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RELIEF FOR ASCENSION
S.S. Esso Concord
Official delivery of the tanker Esso Concord took place July 18, 1940, a month after the fall of France and the day before President Roosevelt signed the Two-Ocean Navy Bill. The new tanker, destined to serve as an undamaged unit of American sea power throughout World War II, began her maiden voyage on July 30; sailing from New York to Baytown, she loaded 100,231 barrels of gasoline and heating oil for discharge at Philadelphia. She was commanded by Captain Chester C. Ballard, and Chief Engineer James G. Sikes was in charge of her engineroom.
Missed by Two Torpedoes
The Esso Concord remained in coastwise service for nearly two years, then started a series of voyages to Brazil on May 28, 1942, when she departed from Aruba for Belem, Recife, and Rio de Janeiro. She ^ras time chartered to the War Shipping Administration at Galveston on April 20, 1942.
A terse Navy report recorded a close escape from disaster experienced by the Esso Concord while at Curacao in August, 1942:
"August 18, 1942—Two torpedoes missed ship in 12-02 N; 68-56 W."
Chief Mate Edwin Smith, in an interview for this history, gave the details of the adventure: "We had loaded high octane gasoline at Bullen Bay, Curacao, and were shifting to Willemstad harbor to join a convoy for Brazil. Just outside the harbor we stopped the engine to pick up a pilot. The ship had not entirely lost way when there was a terrific explosion on the beach. We thought at first that radio-controlled mines were being set off for practice. Actually, it was a torpedo which had been fired at the Esso Concord and had missed. Two minutes later, when the engine had just been started again, a second torpedo missed our stern by 15 feet and exploded on the beach. We were saved by the fact that the ship had never come to a dead stop.
"Planes and surface craft dashed out immediately to hunt down the attacking submarine, but it escaped."
Sunk - According to Axis Report
The U-boat's commander, understandably reluctant to stay around long enough to observe results, seems to have been somewhat over-optimistic in his report; three hours later the German-controlled Paris radio broadcast a claim that a large tanker had been sunk in Willemstad harbor.
On October 18, 1942 Captain William Mello, having flown from New York to Trinidad, took command of the vessel, relieving Captain Abel Solli.
"At this time," Captain Mello said, "the Esso Concord was making the run from Caribbean loading ports to Brazil, carrying aviation gasoline to supply the airfields situated along the Brazilian coast."
On the second trip of the Esso Concord under his command. Captain Mello was the convoy commodore. This convoy was noteworthy as being the last out of Trinidad to have a merchant master as commodore. Thereafter naval officers took over this duty. Captain Mello was also commodore of the first convoy from Trinidad to Recife.
Convoy Hazards
His story of the voyage south illustrates the hazards which threatened shipping in the South Atlantic at that time:
"The twelve ships of convoy TR-1 sailed from Trinidad for Brazil on January 4, 1943. The escort was commanded by the captain of the destroyer USS Jouett, Commander (later Captain) Fondville L. Tedder, USN, whom I found to be an uncommonly fine officer. The escort consisted, in addition to the Jouett, of a corvette and three PCs. One of these, PC 495, was commanded by Lieutenant (later Commander) Charles W. Frey, USNR, now a Jersey employee.
"When we were about four days out of Trinidad we began to get submarine warnings. A patrol plane reported sighting a U-boat which was trailing the convoy. The Jouett went back to search, but failed to locate it.
Lucky "Concord"
"A short time later the escort intercepted a message from this or another submarine behind us to a submarine pack in front, giving our position, course, and speed. The Jouett came up alongside the Esso Concord and Commander Tedder and I talked the situation over through megaphones. Our decision was to alter course 45 degrees to starboard and continue in the new direction until we were twenty miles from our old track, then turn 45 degrees to port and continue on a course parallel to our original direction. This maneuver enabled us to avoid the waiting raiders and our voyage was completed without further incident.
"Unfortunately, however, the submarine pack succeeded in intercepting, on January 9, 1943, a convoy which had left Trinidad a day behind us. At least four ships were sunk, among them the Broad Arrow (13,378 deadweight ton Socony-Vacuum Oil Company tanker)."
On this voyage the Esso Concord discharged at Recife and Natal, Brazil. Chief Mate John Kerves, who had relieved Chief Mate Smith, reported:
"At Natal on January 28, 1943, President Roosevelt landed in a clipper on his way home from the historic Casablanca conference and passed us about half a ship's length away."
In April, 1943 the Esso Concord visited Ascension Island, under emergency sailing orders to relieve an acute shortage of gasoline. The famous 34 square miles of volcanic ash, a British possession, lies midway between Brazil and Africa in the "straits" of the South Atlantic. Ascension was improved by U. S. Army engineers and used to great advantage as an air base. Navy patrol bombers, flying from Ascension east and west, kept- the Atlantic narrows under constant observation, protected shipping, and assisted in tracking down submarines, many of which were sunk in that area.
Emergency Trip to Ascension
The Esso Concord's voyage to Ascension was described by Captain Mello and First Assistant Engineer Carl Vance in interviews for this history. As Mr. Vance said:
"We had loaded at San Juan, Puerto Rico (February 24-27, 1943), nine hundred 600-pound depth charges. At Aruba the depth charges were unloaded before our cargo of aviation and motor gasoline was pumped aboard. We proceeded to Trini-dad and joined a convoy of about twelve ships, guarded by two escorts, with which we sailed to Recife, arriving March 28.
"At Recife we were informed that the aviation gasoline we carried was urgently needed at Ascension, and we must leave at once. Accordingly we sailed the day after our arrival, interrupting the discharge of that part of our cargo assigned to Recife. Accompanying us was a Liberty ship carrying provisions which were as badly needed at Ascension as our gasoline."
Captain Mello said, "I had been asked what escort I wanted. Naturally I requested the Joziett, which was at Recife, with Commander Tedder in command.
Beating an Enemy Boast
The Jouett and the cruiser USS Milwaukee were assigned to us. The fact that two warships were sent to guard only two merchant vessels shows the importance the Navy authorities attached to our cargoes, as well as the extreme danger of the run to Ascension."
To return to First Assistant Engineer Vance's story:
"We arrived at the island on April 4, 1943. The day before the Germans had broadcast a boast that no supply vessel would be allowed to get to Ascension. The approaches were guarded day and night by patrol planes, however, and no attack was made on our convoy.
"There was just one day's supply of aviation gasoline on hand when we arrived; the Liberty ship's cargo of provisions rescued the island's garrison from a diet of sea food on which they had subsisted for three weeks."
The Esso Concord made her first Atlantic crossing when she sailed on June 7, 1943 from New York for Liverpool with 97,008 barrels of gasoline. Thereafter she remained in transatlantic and Mediterranean service almost exclusively until two months before V-J Day. She visited Liverpool, Belfast, Avonmouth, and Swansea, in the United Kingdom; Bizerte, Oran, Bone, Casablanca, and Ferryville, North Africa; Naples, Bari, and Ancona, Italy; Augusta, Sicily; Alexandria, Egypt; Haifa, Palestine; Valletta, Malta; Antwerp, Belgium; Port de Bouc, France; and Con-stanza, Rumanian port on the Black Sea.
Chief Mate Christian A. Hansen described an enemy air attack which took place on August 1, 1944 when the Esso Concord, with a cargo of aviation gasoline from New York, was a few hours out of Bone, Algeria:
"We were in a convoy of about 70 ships, with 12 American escorts, mostly destroyers, a British light cruiser, and two British submarines. We carried smoke bombs and were instructed to lay a smoke screen when warned of approaching planes.
Convoy Attack
"The attack began at 1 a.m. and lasted three hours. None of the vessels in the convoy was hit, but there were many near misses. The Esso Concord felt as if she were being raised from the sea and shaken. Anti-aircraft fire from our escorts downed six or eight planes.
"In the smoke and darkness we could see nothing of the attack but some rocket fire. Part of the time Captain Karl S. Johansen stood right next to me on the bridge but, with our faces blackened by the dense smoke, we were invisible to each other."
First Assistant Engineer Vance was back on the Esso Concord when, in March, 1945, she loaded at Constanza, Rumania. Before the German occupation, Constanza was an important shipping point for oil from the Rumanian fields.
"Crete was still held by the Germans," Mr. Vance said, "and we were ordered to wait for darkness before sailing past the island. (It was not until ten days after the unconditional surrender of Germany, announced on V-E Day, May 8, that Crete was completely occupied by Allied forces. The island was restored to Greece on May 18, 1945.)
"We were the first American flag ship to enter the Black Sea after the Russians cleared the area of Germans."
In fuly, 1945 the Esso Concord, having returned to the Western Hemisphere, loaded at Caripito for Montevideo. She was back at Caripito for a second cargo when V-J Day, September 2, 1945, arrived.
The wartime transportation record of the Esso Concord was in summary as follows:
The SS Esso Concord was built in 1940 by the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company at Kearny, N. J. Her sisterships were the Esso Bayonne, Esso Bay-way, Esso Montpelier, Esso Boston (lost April 12, 1942), and the Esso Houston (lost May 12, 1942).
A single-screw vessel of 13,080 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 28 feet, 1/2 inch, the Esso Concord has an overall 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 Concord in the war years were Captains Lester S. McKenzie, Chester C. Ballard, Ivar Boklund, Maurice W. Carter, Frank Pharr, Abel Solli, William Mello, Gunnar Gjertsen, Karl S. Johansen, Eric R. Blomquist, and Ole A. Faran.
In charge of her engineroom during the same period were Chief Engineers James G. Sikes, Charles J. Fox, William Schwindt, Emoor S. Bordelon, and Ernest J. Palmer.
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