Document M4JwENZDKLM0rO5KnyOkMb7j7

PUBLISHED BY THE MARINE DEPARTMENT, HUMBLE OIL & REFINING COMPANY Vol. 8, No. 13 July 14, 1966 Esso Miami Enroute to India with Cargo of Wheat As of this date, the good ship Esso Miami should be steaming through the balmy blue Mediter ranean with 25,300 tons (944,533 bushels) of #2 winter wheat in her tanks (or should we say holds?) on our first venture in the grain trade. She was to re fuel at Ceuta, Morrocco (hard by the southern Pillar of Hercu les at the Strait of Gibraltar) but instead will bunker at Port Said. Discharge port is still Bombay or Kandla, due July 27. Preparations for the voyage went very well. The ship's crew did an excellent job of getting the tanks clean and odor-free, a weevil-free certificate was re ceived from the Houston Mer chants Exchange and a National Cargo Bureau inspector certified that the tanks and grain fittings were in good order. Loading at the Public Grain Dock, Houston, started at 0715, June 27 and wras completed at 1120, June 29. It may not seem so to tankermen but this was a fast loading. In fact, the 18,000 tons loaded the first day was a new' record for the dock -- about 2,000 tons better than the previous record. Esso Miami loading wheat at the Public Grain Docks on the Houston Ship Channel, June 28. Rat guards were put on the mooring lines but "they" say few rats try to board ships -- they have it too good on the docks, which are covered with grain drippings. EXX- M O R-006465 t.: < VI jf ,Sa*ui. , m- , t K i& ihS . ." -T T- . >- This IS overall loading, and at times, dusty. (left) There's a little spill in the foreground but it doesn't take the shore gang long to shovel it down the hatch. Triangu lar box is put over or behind a tank washing opening to direct the wheat down the hole. Photos above, right, and bottom of page 1 by AB Bill E. Tyra NJ The grain really pours in. As you might imagine, there are a few differ ences between loading grain and loading oil. In fact, there isn't much similarity except that both cargoes flow in. With grain, longshoremen (or grain handlers) load the ship and it is not a roundthe-clock operation. They start at 7 a.m., stop an hour for lunch and an hour for supper and quit for the day at 10 p.m. About the most important thing the deck men do is to tend lines to keep the ship snug against the dock. The grain spouts don't go very far into the tank tops and a lot of grain ESSO MIAMI CREW Thomas K. Lawton Bernard E. Nelson Cornelis Vender Poel Jack T. Stillman Lawton M. Williams Everett Ballard Paul H,, Bach John J. Walsh Carl W. Thenemann Bill E. Tyra Clyde E. Sargent Glenn E. Miller Robert H. Simpson Walter F. Hartis Edward L. Philphot Albert Garcia Master Ch. Mate 2nd Mate 3rd Mate Ch. Engr. 1st Asst. 2nd Asst. 3rd Asst. Walter J. Siminski Genaro Salazar OS OS Andrew L. Reis MM/2P Durwood J. Hedgepeth Frank R. Ritchie Melvin F. White Oiler Oiler Oiler Angelo M. Rodriguez William Katros Paul D. Rupp FWT FWT FWT Arthur H. G. Penha Eduardo Tavares Idilio F. Gomes Morris G. Acker Leonard Scholato Andres Ortega Walter J. Kochanski Ch. Steward Ch. Cook 2nd Cook MM MM UM UM can spill out on deck in a few moments if the ship surges. Then, there is dust. The ship was covered with it and it meant that the air conditioning could not be used during loading hours and the engineroom ventilators had to be turned away from the wind. There were also flies, thousands of them, but they weren't bothersome. They seemed to like grain that had become wet and slightly fermented, particularly on the dock. Clouds of flies would rise with every step but they'd go right back to their feasting. After the loading was completed it took 3 hours to secure the vessel for sea. This involved closing and tightening all hatch covers, securing Butterworth plates and washing down the ship from the midship house forward. Can't have dust blowing in the pilot's eyes. ESSO FLEET NEWS is published for the seagoing em ployees of the Marine Department. Humble Oil & Refining Co.: Joseph Andreae, General Manager; Sydney Wire, Assistant General Manager. W. E. Gardner, Editor. Contributions and suggestions are invited and should be addressed to The Editor, Esso Fleet News. Humble Oil & Refining Co., P. O. Box 1512, Houston. Texas 77001. 4T EXX- M O R-006466 If the men in the Esso Miami were excited about being the first in the Company to be in a wheat ship, they didn't show it. They seemed to take it all in stride, with good spirit and good humor. Perhaps all that port time and the pros pect of a lot more at the discharge port had something to do with it. And speaking of humor, we thought it inter esting that the name Lawton is common to both the Master and Chief Engineer. Captain Tom thought so too, and he asked the Chief where or how he happened to get that Lawton for his front name. Mr. Williams said it had some connection with Lawton, Oklahoma. The Captain recalled that he believed the town had been named after one of his father's uncles wrho, in reconstruction days, had deemed it expedient to leave his native South Carolina rather suddenly and head for the wilds of the West. Captain Tom, of course, was too much of a gentleman to say so but we seemed to detect a few vibrations to the effect that he was not at all surprised that descendents of that branch of the family should be engineers. However, a check of the records reveals that Chief Engineer Williams is a native and resident of Tennessee. So who is pulling who's leg here? NLRB Voids Fleet Election; New Vote Ordered The National Labor Relations Board in Wash ington, D. C. on July 6 handed down a decision in last year's disputed election in the Esso fleet. The Board declared the election void and ordered another vote to be held. The Board's action was based on the wording of the eligibility provision of the Sea Service Allow ance negotiated by the Company and the Esso Seamen's Association shortly before the election petition was filed by the Teamsters' Union. In the 1965 Government-supervised secret ballot vote, conducted over a period of more than 14 weeks, Esso seamen voted 463 to 201 in favor of the Esso Seamen's Association over the Inter national Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America. (There were 33 votes for no union.) The Teamsters filed objections to the election, claiming a number of alleged irregularities, viola tions of procedure, etc., including the above men tioned Sea Service Allowance language. The Regional Director for the 22nd Region, National Labor Relations Board, found all of the objections to be without merit. He recommended that the Teamsters' protests be dismissed entirely and that the ESA be certified as the bargaining agent for Esso seamen. The New Jersey local of the Teamsters' Union appealed this decision to the NLRB in Washing ton. A three-man panel of the Washington body overruled the Regional Director. They held that the wnrding of the Sea Service Allowance clause interfered with employees' exercise of a free choice concerning their bargaining agent. The panel therefore voided the election results and directed that the 22nd Region conduct a second vote in the fleet. This action by the NLRB does not cancel any one's right to payment of the Sea Service Allow ance. The allowance ($2 per month, beginning at normal retirement age, for each completed year of sea service prior to Jan. 1, 1966) has been and will continue to be paid to unlicensed seamen retiring from the Company. These special payments are in addition to the regular annuity benefits. Esso Scranton Due for Repairs Extensive steel renewals in bulkheads, coffer dams, hull and engineroom and Special Survey machinery repairs are among the principal items to be attended to when the Esso Scranton goes to a shipyard about Aug. 9. The work is estimated to require approx. 45 days. At present the Scranton is enroute from Stock ton, Calif, to Baytown, due about July 15. The outbound voyage, according to Second Mate John D. Hall, was uneventful. "A variety of weather has been experienced," he said, "from ideal to just the opposite; being close to a tropical distur bance, then perfect weather followed by more good weather." Esso Washington Crew Praised By New Haven Visitors A group of New England oil dealers were given the "red carpet treatment" aboard the Esso Wash ington when she docked at the Wyatt, Inc. ter minal. New Haven, Conn, on June 7. The Wyatt company had set up an outdoor tent for refresh ments and entertainment for the visitors. "Prior to our arrival," Radio Officer William Ferreri reported, "formal arrangements had been made for these men to make a tour of our ship. When they came aboard, all departments had men at strategic locations to guide, demonstrate and answer questions. The queries were endless but our answers seemed to satisfy the curiosity of these friendly landlubbers, most of whom were visiting a ship for the first time. "Captain Charles L. Llewellyn, who has had previous experience in such matters, anticipated many of the questions. To facilitate things, he very neatly typed approx. 100 sheets containing a long list of facts about the ship. "The tour lasted about 3 hours and our efforts were not in vain. We were frequently compli mented on our cleanliness; our close, friendly co operation with each other, and for a big job so wrell done by a limited number of men. "As they left," Mr. Ferreri concluded, "we were invited to visit their tent and join the festivi ties. We were greeted with music, plenty of good food and an assortment of refreshments. To top it all, the weather was favorable. It was a beau tiful day and a good time was had by all." Esso Seattle Calls at Houston The Esso Seattle docked in Houston, July 8, after a 21-day, 9,250-mile voyage from Yokosuka. Captain Vincent F. Lucas said they had a fine trip, good weather, and averaged 19.3 knots from Cristobal to Galveston. In general, the Seattle is a happy ship. Chief Steward John J. Fernandes said she is the hap piest ship of his career, and he has been going to sea for 30 years. Mr. Fernandes has been Chief Steward in the Seattle since she joined the Fleet in May 1964. He has more than a year of paid leave accumulated and when he decides to "spend" it, he plans to tour the Far East (Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao) and "all over Portugal and the Cape Verde Islands." The automatic boiler firing has worked quite well considering that this has been a "get ac quainted" period for most of the engineers. When they finish annotating the instruction manual, they'll have it. Captain Harry Bansen, who was Master of the Seattle during her first year in the Fleet, took her out of Houston for Lake Charles to load the balance of her cargo for discharge at Pearl Har bor. If you haven't seen Captain Bansen for a while, you might not recognize him -- he's a big ger man than he used to be. Stopped smoking and gained 25-30 lbs. He looks good and his good nature hasn't changed. * - zs33 TAFFRAIL TALK rz:--jrsa Captain Emil Wigh, who has been in the U. S. Public Health Service Hospital, Staten Island. N. Y. since April, was operated on for ulcers June 24. He was reported to be getting along nicely and had recovered sufficiently to leave the hos pital for his home in Syosset, N. Y. on July 7. *** Chief Steward and Mrs. Lester E. Eckert and son Tom were in Houston July 6 on their J. Paul Bowers, Chief, Interstate Carrier Section of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Dallas, presents the Public Health Service's Special Citation to Joseph Andreae, General Manager of the Marine Department, at a luncheon in the Petroleum Club, Houston, June 24. The special award was granted as a result of each vessel in the Company's ocean and inland waterways fleets earning a Certificate of Sani tation during 1965. Also attending the luncheon to celebrate the award -- received for the 9th consecutive year -- were: J. L. Perrin, Acting Regional Program Director and G. J. Brittain, Jr., Sanitation Specialist, of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and Marine Dept, executives. way home to Florida. They had been on a month long tour of the West, including many of the National Parks, California and Las Vegas. * ** "William J. Williams, Radio Officer in the Esso Houston, sent in a cartoon showing a big game hunter returning from a safari followed by 2 natives with a pole on their shoulders and an oldautomobile gas tank slungbeneath it. The captionreads: "There's a tiger in it." * ** Chief Steward Arthur H. G. Penha's daugh ter Matilda graduated from Eastern Nazarene College, Quincy. Mass, and next fall will attend Columbia University in New York to work on a Master's degree in social work and psychiatry. Mr. Penha's older daughter Virginia, also a col lege graduate, was married April 16 to Mr. Autilio DaCosta, of Brockton. Mass. mmmmmm OBITUARY t----- Hjalmar Petterson. 71. retired Deck Maintenanceman. died July 3. Born in Norway and a resident of Brooklyn. N. Y., he shipped out in 2 Company vessels in 1920 and returned to the Fleet in 1947. From then until his retirement, March 1. 1960. he sailed as AB, Bos'n and DM.