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MS Prometheus.
By force of circumstances, the motor tanker Prometheus was the last of the German manned vessels of the Panama Transport Company fleet whose crews were taken oft and replaced by Americans - or, in some cases, by British, Danish, or Norwegian personnel. The procedure of changing crews was simple enough when, as in many instances, the German-manned ships arrived in American ports before the outbreak of war on September 3, 1939; but a number of crew replacements had to be made, not without difficulty, on vessels held in foreign ports. By August 31, the German crews on sixteen of the twenty-seven ships had been taken off. Twelve of these sixteen vessels were manned by American and four by British crews. In the month of September, nine more German complements were replaced, mostly by Americans. The German crew of the Prometheus was aboard until April 1, 1940, when an American crew took charge at St. Vincent, Cape Verde Islands.
The Prometheus left Aruba on August 7, 1939, with a cargo of 81,186 barrels of Diesel and fuel oils tor St. Vincent, where she arrived on the 29th and started to discharge into lighters. This operation was completed early on September 2.
On the morning of the previous historic day, German air and ground forces had attacked Poland. A general European war, involving Great Britain and France, was imminent, and the prospects that a vessel with a German crew could escape capture on the high seas were slim. Hence the delay in sending sailing orders to the Prometheus.
Cleaned and Painted.
Her crew, under the command of Captain Adolf Mertens - with Chief Engineer Karl Krueger in charge of the vessel's engineroom - took advantage of their enforced internment at St. Vincent. They scrubbed, polished, and painted until their supplies ran out. When the Company's representative, Mr. John H. Patterson (now Senior Assistant Manager of the Construction and Repair Division, Marine Department) , reported his first inspection of the Prometheus at St. Vincent, he said in a letter to the Company:
"I found the ship in very good condition and all the crew members busily working. They have cleaned and painted as far as the paint lasted."
Mr. Patterson, accompanied by Chief Engineer Thomas J. Bov and First Assistant Engineer Robert D. Wilson, left New York February 10, 1940 aboard the Saturnia and arrived at Lisbon on the 18th. Sailing from Lisbon on the Guine, February 23, they reached St. Vincent on the 29th.
Following an exchange of cables between New York and St. Vincent, the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey tanker Esso Trenton was loaded with all supplies necessary to store the Prometheus for a voyage to Aruba.
The Esso Trenton sailed from New York for St. Vincent on March 16, 1940, in command of Captain Harry Stremmel and with her engineroom in charge of Chief Engineer Johan Larsson. She had on board an American crew for the Prometheus, under Captain Jens G. Olsen.
Under Neutral Colors.
Before Captain Olsen started on his mission, he received special instructions dated March 13: "Prior to your departure from St. Vincent (on the Prometheus) the words 'Republica de Panama' are to be painted on each side of your vessel amidships, in white letters 6 feet high, properly spaced over a section 110 feet long - words about 30 inches apart - between load water-line and rail. A Panama flag, having dimensions of about 8 by 12 feet, also is to be painted at each end of the lettering on both sides of the ship.
"Two Panama flags, painted on canvas, will be supplied to you. One of these flags is to be displayed in a horizontal position over the chartroom amidships and the other in a horizontal position at some suitable location aft.
"The Panama ensign is to be flown at the staff aft continuously, day and night. This flag is to be illuminated by means of a cluster of lights with suitable reflectors during the hours of darkness - except when your vessel is operating in territorial or inland waters, when only your navigation lights are to be displayed."
The Esso Trenton, having stopped for three days at Aruba, arrived at St. Vincent March 30. On April 1 Captain Mertens turned his vessel over to Captain Olsen and on April 3 the Esso Trenton and the Prometheus left St. Vincent.
Both ships were bound for Aruba, but there was no prospect of a race. The Esso Trenton, a National Defense Features tanker placed in service the previous December - later to win fame as the carrier USS Sangamon - was capable of averaging 18 knots. She. therefore had no competition from the Prometheus, a ship 16 years old, whose normal speed at best was 10 knots. In addition, during her sojourn of seven months in tropical waters, the Prometheus had acquired an astonishing growth of barnacles and sea grass that reduced her speed to an average of 6.77 knots with a fair wind and favorable current. Whereas the Esso Trenton arrived at Aruba in six days, on April 9, the Prometheus did not turn up until the 20th. It had taken her seventeen days to go 2,750 nautical miles.
However, it was not entirely because of reduced speed that the passage of the Prometheus from St. Vincent to Aruba consumed seventeen days; she was forced to make a "detour" - a wartime incident reported in The Ships' Bulletin tor July-August, 1940, from which the following paragraphs are quoted:
The "Barnacle Drag".
"About midnight on April 17, the Prometheus was overhauled by a French auxiliary cruiser (the Ipanama), which signaled 'Follow me. Going northwesterly direction.' Always willing to oblige, the officers of the tanker turned in the direction indicated and everything was hunky-dory until the cruiser again signaled, requesting the Prometheus to proceed at 'Full speed', evidently thinking that the tanker was holding back purposely. This was regarded as a huge joke by the Esso men, as the Prometheus - barnacles, sea growth and all - had been going at 'Full speed' all the time. In fact, they hardly dared operate at less than full speed for fear of going backwards because of the tremendous drag of the bottom growths.
"The ship was taken to Fort-de-France, Martinique, arriving April 18. There the French authorities said the Prometheus had been on their suspicious list because of the German crew. After having her papers looked over and satisfying the French that there was an all-American crew on board, the tanker was released, sailing at 2:30 p.m. on April 18 for Aruba.
"She loaded at Aruba and on April 21 set out for New York. Shortly the vessel struck bad weather, with strong winds and a heavy sea, and in a twenty-four hour stretch made only 90 miles at an average speed of 3.75 knots.
It was estimated that the drag of the barnacles and four-foot sea grasses set the vessel back about three miles an hour."
 "Prometheus" in drydock, showing huge barnacles on ship's bottom.
When the Prometheus was placed in dry dock, the sea growths on her hull were so fantastic that photographs were taken for the Company's records.
After steaming 1,792 sea miles in 12 days, 18 hours and 18 minutes at an average speed of 5.85 knots, the Prometheus arrived at New York on May 4 with 80,260 barrels of fuel oil from Aruba. After discharging this first wartime cargo, she was given athorough over-hauling - in dry dock and repair yard - and then began a regular petroleum delivery service which for the rest of 1940 included transporting two cargoes from Aruba to New York and Baltimore and one from Caripito to New York.
Went Around the World.
On July 22, she started from Aruba on a series of voyages which carried her around the world. The first of these cargoes was 84,190 barrels of Diesel and fuel oils for Balboa. At San Pedro, California, the next port of call, she lifted 78,119 barrels of Diesel and fuel oils, part of which was discharged at Manila and the remainder at Hondagua, Philippine Islands. The Prometheus next proceeded to Palembang, Sumatra, to load a part cargo of 55,000 barrels of fuel oil and an additional 31,000 at Tandjong Oeban, near Singapore, all for delivery to Cape Town, South Africa, where she arrived December 2. Sailing again on the 7th, the Prometheus completed her circumnavigation of the globe when her sea passage ended at Aruba on January 4, 1941.
In 1941 the Prometheus made two voyages from Aruba to distant ports, Recife and Freetown; her other ten cargoes that year were transported from Aruba, Caripito, and Curacao to Norfolk, Va., New York, Boston, and New Haven. The cargo from Caripito taken to New York was Diesel oil; all the other cargoes were fuel oil. On the twelve voyages made in 1941 the vessel transported 975,907 barrels.
In 1942 and 1943 the Prometheus carried 1,333,190 barrels of petroleum products on sixteen voyage s- eight each year - all in the Western Hemisphere - one from Caripito to Montevideo, one from New York to Halifax, and fourteen from Gulf and Caribbean refineries to discharge ports in the same areas, as well as United States Atlantic coast ports.
Continuing the same service in 1944, the Prometheus transported 14 cargoes, totaling 1,164,659 barrels of Diesel and fuel oils.
Of the nine voyages completed by the Prometheus in 1945 before V-J Day, eight followed the schedules of preceding war years and one was from Caripito to Rio de Janeiro and Santos. On September 2, V-J Day, she left Providence in ballast, bound for Aruba.
Good Cargo Record.
The wartime transportation record of the Prometheus was in summary as follows:
As related in the beginning of this chapter, an American crew brought the Prometheus back to the United States from St. Vincent, having relieved a German crew. On May 25, 1942, while at Galveston, Texas, the vessel was turned over to the War Shipping Administration; from then until the end of the war she was manned by Danish crews.
The American wartime masters of the Prometheus were Captains Jens G. Olsen, Herbert E. Clothier, Chester C. Ballard, and Garden Dwyer.
Americans in charge of her engineroom were Chief Engineers Thomas J. Bov, Victor C. Gage, Stewart H. Bright, and Carl A. Petersen.
The foreign masters of the Prometheus during World War II were Captains Jacques De Paep and Robert Mycke.
Her engineroom was in charge of Chief Engineers Gijsbrecht Buter, Laurits K. Sorensen, and Charles Laureyssens.
Chief Engineer Buter served on the Penelope when that vessel was lost by enemy action on March 13, 1942.
The MS Prometheus was built in 1923 by Howaldtswerke A. G. at Kiel-Neumuhlen, Germany. She is a sistership of the Vistula and the Phoebus.
A twin-screw vessel of 13,270 deadweight tons capacity on international summer draft of 26 feet, lOi/^ inches, the Prometheus has an overall length of 517 feet, 1^ inches, a length between perpendiculars of 500 feet, a moulded breadth of 64 feet, and a depth moulded of 32 feet. With a cargo carrying capacity of 102,525 barrels, she has an assigned pumping rate of 4,000 barrels an hour.
Her Diesel engines develop 3,100 brake horsepower and give her a classification certified speed of 10.4 knots.
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