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ARUBA CONVERSION JOB
MS F. H. Bedford, Jr.
By may of 1939, the Panama Transport Company tanker F. H. Bedford, Jr., manned by a German crew, had been with-
drawn from European service and assigned to Western Hemisphere trade. On September 3, 1939, when the British
and French declared war, the vessel was proceeding in ballast from Buenos Aires to Aruba. When she arrived there
on September 15, the immediate problem was to replace her German crew.
It was decided to send American officers, together with a steward and cook, from New York, on the Esso New Orleans,
and the rest of the unlicensed crew on the Grace Line SS Santa Paula.
The next complication to arise was refusal by the Netherlands government authorities at Aruba to permit the German
crew who had been relieved to land there without a guarantee from the owners to arrange for their prompt departure.
As a result, the Germans had to be kept on the tanker, while the Americans stayed on shore.
A solution of the difficulty satisfactory to all concerned was finally arrived at when the local representative of the United
States Department of State received authority to issue transit visas to the Germans. On November 22, 1939, they were
all repatriated, via the Grace Line's Santa Rosa to New York and the Italian vessel Vulcania to Lisbon.
Equipped For Aruba Run.
For a month, beginning December 2, 1939, the F. H. Bedford, Jr. was in New York undergoing repairs and alterations.
During this period, refrigerated space suitable for the transportation of fresh meats and provisions to Aruba was instal-
led. Also, sufficient tank space was cleaned, cement washed, and reserved for the transportation of 4,100 tons of fresh
water. In connection with her newly converted water carrying space, the vessel was equipped with a separate pump
and the necessary pipe connections to insure prompt discharge of her fresh water cargo. Finally, gear was installed to
permit the handling of general cargo at New York and Aruba.
When the F. H. Bedford, Jr. left New York on January 3, 1940, her owners had allocated her to continuous service in
the Aruba to New York run, in substitution for the National Defense Features tanker Esso New Orleans (first vessel
so named). On her first Aruba supply voyage the F. H. Bedford, Jr. was in command of Captain James M. Stewart
and her engincroom was in charge of Chief Engineer Alfred C. Sickenberger.
The MS F. H. Bedford, Jr. was built in 1930 by the Furness Shipbuilding Company, Ltd., at Haverton Hill-on-Tees,
England. Her sisterships were the Peter Hurll, J. A. Mowinckel, Heinrich v. Riedemann, and /. H. Senior.
A twin-screw vessel of 17,460 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 30 feet, 3/4 inches, the
F. H. Bedford, Jr. has an overall length of 542 feet, 1 inch, a length between perpendiculars of 520 feet, a moulded
breadth of 70 feet, and a depth moulded of 38 feet, 9 inches. Her cargo carrying capacity is 137,816 barrels and her
assigned pumping rate is 4,000 barrels an hour.
Her Diesel engines give the F. H. Bedford, Jr. 5,300 brake horsepower and a classification certified speed of 12.3
knots.
Aruba, known familiarly to oilmen everywhere, is a pinpoint in the Caribbean Sea. Its facilities, which already had
made it one of the largest petroleum refineries in the world, were expanded to the extent of twenty million dollars
early in the war to make Aruba even bigger and more essential. Besides the F. H. Bedford, Jr., other vessels con-
verted for Aruba service were the Esso Aruba, Esso Bolivar, C. 0. Still-man (lost by enemy action in 1942), J. A.
Mowinckel, and Paul H. Harwood. Also there was the Peter Hurll, though this vessel had no refrigeration space.
In 1942 the only two tankers specially constructed for the Aruba service were put into operation-the Esso New
Orleans and the Esso Raleigh, each the second vessel so named.
Throughout the war the F. H. Bedford, Jr. carried fuel or crude oils in bulk to New York, with the exception of one
part cargo of Stanship Diesel oil. On occasion the tanker also transported crude from Venezuelan and Colombian
ports to Aruba and New York. Along with the rest of the Panama Transport Company fleet, the F. H. Bedford, Jr.
was time chartered to the War Shipping Administration in April, 1942, but she was kept in the same service. How-
ever, after passing to Government control the tanker carried an increasingly large proportion of U. S. Navy fuel oil
and on the return legs of voyages she frequently brought empty Ethyl fluid drums back to New York.
Mixed Cargoes.
A typical list of stores, materials, and provisions for Aruba, running to ten double-spaced manifest pages and tota-
ling 197 different lots, was loaded at New York tor the voyage starting on October 19, 1942. Materials shipped other
than commissary supplies included tools and equipment and lubricating oil in drums. Provisions were groceries,
fresh meats, and produce. The dry cargo for this voyage totaled over 10,000 cases, cartons, crates, and packag-
es. Other general cargo consisted of miscellaneous material forwarded by the Gulf Oil Corporation for transship-
ment to Maracaibo, Venezuela, and 300 drums of motor fuel Anti-Knock Compound for use at the Aruba Refinery.
The World War II transportation record of the F. H. Bedford, Jr. was in summary as follows:
Year
|
Voyages (Cargoes)
|
Barrels
|
1939
|
1
|
102,568
|
1940
|
22
|
2,309,004
|
1941
|
20
|
2,120,053
|
1942
|
10
|
1,074,904
|
1943
|
10
|
1,108,985
|
1944
|
12
|
1,315,487
|
1945
|
11
|
1,185,533
|
Total
|
86
|
9,216,534
|
The wartime masters of the F. H. Bedford Jr. were Captains James M. Stewart, Frederick S. Anderson, Ralph
E. Thomas, Adolv Larson, James W. Fraser, Alfred J. Thorson, Maurice W. Carter, Nils Borgeson, Patrick
J. Reidy, Harry E. Heffelfinger, Eric R. Blomquist, and Harold I. Cook.
In charge of the vessel's engineroom during the war were Chief Engineers Andrew R. Jackson, Alfred C.
Sickenberger, Joseph F. Lafo, Harold A. Morris, Edwin C. Cox, August F. Freimuth, Kenneth N. Bauchens,
Frederick J. Hinniker, Seth T. Miller, and Daniel Kelly.