Document jBLKEG79Mv8L5G26gJDGLRNOy

COPI/tO FROM THE CCJl.LEfTIONS IN THE Cl THE UNIVERSITY OF TEX PUBLISHED BY THE MARINE DIVISION, HUMBLE OIL & REFINING COMPANY Vol. 4, No. 2 January 25, 1962 Shoreside Services for Seagoing Men--(I) The photograph below shows the Seagoing Personnel Section of the Marine Division in the Americana Building, Houston. This is where your assignment and paid leave schedules originate; where your service records are kept up to date; where your requests for Thrift Fund withdrawals, loans and stock transactions are processed, and where a host of other services and records con cerning the men in our fleet are handled. Assignment and paid leave schedules are made by the four men seated at their desks. Lester J. Heiss keeps a tally on the number of replacements required and the number of employees completing paid leave, determines ports at which crew changes and re-ratings are to be made, estimates vessels' times of arrival and arranges the release of this information to Masters, Agents and the Ships' Payroll Section. Robert A. McMichael, Edward H. Cole and Harvey C. Neilsen set the rotating relief in motion, initiating assignment and paid leave advices. They deal with all ranks and ratings but Bob specializes in Deck Officers (assisting the Port Captain) and Ed looks after Radio Officers, Chief Stewards and Cooks (assisting the Port Cap tain and Port Steward). He also arranges for moving personnel from one port to another to fill manning requirements. Harvey assists the Port Engineer with Engineer Officers and Electricians. As Head of the Section. Paul J. McEwan super vises and, of course, gets the hardest problems and toughest decisions. Lafayette Fisher, Jr., Asst. Sec tion Head, gets the next biggest headaches and occasional special projects. All Thrift Fund activities, Retirement Annuity Plan and Group Insurance authorizations, Health Service applications and service emblem awards come to the desk of Stewart T. Edmonds. Edward B. Maher, William E. Russell and Mrs. Josephine M. Kochis review and check shipboard personnel changes reported by Masters on supple mentary crew lists, verify effective dates, compute paid leave time, issue paid leave and leave of absence letters and post entries on personnel record cards. In addition, Eddie maintains seniority records and is Secretary to the Personnel Relations Committee. Mrs. Carolyn Clute does stenographic work; handles mail, credit cards, passes and a wide vari ety of inquiries. This is not meant to be a catalogue of Sea going Personnel Section activities but it covers the The Seagoing Personnel Section. Seated, I. to r., are: Les Heiss, Bob McMichael, Ed Cole and Harvey Neil- sen. Standing: Paul McEwan, Lafe Fisher, Eddie Maher, Bill Russell, Stu Edmonds, Jo Kochis and Carolyn Clute. EXX-MOR-007859 Ole Olafsson, AB in the Esso Jamestown, taps out a bevel edge on the design for a clutch purse. An old port light makes a fine base to work on. On the desk are some of his leatherworking tools in a container he made and two finished purse covers. Artist in Leather Christian 0. Olafsson, Jr., in addition to being an Able Seaman, is an able leathercraftsman. He makes exquisitely tooled leather wallets,, purses, belts, key cases, rifle cases and other items. Ole usually gets his materials from the Tandy Leather Co., 1312 Dallas Ave., Houston. A kit con tains the insides of a wallet or purse, for example, a piece of cowhide for the exterior and a design printed on transparent plastic. The design is placed over the leather and traced with a stylus. The out line impression is then cut with a sharp blade and background and relief effects formed with shaping tools. He has more than 100 of them. high spots. As you can see, they fall into three main classifications -- manning the vessels and administering the rotating relief and parts of the Company Benefit Program. There's much more to the job than that, how ever. With over 1,600 personalities to deal with -- some wanting early paid leave, some extended assignments and longer leaves, some requiring emergency leaves and many having special prob lems, large and small, the Section has learned to expect the unexpected. And naturally, they can't please everyone all the time. But there is a point here that is perhaps not too well appreciated. The Seagoing Personnel men do try to oblige. They average better than 20 years' service in personnel work and there are few men in the fleet who are not known to them and them associates in the Agency offices. They don't just pull names or numbers out of a hat. They know they are dealing with people and they have a will ingness to cooperate wherever possible. This is not always true in the shipping industry. -fb Sailing in the Esso fleet since Dec. 1955, Ole previously served two years in the Navy (where he learned about leathercraft). Most of the time he was gunner's mate, 2C in the destrojrer John D. Kelly. He spent six months in Iceland and later, as an able seaman in the U. S. Army cable ship Albert J. Myers, saw something of Alaska and Puerto Rico. Ole lives in Lincoln Park, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, which is a good place for his favorite winter sports -- skiing and skating. Esso Washington Makes Two Rescues On Consecutive Voyages Six refugees from Cuba and two persons in a motorboat were rescued by the Esso Washington (Captain Eldridge J. O'Connell and Chief Engineer Aubrey G. Allen) during the second week of Jan. The first instance occurred on the morning of Jan. 7, about six miles northeast of Carysfort Reef. The Washington was enroute from Baltimore to Baytown when a small boat was sighted, appar ently in need of help. Investigating, six men were found aboard, aged 29 to 44. They had left Cuba on Jan. 3 and run out of gasoline and food. The men w-ere taken aboard and their boat in tow at 1048, given food and clothing by the crew' and transferred to a Coast Guard boat 2l/z hours later. The second rescue came at 1840, Jan. 13, about 60 miles east of Vero Beach, Fla., while the Wash ington w'as proceeding from Baytown to Charles ton, via Freeport. The boat was a 25' Chris-Craft in which a middle aged Florida couple had been adrift for three days without food or gasoline. "They were in very weak condition," Captain O'Connell reported, "and we gave them hot coffee and food at once. After a hot shower, and dry clothing provided by the crew, they began to come back to normal." As the boat could not be towed, due to rough seas and a 35 mph. NE wind, the Coast Guard was given her description and position. They later towed her into Lake Worth, Fla. and the Washing ton landed the survivors at Charleston. "In this operation and the rescue on the south bound voyage," Captain O'Connell said, "the whole ship's crew did an excellent job." ESSO FLEET NEWS is published for the seagoing em ployees of the Marine Division. Humble Oil & Refining Co.: J. D. Rogers, General Manager; Joseph Andreae, Assistant General Manager: Sydney Wire, Assistant Gen eral 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 1, Texas. v; U< 1 Sr ic I ___ EXX-MOR-007860 COPIED FROM THE COLLECTIONS IN THE CENTER FOR A^ER iC AiVH ISTO it THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS a t A u s t in -- OBITUARY Fred N. Sigman, annuitant, died Jan. 16 in St. Petersburg. Fla., where he had been living since his retirement. Funeral services were held on the 18th and Mrs. Sigman requested that instead of flowers, donations be made to the Cancer Fund in St. Petersburg. In addition to his wife, Anita Louise, Mr. Sigman is survived by three sons in Asheville, N. C. Mr. Sigman had over 20 years' service in the fleet, starting as AB in the Princeton in March 1936. He became Third Mate in 1938 and sailed throughout the war years as Second Mate, Chief Mate and Master on Atlantic, Caribbean and Pacific voyages. He also served in those capacities for 12 years prior to his retirement on Jan. 1, 1958 at age 57. Anthony Costello, 55, former Pumpman, died Jan. 17 on Staten Island, where he had been a long time resident. He leaves a wife and six children, aged 12 to 31. Mr. Costello had 22Vk years of Company service when he retired in Jan. 1958 because of ill health. He was a Fireman, Oiler, Second Pumpman and Pumpman in the fleet and worked as Pumpman on New York Relieving Crews between 1941 and 1953. He sailed with the Morgan Line for 10 years before joining Esso in Feb. 1933. Walter C. Teagle, 83, retired President and Chair man of Jersey Standard and founder of the Teagle Scholarships, died Jan. 9 at his home in Byram, Conn. Mr. Teagle, then 39, became President of Jersey in 1917 and served in that office for 20 years. He retired as Chairman of the Board in 1942. Automated Ship Development The Maritime Administration estimates that if funds are available, it will have a fully automated, $17 million dry cargo ship on the sea by 1965. A contract for designing the vessel may be awarded this year, according to an article in the New York Journal of Commerce, Jan. 4. Visualized is an automatically operated mer chant ship that can sail outbound without a crew from the point where the pilot is dropped to the point where a pilot boards at the port of destination. Such a ship must be capable of self-sustained, un manned operation for at least 30 days without any maintenance, and for at least 90 days with only minor maintenance. Eight contracts totaling more than $2 million have been awarded or are in final stages of nego tiations by the Maritime Administration, dealing with various phases of the automatic ship. A proto type bridge control console is now under construc tion and a computer is being developed to analyze as many as ten radar plots at one time. The impact of automation on seagoing jobs, the Maritime Administration feels, must be made over an extended period with a thorough sense of responsibility toward labor. Offshore Sports Fisherman Converted from Army Landing Craft Last June, the Fleet News printed a photo of a yacht which Captain Hans Bonte had recently bought. The picture was particularly interesting to William J. Ellers, Jr., Oiler in the Esso Chester, because he has a boat just like it, or rather, of the same hull design -- a 35' former LCPL built for the U. S. Army. For the past eight years Bill has spent his paid leaves converting his LCPL into the smart, off shore sports fisherman shown here at her moorings in Key West, Fla. The latest thing he has done is to build the flying bridge, complete with engine and steering controls and comfortable seats. Bill's Ambergris cruises at 10.5 knots. A Chrys ler M-8 marine engine, equipped with a closed fresh water cooling system, turns a 22" x 20" fivebladed wheel. She sleeps three in the cabin and carries 210 gal. of fuel in two tanks under the self-bailing cockpit deck aft. There is space for six 300-lb. cakes of ice in the fish box and one 300-lb. cake in the food box. Weather permitting, the Ambergris is capable of four days of offshore trolling and bottom fishing in comfort. Now, with better visibility from the flying bridge, Bill is hoping for a sailfish marlin or maybe two. Bill Ellers at the wheel of the offshore sports fisherman Ambergris, which he converted from an Army LCPL. He has sailed as Oiler for the past seven years and first joined the fleet as Fireman in the C. O. Stillman in August, 1939. f? EXX-MOR-007861 COPIED FROM THE COLLECTIONS IN THE CENTER FOR AMERICAN H1STOK THE UNIVERSITY O F T F Y as a t a h s t iw ' ^ TAFFRA1L TALK - Main topic of conversation in these parts re cently was the big freeze. Temperature dropped to 32 at 1600, Jan. 9 and didn't get above that mark until 1030, Jan. 12, a 6614-hour stretch. It was Houston's longest sub-freezing period in 11 years. Home owners were plagued with frozen water pipes and when the thaw came, many had water coming through the ceiling due to leaking pipes in the attic. Water pressure became very low in some sections as thousands of faucets were left open to keep the water moving. Around Galveston, cold-numbed trout, red fish and pompano were to be had for the picking up. There was ice as much as 100' from shore at Texas City. A 60-year krw of 12 in the Rio Grande Valley caused millions of dollars loss to fruit growers. They had grapefruit as hard as rocks. Only reported effect of the cold wave on the fleet was a slow* tank cleaning job on the Esso Bermuda due to low' water pressure at Baton Rouge. This photo of Daniel P. O'Connor, Second Mate in the Esso Boston was printed in the Newport News Ship yard Bulletin last month with a notation that Mr. O'Connor had steered the cruiser St. Louis out of Pearl Harbor after the Japanese attack 20 years ago. Both vessels were built at Newport News. *** Harold Martin, recently Second and Chief Mate in the Esso Huntington, has accepted a one year rotational assignment as an Assistant Port Captain. Mr. Martin will join the Port of New York Office at Bayonne, Jan. 29, and will assist in expediting turnarounds at several New York terminals. You ask Third Mate Bill Falvo (when he comes back from paid leave) if he believes in miracles and he'll say "yes". He arrived home in Pittsburgh on the evening of Dec. 14, had supper with his wife, Ella Louise, took her to the hospital and at 0135 on the 15th, she gave birth to a lovely girl. Just what they wanted. That makes two for the Falvos, as it was a year ago that they had a son. ** * Captain Kenneth Wing (ret. Aug. 1, 1956) moved from Dorchester to Hingham, Mass. (105 Martin's Lane) about two years ago and has been busy keeping the new place in shipshape condition. He grants that things come big in Texas but points out that the largest merchant ship under the U. S. flag, the tanker Manhattan (106,500 dwt.), was built in Quincy, not far from him. RECENT RETIREMENTS * Juan Melendez, who has been sailing as MM/Second Pump man, will take no more orders from Chief Engineers but there's still a "chief mate" to be reckoned wdth -- Corina, his wife. And instead of handling cargo and ballast, John is assist ing with the handling of Linda Sue, 9, Loretta Ann, 7, and John, Jr., 1, their children. The Melendez' have their own home in Bay town but are considering moving to a higher and drier climate, possibly Monterrey, Mexico. Born in Puerto Rico, John was in the engine departments of Porto Rico Line and Luckenbach vessels before he joined Esso. His first assignment was Oiler in the H. H. Rogers in Aug. 1933. In the late '30s and early '40s he frequently sailed as Fireman/Watertender, although he was Second Pumpman for most of his 18-plus years in the fleet. Prior to his retirement Jan. 1, he was in the Esso Washington, Esso Bermuda and Esso Lima. The occasion for this cheerful gathering aboard the engraved pen and pencil set to AB Wilhelm E. Rahe. Esso Chester last December was the presentation of an Captain Julius E. Wend is making the presentation, on behalf of the ship's company. r\ m -A -wKv -v *'* --** . Mr. Rahe retired Jan. 1 i.-JL (his birthday, incidentally), a little more than 14 years after he joined the Esso Cum berland as DM in Sept. 1 947. For about half of his Com pany service, he sailed as a deck officer. His home is in m Mahopac, N. Y. sse Photo by AB Adolf C. Oertei I EXX-MOR-007862