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S.S. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER
From a Newport News Shipbuilding publication
S.S. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER
Hull No: 177
Owner: Standard Oil Co.
Launched: August 8,1914
Delivered: September ] 1,1914
Dimensions: 474.5 x 60 x 36.17 ft
Gross Tonnage: 8,374
Displacement: 16,670 tons
Machinery: Quadruple Expansion Engine, 3 Boilers
Horsepower/Speed: 2,800/10.5 knots
Fate: Scrapped, 1954
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The early Standard Oil Co. tankers were named after company executives and JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, named for the company's founder, was no exception. This ship was identical to JOHN D. ARCHBOLD which preceded it and ANTWERPEN which followed, and it was destined to have a long career under several owners and flags.
The contract for JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER was signed on October 2,1913, and her keel was laid on the following December 1. Mrs. A.C. Bedford, wife of the vice president and director of the owning company, christened the tanker on Augus 8, 1914. After completion and delivery to the Standard Oil Co. fleet a month later, JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER entered service between Gulf Coast and East Coast ports.
She stayed with her original owner until October 1924 when she was sold to the Malabar Steamship Co. and was renamed MALABAR. She stayed with this owner until the mid-1930s, then passed to the ownership of the Seminole Steamship Co. in 1937 and to the Grosvenor-Dale Co. in 1941. She operated through the war undamaged and in March 1946 was sold to the China Tanker Co. of Shanghai (later of Kaohsiung) and placed under Chinese flag. Renamed YUNG TSIN, she stayed with this owner, trading mostly between Europe and the Far East, until she was finally scrapped in Formosa in 1954.
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