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PUBLISHED BY THE MARINE DEPARTMENT - EXXON COMPANY. U.S.A. Volume 16, Number 20 October 21, 1974 The modern new towboat, Exxon Brownsville, is now in service in the Baytown Branch. She is designed for push towing two barges that can load 30,000 barrels of petroleum products. 'Exxon Brownsville' Christened; Now In Service At Baytown The towboat Exxon Brownsville, the newest addition to the com pany's inland waterways fleet, was christened on October 9 at the Port of Brownsville (Texas) Turn ing Basin. Mrs. P. W. Edge, Jr., Dallas, wife of the company's Western Marketing Region manager, broke the traditional bottle of cham pagne on the bow of the vessel in the christening ceremony. The vessel is 75 feet long, 26 feet wide, 914 feet deep and has an operating draft of 8 feet. She is powered by two 565 horsepower diesel engines through reverse re duction gears. Prominent features include an engine room monitor ing system; the latest navigation, communication, and fire fighting equipment; sewage and refuse oil holding tanks; and stainless steel propeller shafting, rudder stocks, and propellers for protection in salt water areas. The motor vessel is designed for push towing two barges that can load 30,000 barrels of petroleum products. The two barge tow's ser vice will be from Exxon's Baytown Refinery to various company ter minals on the Intracoastal Canal with its primary discharge point being Brownsville. Two crews are assigned to the Brownsville, working on a rotating basis. One crew consists of Cap tain Bill Bigby, Mate Billy Lovelady, and Deckhands Greg Smith and Steve Harwell. The other crew is made up of Captain Alphe Tra han, Mate Ralph Mathews, and Deckhands Charles Morris and Rick Trevino. With the addition of the Exxon Brownsville, the company's inland waterways fleet numbers 94 units, consisting of 21 boats and barges, with a total capacity of about 1.7 million barrels. Craig E. Reeder Raises License On September 20, Craig E. Reeder, who has been sailing as 3rd Mate and special 2nd Mate in the Exxon Newark, obtained a Chief Mate's license as well as Master of Freight and Towing Ves sels not over 1,000 gross tons. He also is cer tified as a 1st class pilot of San Francisco Bay from the sea buoy to and between the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the BeniciaMartinez Bridge. Mr. Reeder, a Kings Point grad uate, joined the fleet in June, 1970, as 3rd Mate in the Enco Gloucester and made several voy ages in her to Alaska, including one to Valdez early in June, 1971, when the vessel was conducting anchoring tests there. He later sailed in the Lexington, the New ark (where he served as 2nd Mate for a short period), and the Wash ington. He next accepted a tem porary shore assignment in the Marine Department Houston Office, effective January 17, 1973, and returned to the Newark as 3rd Mate on August 16 of that year. Disabling Injury Box Score Total Total For Since September Jan. 1 Oceangoing 0 Inland Waterways 0 11 7 EXX- M O R-006640 1974, he received his Chief Mate's license and a Limited Master en dorsement and served for the first time as Chief Mate in the Exxon Washington, his last vessel before coming ashore in his current as signment, effective September 16. THE REASON FOR THE BIG SMILES on the faces of Steve A. Powell and Captain Keith E. Frutiger is because Steve was just notified of his rerate from Messman to Ordinary Seaman aboard the Exxon Gettys burg, and Captain Frutiger had the happy privilege of announcing it to him. Captain Frutiger com mended Steve for his initiative in preparing for the rating. "He not only studied on his own time, AB upon completing the Marine Department's AB/Lifeboatman training school held in Galveston. but as opportunity afforded, he would get permission from me to Ford On Temporary come to the wheelhouse as an observer and to briefly steer the ship at sea. He asked a lot of questions and showed a genuine desire to learn," Captain Frutiger said. Steve is currently studying for Assignment Ashore Stephen F. Ford, deck officer in the ocean fleet, is now serving in a temporary shore assignment in the Marine Department Houston Office. He is assisting in Opera tion's allocation and dispatch ac AB, and plans to become a Deck tivities. Officer. He is single, lives in Bay Mr. Ford was Regimental Exec town, Texas, and is a graduate utive Officer of the Midshipman of Robert E. Lee High School Corps at Kings there. He plans to use part of his increase in pay to buy his mother a car. "I want to thank Captain Frutiger and others for encour aging me, and especially my good friend Thurbert Joseph who helped guide me along the way," Steve said. Mr. Joseph himself Point from where he graduated with honors on June 1, 1970. He joined the Exxon fleet four days later as 3rd mate in the Exxon Chester received a promotion recently and became 2nd when he advanced from OS to Mate in the Exxon Seattle. In April, Ron Kelly Accepts Shoreside Position Ronald B. Kelly has transferred from the ocean fleet to the Marine Department Houston Headquarters staff as analyst in Engineering & Planning. Mr. Kelly, a 1970 graduate of the State University of New York Maritime Col lege, joined the fleet in June 1970 as 3rd mate in the Exxon New Orleans. He worked in two temporary shore assignments since then, one in the Houston Office as an assistant in cargo layout and the other as transpor tation allocator at Baton Rouge. In his new assignment, he will be participating in the economic evaluation of short range plans to optimize the use of ocean and inland equipment and in long range plans concerning replace ment of old equipment and build ing of new equipment to meet future needs. Service Emblem Awarded Captain Donald E. Graham com pleted 30 years service on July 10. He is shown here during a re cent visit to the Houston Office where O. R. Menton presented him with a clock and service emblem. Page 2 Exxon Fleet News Griffith's Model Piano Is Tribute To Craftsmanship At first, everyone laughed when Archie N. Griffith went down to the basement at his home in Clif ton, New Jersey, to play the piano. He doesn't know one note from the other. But they didn't laugh long as Archie sat there pumping the pedals and one happy tune after another filled the air. This was several years ago after he had purchased an old Reinhard player piano built in 1904. He spent much of his paid leave time overhauling it. It was fascinating to watch the hole-punched paper wind itself from one roll to another, filling the house with music--classical, pop, jazz, etc. And it was satisfy ing to know that he had done a good overhaul job. "It made me feel that I had accomplished something worthwhile and al though I had some difficult times in figuring out how parts should be installed, some of which I had to make, I enjoyed working on the piano," Archie said. Then an idea hit him. Why not build a miniature of the player piano--something that he could do aboard ship. It would be a challenge because every working part had to be especially ma chined or turned out by hand-- such as the small "crankshaft" needed to turn the piano rolls, the rolls themselves--everything including the small 88-key ebony and ivory keyboard. "That was the toughest part because each key was so small," he said. Archie, 2nd assistant engineer, started working on the model about a year ago when he was on the Exxon Washington. He worked from drawings and measurements that he made of his large piano, and also from photos and old books containing pictures of player pianos. He made many of the miniature wheels and other Above: Archie Griffith poses with 70year old player piano that he over hauled recently. At right: This is the nearly completed replica (keyboard to be installed soon), showing some of the inner workings. Note small piano stool and lamp, both of which Mr. Griffith made to scale. parts on his small metal lathe at home. He moved the box of parts from ship to ship and looked fore ward to assembling them during his off-duty hours. He is nearing the completion stage, as shown in the accom panying photo. The model has sliding doors and retractable working foot pedals that will turn the tiny piano rolls. Most working parts are of handcrafted brass and some are so small that they had to be handled under good lighting conditions in order to see them easily. It also took a steady hand (and ship) to put them in place inside the piano, Archie pointed out. As no player piano rolls small enough to fit the model are on the market, Archie is now trying to invent a method for providing music as the pedals are worked by his fingers. "Maybe I'll hook a tape recorder in somehow," he said. In any case, it will be a challenge because the piano is built on a 1/8-inch scale and there's very little room inside the shiny basswood case. He also made a small piano stool about half the size of a spool of thread, the seat of which can be turned up or down. "Everything has to move like the real thing," Archie pointed out. Although friends laughed when Archie went down to the basement to play his piano the first time, all of them now applaud his "musical talents," especially when they see the handiwork and craftsmanship that he is using in building the small replica. October 21, 1974 Page 3 Seventh & Last In Series Son Francisco Branch Covers West Coast The San Francisco Branch, with its headquarters office located near the Exxon Refinery at Be nicia, California, serves the entire West Coast from the California/ Mexico border to as far north as Cook Inlet, Alaska (see map). J. A. Piercy is branch manager and Pa tricia Domingo is secretary. The branch staffs main respon sibility is to arrange for full agency services for company, affiliate, and charter vessels. Last year, agency services were provided for 238 vessels of which 184 were com pany owned. The husbandry of ships in Los Angeles ports is handled by a sub agent under the direction of the San Francisco Branch office, at tending to all governmental docu mentation work and ship's require ments. The branch staff arranges for bunker deliveries from the re finery to ships handled by the agency in the San Francisco area. The staff also initiates and co ordinates the chartering of barges or tankers to lighten foreign crude imports that cannot be scheduled aboard the Exxon Newark. The Exxon Newark, the only company-owned vessel assigned to the San Francisco Branch, made 81 terminal calls in 1973, totaling some 14,640,000 barrels of crude. The crew regularly loads at Long Beach and at two offshore locations, one at a sea berth off Ventura, and the other at a ter minal in Drift River, Cook Inlet. Twelve deliveries were made from Cook Inlet to Benicia from January through September of this year as compared to three deliveries in all of 1973. San Francisco is the only Marine Department branch in which a company vessel loads from offshore locations as a rou EQUITY UNIT IS $6.96 The value of each unit in the equity portfolio as of the last business day in September was $6.96. tine part of the business. Although the Newark was out of service for repairs for 58 days earlier this year, the crew com pleted 31 voyages from January to October, which is a record for the most ports of call during this period of any vessel in the ocean fleet, excluding the asphalt carrying Exxon Chester. Mr. Piercy pointed out that nearly every foreign crude ship calling at Benicia has required some lightering--from 20,000 to 180,000 barrels. "We arrange for the necessary barges and ships to do these jobs and even use the Exxon Newark when she's avail able," he said. The Newark's crew lightered seven ships last year and one so far this year. The staff assists the refinery in scheduling and expediting turn arounds of voyage chartered ships and also assigns pollution control officers to ships calling in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas. The San Francisco Branch Office staff consists of Patricia Domingo, secre tary, and J. A. Piercy, manager. Johnsen Is New 2nd Mate Bruce A. Johnsen is the new 2nd mate in Exxon Sunshine State. He has been working for two other ship ping companies since graduating from Maine Mari time Academy in 1970. He is mar ried and his home port is Biddeford, Maine EXXON FLEET NEWS is published every other Monday for active and retired em ployees of the Marine Department, Exxon Company, U.S.A. (a division of Exxon Cor poration); O. R. Menton, General Manager, GENE LEGLER............................................. Editor Page 4 Exxon Fleet News