she had an assigned pumping rate of 4,000 barrels an hour.
Her quadruple expansion engine, supplied with steam by three Scotch boilers, developed 2,800 indicated horsepower and gave the T. J. Williams an average speed, loaded, of 9.9 knots.
During the war period the American masters of the T. J. Williams were Captains Philip H. Johnson, William Mello, Carl Svenson, Harry B. Darling, Felix W. Kretchmer, and Urban A. Haughn.
Her engineroom was in charge of Chief Engineers George B. Calundann, John A. Waite, Leon H. Fessier, Frank Burchalewski, George H. Ulmer, and Ernest A. Larson.
Merchant Crew of the "T. J. Williams" on Her Last Voyage :
|