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CALMNESS IN EMERGENCY
SS Franklin K. Lane
The Franklin K. Lane was one of the many victims of the intensive German submarine campaign that raged in west-ern Atlantic waters during the summer of 1942. Her sinking climaxed a series of four losses of Esso tankers in the Caribbean area over a period of only six days. The M. F. Elliott was sunk on June 3, 1942; the L. J. Drake was last seen on June 4 and was presumed lost; the C. O. Stillman was destroyed on June 5; and the Franklin K. Lane, bound from Caripito to Aruba in convoy, was torpedoed off the Venezuelan coast, on June 8, 1942.
Hitting in way of No. 6 or 7 tank, the torpedo broke the back of the Franklin K. Lane and set her afire amidships. As all communication with the bridge was destroyed, the engineer on watch stopped the engine. Burning oil began to spread on the water and it was imperative to abandon the ship immediately.
Lifeboats Nos. 3 and 4 were launched and all of the crew who were not cut off from the after part of the ship got aboard them.
Others leaped into the sea and some of them reached a life raft.
Four of Ship's Crew Lost.
One of the two escort vessels began a search for survivors. Of the ship's total complement of 41 (35 officers and men of her merchant crew and a U. S. Navy armed guard of 6), 37 men, including the 6 gunners, were rescued.
Four of the Franklin K. Lane's crew, the master, chief mate, radio operator and one able seaman, lost their lives.
The SS Franklin K. Lane was built in 1920 by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Ltd., Union Plant, Alameda Works, Alameda, Calif. She was a sistership of the Allan Jackson (lost January 18, 1942).
A single-screw vessel of 11,010 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 27 feet, 4 inches, the Franklin K. Lane had an overall length of 453 feet, a length between perpendiculars of 435 feet, a moulded breadth of 56 feet, and a depth moulded of 33 feet, 6 inches. With a cargo carrying capacity of 75,289 barrels, she had an assigned pumping rate of 3,500 barrels an hour.
Her triple expansion engine, supplied with steam by three Scotch boilers, developed 2,800 indicated horsepower and gave her a classification certified speed of 10.2 knots.
On September 3, 1939, the Franklin K. Lane was en route from Paulsboro, New Jersey, to Caripito, Venezuela, where she arrived September 6. She sailed for Aruba September 8, with her first wartime cargo, 63,080 barrels of crude oil. Captain Thomas B. Christenson was her master and Chief Engineer Everett Brown was in charge of her engineroom.
The Franklin K. Lane spent nearly her entire wartime career in the unglamorous but extremely dangerous coastwise and Caribbean service. The only exception was the last voyage she completed prior to her sinking, from Aruba to Rio de Janeiro in May, 1942. One of the smaller vessels of the Esso fleet, she was especially useful on short hauls to Florida and Carib-bean ports, particularly to terminals where demand and storage facilities limit reception of single shipments of oil to relatively small quantities. Her unusually trouble-free operation and short trips enabled the Franklin K. Lane, in less than three years, to make 79 voyages, on which she carried over 5 million barrels of oil. Her cargoes consisted of a steady series of crude and fuel oil shipments, interrupted only by the 47,967 barrels of molasses which she loaded at Nuevitas and Manati, Cuba, in April, 1942 and discharged at New Orleans on April 6. She was time chartered to the War Shipping Administration at Miami on April 20 of that year.
The wartime transportation record of the Franklin K. Lane, excluding the molasses cargo, was in summary as follows:
The masters of the Franklin K. Lane in the war years were Captains Thomas B. Christenson, Alexander J. Zafiros, Anthony J. Coumclis, Philipp Wulfken, and Werner E. Loeffler.
In charge of her engineroom during the same period were Chief Engineers Everett Brown, Adam E. Kraft, and Francis R. Zeiler.
The statement of Chief Engineer Francis R. Zeiler gave an account of the sinking:
"The Franklin K. Lane sailed from Caripito, Venezuela, at about noon on June 6, 1942, with a cargo of 72,503 barrels of crude oil for Aruba. Captain Werner E. Loeffler was in command. There were 35 officers and men of the merchant crew and 6 U.S.-Navy gunners. The vessel was armed with a 4-inch stern gun. Proceeding to Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, we anchored there overnight awaiting routing instructions from the British naval authorities.
The Attack.
"Joining a convoy with two escorts, we left Trinidad at noon on June 7. The weather was fair and the sea calm; we had a south-easterly breeze all the way. Our assigned speed was 9 knots and, in accordance with orders, we kept position about 700 feet astern of another vessel.
"We had reached a point northeast of Cape Blanco Light, Venezuela, and about 35 miles off shore when, at 5:45 p.m. on June 8, 1942, a torpedo struck the Franklin K. Lane without warning on the starboard side in way of No. 6 or No. 7 tank.
"Our position was Latitude 11°12' North, Longitude 66°39' West.
"Captain Loeffler was on the bridge with Chief Mate Gustav H. Hoizman and Second Mate Joseph Wagner. Able Seaman Antonio Perez was at the wheel and Ordinary Seaman Russell B. Knight was on lookout on the foc'sle head. The gunners were at their stations.
"I was standing on the starboard forward side of the poop deck talking with Third Mate Willis M. Hayden, Jr., and Storekeeper Bela C. Morgan.
Oil Rained Down.
"When the torpedo exploded, a geyser of oil spouted into the air and much of it rained down on the poop deck. Some of the oil filled my eyes, temporarily blinding me. I entered the passageway and stepped into the galley, where I wiped out my eyes.
About one minute after the explosion all lights went out and smoke filled the passageway. The stern of the Franklin K. Lane lifted upward, leading me to believe she was sinking by the bow.
"I went up to the boat deck and saw that the bow was also pitched up and realized that the torpedo had broken the back of the vessel. The whole amidships section was afire.
"In the meantime, First Assistant Engineer John E. Bongard, who was on watch in the engineroom with Oiler Jack C. Frizsell and Fireman Barney Thompson, finding that all communication with the bridge was disrupted, had stopped the engine.
"On the boat deck, I secured the main engine stops to the fuel pump. I shouted through the skylights for everybody down below to come up. Fire from the oil was spreading rapidly on tlie surface of the water alongside of the ship.
"The men lowered Nos. 3 and 4 boats. I got into No. 3 and we pulled away as fast as we could to avoid the flames. During this time the escorts were dropping a considerable number of depth charges.
"We picked up Ordinary Seaman Knight from the water and then headed our boat into the wind to keep away from the fire.
"The escort picked us up at about 7:30 p.m., June 8.
"The Franklin K. Lane stayed afloat all night and the fire subsided toward morning. The escort destroyer HMS Churchill finally sank the tanker by shellfire at about 9 a.m., June 9, 1942, to eliminate her as a menace to navigation."
The exact fate of the four men who perished on the Franklin K. Lane is not known. It is perhaps significant that three of them, Captain Werner E. Loeffler, Chief Mate Gustav H. Hoizman, and Radio Operator Stone V. Lowry, were either on the bridge or in the near vicinity when the torpedo exploded not far away. There is no record of the whereabouts of the fourth casualty, Able Seaman Edmund J. Lipinsky.
The 31 surviving crew members and 6 gunners were landed by the rescue vessel at Curacao, about 7 p.m., June 9. Three men were hospitalized for burns and injuries, Steward Edward M. Sanchez, Able Seaman Antonio Perez, and Wiper Michael P. McLaughlin.
Captain Werner E. Loeffler entered the Company's service as a third mate on May 14, 1926. He received his promotion to master on August 4, 1938. Chief Engineer Francis R. Zeiler joined the Company as an oiler on September 23, 1932. Less than three months later, December 8, 1932, he received his license and was promoted to third assistant engineer. He was a temporary chief engineer while serving on the Franklin K. Lane. On December 13, 1943, he went on leave of absence to War Emergency Tankers, Inc. He was chief engineer of the tankers Five Forks and Halls of Montezuma.
Three members of the crew of the Franklin K. Lane survived the sinking or war damage of other ships: Third Mate Willis M. Hayden, Jr., was second mate of the Esso Harrisburg, sunk July 6, 1944;
Second Assistant Engineer Paul W. Dye had been an oiler on the Charles Pratt, sunk December 21, 1940; and Storekeeper Bela C. Morgan was on the Esso Manhattan when that vessel was broken in two on March 29, 1943.
Merchant Crew Lost on the "Franklin K. Lane" June 8, 1942;
Merchant Crew Survivors of the "Franklin K. Lane";
U. S. Navy Armed Guard Survivors of the "Franklin K. Lane"
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