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OIL TO CRISTOBAL
SS Wm. G. Warden
THERE is little ontward drama in the story o[ the wartime career o[ the Esso tanker Wm. G. Warden. Although she sailed in constant danger, this veteran of the seaways (she was 22 years oId in 1939) never sustained a scratch from enemy action. She and the hundreds of other commercial vessels that were never mentioned in dispatches deserve a large share of praise for their indispensable part in supplying the Allied war machines.
With Captain Daniel H. Larsen as her master and Chief Engineer Karl B.Nelson in charge o[ her engineroom the Wm. G. Warden arrived in Boston harbor September 4, 1939, the day after the declaration of war in Europe, with her first wartime cargo, 100,828 barrels of crude oil from Las Piedras. For the next two years the tanker remained in coastwise and Carib-bean service, except for a short period of tie-up in the Patuxent River, July 1 to September 21, 1940. Late in 1941 she began a series of South American trips lasting until the middle of 1942.
She was time chartered to theWar Shipping Administration on April 27, 1942.
In the last three months of 1942 the Wm. G. Warden made her only voyages outside Western Hemisphere waters. On September 11 she sailed from Beaumont, Texas, for Glasgow with 91,352 barrels of Diesel and fuel oils. On November 28 she left Aruba for Glasgow with 103,395 barrels of Diesel. On both trips she put into New York to join convoys.
Also Carried Deck Loads.
A large part o[ the remaineler of the Wm. G. Warden's wartime career as an Esso tanker was spent in transporting cargoes of crude and fuel oils to Cristobal. Deck loads of motor torpedo boats, usually six in number, were frequently carried on these trips to the Canal Zone.
Her Cristobal visits were interspersed with coastwise voyages and for a short time in 1943 the tanker was one of the supply ships which carried general cargo on ballast runs from New York to Aruba.
The Wm. G. Warden's Esso service in World War II ended on March 22, 1944 with her sale by the Standard Oil Company of New Jerseyto the United States Maritime Commission for inclusion in the War Emergency Tankers, Inc. fleet.
Her master at that time, Captain Jack Ostrow, taking a leave of absence from the Company, remained in command of the vessel until relieved by Captain Edwin Smith. The ship's engineroom was in charge of Chief Engineers Stephen Chucalo and Benjamin Z. Kennedy during her operation for War Emergency Tankers, Inc.
The Wrn. G. Warden's transportation record as an Esso tanker during the war years was in summary as follows:
The SS Wm. G. Warden was built in 1917 by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company at Newport News, Virginia. She is a sistership of the F. Q. Barstow and the Beacon, also of the Charles Pratt, lost December 21, 1940, and the H. H. Roger lost February 21, 1943.
A twin-screw vessel of 15,955 deadweight tons capacity an international summer draft of 28 feet, 61/2 inches, the Wm. G. Warden has an overall lengt of 516 feet, 6 inches, a length between perpendiculal of 500 feet, a moulded breadth of 68 feet, and a dept moulded of 38 feet, 3 1/2 inches. With a cargo carrying capacity of 119,390 barrels, she has an assigned pumping rate of 4,000 barrels an hour.
Her triple expansion engines, supplied with steam by three Scotch boilers, develop 3,000 indicated horse power and give her a clas-sification certified speed ( 9.5 knots.
The masters of the Wm. G. Warden during her wartime career as an Esso tanker were Captain Daniel H. Larsen, Robert J. Blair, Robert W. Overbeck, Harry F. Murray, Swen A. Malm, Carden Dwyer and Jack Ostrow.
In charge of her engineroom for the same period were Chief Engineers Karl B. Nelson, Robert W. Gunn, John V. F. Brown, William C. WelIs, John T. Anderson, Alexander J. G. Maitland, and William O. Wilkinson.
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