Document qd7d2bdXzmBwNKdE7ZLRxXJRM

PUBLISHED BY THE MARINE DEPARTMENT - EXXON COMPANY. U S.A. Volume 16, Number 9 Bill Tyra Writes We Expected The Worst And Hoped For The Best.. / "I haven't written anything for Fleet News in several years, and I'm a bit rusty, but I'd like to de scribe some of the happenings here on the Exxon Philadelphia which is presently en route from Africa to Denmark," said AB Bill E. Tyra in a letter dated April 7. "We hastily left New York on March 14 not knowing our des tination, but most guesses favored a voyage to the Persian Gulf. Even after having received orders to proceed to Bonny, Nigeria, some of us felt that if the embargo were lifted, we might yet end up at some sultry Arab country. "As we would be the first Exxon ship to call at Bonny, and not knowing what to expect in port facilities or shore leave, we ex pected the worst and hoped for the best. What little information was available about Nigeria in general and Bonny in particular was gleaned by glancing at a chart of the area, and by reading a couple of meager, meaningless paragraphs found in the Sailing Directions. The chart showed only an offshore loading terminal and a dock near the village. Possibly Bonny's only historical site and point of interest, Colonel Pullen's Observation Rock, appeared on the chart as a small dot. The Sail ing Directions also mentioned that Bonny is four feet above sea level. With this profound knowledge most of us hoped for a change of orders to practically anywhere. The last-hour reprieve never came, and we continued to Ni geria. (See WHEN WE...... , page 3) May 13, 1974 9 Graduate From Third AB Training Class THE THIRD AB/Lifeboatman training course for 1974 was completed on April 26 when nine men from the fleet passed the Coast Guard exam ination qualifying them for AB endorsements. The "graduates," standing on the gangway to the Texas Clipper, the Texas Maritime Academy train ing ship where all Marine Department training classes were held, are from the left in the front row: Instructor Michael Sharik, III, Jose M. Mete, Francisco Fernandes, and Gilbert Luna. Middle row, from left: Joseph W. Conant (who made 100 on the exam), Jose G. Santos, and Joseph E. Farrell. Back row, from left: George H. Ruark, Jerry L. Sauls, and Robert Razo. Following graduation day, Mr. Sharik remained at Texas Maritime Academy to conduct a four-day tanker officers' seminar for 45 deck officers who are majoring in marine transportation. Branch Managers Hold Annual Meeting Fischer Transfers; Brown Successor MANAGERS OF Marine Department branch offices met in Houston on May 7 and 8 to report on their respective areas of operation and hear talks by Marine Department managers from the headquarters office. Subjects discussed during the two-day session included operations and personnel procedures and energy conservation and environmental mea sures as they pertain to each branch. There were also a number of question and answer periods. Branch managers, shown from left, are: Stanley B. Haas, Baytown; Jack W. Bennett, Boston; Captain Sam V. Gardner, Baton Rouge; John M. Sachs, Port Everglades; Al Giallorenzi, New York; and Larry Roth, San Francisco. Chief Engineer's Son Honored By Newspaper If Engine Department buddies notice that Linwood E. Davenport, chief engineer in the Exxon Wash ington, is a little proud lately, it's probably because his son, Lin wood Davenport, Jr., was named by two Norfolk newspapers as their 1974 Young Columbus XVIII Outstanding Newspaper Carrier. As a reward, young Linwood, 17, was one of 129 carriers from across the country who left re cently for a 12-day trip through Portugal and Spain, with expenses paid by their respective papers. Linwood, a straight "A" student in high school, has been a news paper carrier for the past five years. He delivers 140 papers in his neighborhood, plus another 50 on a motor route. He was cited for his hard work and achieve ment and interest in extra-curric ular activities at church and school. William Jarrett Employed William Jarrett was employed on April 1 as transportation allocator in the New York Branch Office. He has some 23 years of sea ser vice with other shipping com panies in both the Engine and Stewards de partments. While in this latter de partment, he worked his way up from messman to chief steward and sailed in this rating for five years with Farrell Shipping Lines. Mr. Jarrett is married and has two children. Simplicio S. Aganad Dies Simplicio S. Aganad died re cently at age 68. Mr. Aganad re tired in March, 1969, as chief cook in the fleet with 26 years of com pany service. He is survived by his widow, a son and two daugh ters. He lived in Suitland, Md. E. C. FISCHER, right, Benefits Ad ministrator, transfers records and other files of his office to George C. Brown who has been named Head, Compensation & Benefits group, a new position. Along with handling benefit matters for Marine Department employees for the past 33 years, Mr. Fischer has been responsible for the investigation and disposi tion of accidental injury or dis ability claims of ocean and inland fleet personnel. This latter func tion has been transferred to the Petroleum Casualty Company, an affiliate of Exxon USA. By this change, the Marine Department joins all other Exxon Company. U.S.A. functions in having Petro leum Casualty Company perform its claims work. On May 15, Mr. Fischer joins Petroleum Casualty where he will continue to handle claims cases for the Marine De partment. George Brown will be respon sible for the activities of the for mer Benefits Administration group and will also be responsible for matters pertaining to compensa tion for Marine Department per sonnel. Mr. Brown has wide experience in personnel administration. He joined Exxon Corporation in New Page 2 Exxon Fleet News York in 1965. While working there, he attended night school for the next two years at Columbia Uni versity, graduating with a Masters Degree in 1967. In September of that year, he transferred to Esso Standard Libya Inc, and after serv ing in Tripoli and Marsa el Brega, he returned to the U.S. to Exxon USA in Houston in July, 1972. He transferred to the Marine Depart ment, Administrative, on June 1, 1973. Two Officers On SUNY Training Ship Third Mate William J. Deppe be comes the second officer in the ocean fleet to be hired as a tem porary instructor by the college from which he graduated. He and 3rd Assistant Engineer Jerzy B. Glowacki have both accepted re quests from their alma mater, the State University of New York Maritime College, to serve as in structors aboard the SUNY train ing ship Empire State. The officers were granted leaves of absence to 'When We Got To Bonny .. / (continued from page 1) "Approaching the Coast of Africa we could see why it is sometimes called Darkest Africa. For miles and miles along the shore there are no lights. Arriving at the mouth of the river on March 30, we anchored awaiting a pilot who would take us upriver to Bonny. Some of the crew broke out fishing gear to while away the time, but nobody caught anything because there were so many big sharks. "When we got to Bonny, there was shore leave but as luck would have it, most of us were victims of circumstance and only 10 or 12 men actually got ashore. When they returned, they told us of their adventures or misadventures which made the rest of us glad we never went. One man missed the launch that was to bring him back to the Deppe Glowacki make the training voyage from May 15 to August 15; Mr. Deppe as Watch Mate/Instructor and Mr. Glowacki as Watch Engineer/ Instructor. Mr. Deppe, who graduated from SUNY in 1972 with a BS degree in Marine Transportation, joined the fleet as 3rd mate in the Exxon Boston and was serving in this license in the Exxon Florence when he accepted the temporary instructorship at SUNY. Mr. Glowacki, who graduated from SUNY in 1970 with a BS de gree in Marine Engineering, joined the fleet soon thereafter and was serving as 3rd assistant engineer in the Exxon Florence prior to his leave of absence. ship and had to hire a canoe. The price of the trip was one shirt and he had to help paddle. "Considering the quality of sou venirs at Bonny, the prices were over inflated, but in a way it is the crude craftsmanship that makes the African art objects more val uable. Some of the prices were: small elephant carvings, $5; large elephants, $20; bongo drums, $25; witch doctor masks, $30; your choice of lion, tiger, or leopard skins, $200 to $500; giant pine apples, $2 each; coconuts, $1; one stalk of green bananas, $2. "We only loaded part cargo at Bonny and then sailed to Forcados, another little Nigerian vil lage about 130 miles away, to load the balance of cargo destined for Denmark. "Mooring at Forcados, which utilizes the single buoy system, was a snap compared to Bonny where the multi-buoy system is Conserving Energy When in port with the main turbine secured aboard the Exxon Baltimore, Billy J. Rutledge, A/Oiler, secures first stage of air ejector which will reduce the vacuum to 24 inches. This raises the temperature of the condensate leaving the condenser and re duces the amount of steam re quired for heating water in the deaerating feed tank. This saves fuel. Saving fuel is what Energy Conservation is all about. used. There wasn't any shore leave at Forcados, and we weren't ever sure if there was a shore as we were so far out we couldn't see it. "Having nothing better to do, our crew went fishing again and caught a tub full of `yellow tails' which the chef prepared and served for supper. "We soon loaded and sailed for Denmark with a stopover at Las Palmas (Canary Islands) for bunk ers. We have no idea where we go upon completion of this voy age, but 1 for one would like to go back to Bonny--I sure would like to see Colonel Pullen's Observa tion Rock," he concluded. Editor's note: Sorry Bill, but we had to send the Philadelphia to Arzew, Algeria, to load for Bay way. However, you probably saw the Rock of Gibraltar on the way-- and this should be worth a dozen of Colonel Pullen's rocks. May 13, 1974 Page 3 First Of Series What About Our IWW Operations? Editor's note: The first in a series of articles featuring inland waterways branches and the contribution each makes to the efficient operation of the overall inland fleet begins in this issue. The article below briefly defines the scope and size of our total inland operations and sets the stage for in dividual articles to follow. Oil and its many products are probably the most vital cargo transported on inland waterways. Stop the oil barges for any length of time and the resulting fuel shortages would deeply affect thousands of Exxon customers in hundreds of cities located along the more than 25,000 miles of pro tected navigable waterways serv ing coastal areas and extending deep into America's heartland. Helping to keep our customers supplied with fuels and other oil products is the Marine Depart ment's Inland Waterways Fleet. Approximately 450 of the depart ment's 1,300 employees are in volved in the management and operation of six branch offices, 74 barges, 21 towboats and tugs, and related equipment. Last year, inland employees de livered some 120.5 million barrels of products in company-owned vessels. Tack on another 82.3 mil lion carried in chartered equipment and the total adds up to an all time high delivery record and rep resents about 10 per cent of all petroleum products shipped over the nation's inland waterways system. The Exxon inland fleet is the second largest carrier of prod ucts in the U.S. Inland employees deliver prod ucts to points as widely separated as the Canadian border in Maine and the southern toe of Texas-- and to dozens of destinations in between (see map). The heaviest concentration of the company's owned barge activities are those Page 4 EXXON COMPANY, U.S.A.--MARINE DEPARTMENT GENERAL MANAGER O. R. Menton 1--------------- ------.-.-.-..-.i..... ADMINISTRATIVE OPERATIONS MANAGER E.W. McNeil, Jr. MANAGER F.A. Smith ............. i ENGINEERING & PLANNING MANAGER R.R. Hemminghaus i----------------- ----------- :------ 1 lOCEAN OPERATIONS PORT OPERATIONS MANAGER L.H. Earle MANAGER A.D. Mockhoek I------- -----------T BATON ROUGE BAYTOWN MANAGER Capt. S.V. Gartner MANAGER S.B. Haas BRANCH OFFICES BOSTON .......i 1.... .......r NEW YORK PORT EVERGLADES MANAGER J.W. Bennett MANAGER A. Giallorenzi MANAGER J.M. Sachs J _____ BALTIMORE OFFICE OPERS. SUPV. A. Levan, Jr. NORFOLK OFFICE OPERS. SUPV. R.H. Boyce 1 PAULSB0R0 OFFICE OPERS. SUPV. J.A. Ptercy CONTROLLER E. C. Jett SAN FRANCISCO MANAGER LD. Rcth Major Routes, Terminals For Inland And Ocean Barges 1. Bucksport 2- Portland 3. Portsmouth 4. Everett 5. Providence 9. Pelham TO. Newburgh 11. Peekskill 12. Albany 13. Burlington 16. Bayway (branch office} 17 Philadelphia ... IS. Psuisborc (office} 15. Baltimore (office} . ... 20. Possum Point . Exxon Fleet News involved with movements in and around New York Harbor and the large tows churning up the Mis sissippi and Ohio river systems. There is some difference be tween the type of work performed in transporting products on the East Coast and operations on the Gulf Coast, particularly along the Western Rivers system served by the Baton Rouge Branch. Exxon's inland operations in the New YorkNew England area are character ized by smaller barges moving large volumes of cargo short dis tances (often in crowded harbors), fast discharges, and tight sched ules. Running time between ports is low in relation to the time spent at the dock. In the Baton Rouge Branch, fast discharges and tight schedules are also maintained, but the oper ating area is not as crowded and product movements are character ized by long distances--it's 1,700 miles from Baton Rouge to Pitts burgh, for example. Shipments to terminals along the Mississippi and on the Ohio and its principal tributaries are made by powerful square-stemmed towboats like the Exxon Kentucky that can move a flotilla of 12 barges containing about the same amount of oil as a 41,000-dwt tanker. The boat and this number of barges (1190 feet long, 162 feet wide) is 223 feet longer and 7 feet wider than the famed S.S. Manhattan. Another highly important service provided by inland waterways is bunkering hundreds of American and Foreign Flag vessels each year. In 1973, the fleet delivered more than 18 million barrels of fuel to vessels in about 4,500 sep arate trips. Of course, efficiency of opera tions is always a key consideration in the inland fleet. Keeping inland waterways efficient and competi tive with other inland operations is in the hands of personnel in the various branches. The shoreside operating staff, type of operations, and area served by each branch will be featured in succeeding issues of Fleet News. Retirements Captain Moffift Retires With Over 38 Years Service Captain James G. Moffitt retired on May 1 with more than 38 years of service that began in 1935 when he joined the fleet as AB in the H. M. Flagler. He served in this rating in the W. C. Teagle and Christy Payne, advanced to 3rd mate in the J. H. Senior and to 2nd mate in the Esso Raleigh. In the war years, he was 2nd or chief mate in the E. G. Seubert, Christy Payne, Esso New Orleans (1), Wal ter Jennings, Esso Philadelphia (1), and Esso Aruba. On September 16, 1945, Captain Moffitt was given his first com mand, the W. H. Libby. At times during the next seven years he was master of the Esso Aruba, Esso Greensboro, Esso Burling ton, Esso Everett, and Esso Beth lehem. In the latter part of 1952 he conducted a radar training program on various vessels of the company's fleet. Transferred ashore on March 16, 1953, Captain Moffitt was named Operations Assistant, Har bor Facilities, in Esso Shipping Company's Operations Depart ment. In his assignment he as sisted numerous affiliates in the U.S. and Central and South America in making surveys of existing terminals and developing new sites for proposed terminals. From November 1954 until April 1955, he was on loan to Creole Petroleum Corporation in connec tion with the improvement of ter minal facilities in the Lake Mara caibo, Venezuela, area. In 1955, he returned to Esso Shipping Company in New York as port captain and in 1958 he was named assistant to the manager of operations in this same company. Early in 1959, he became oper ating superintendent with Esso Tankers, Inc. In 1962, Captain Moffitt became manager of Marine's Operations Captain and Mrs. Moffitt cut retire ment cake at Marine Department ceremony in Houston Office. Department in Houston. With the exception of a loan assignment as manager of the Cost and Opera tions Division in Jersey Standard's Transportation Coordination De partment from January 1964 to September 1965, he continued as operations manager in the Marine Department, Houston, until 1971 when he was named advisor to the general manager. In 1972, Captain Moffitt accepted a loan assign ment as consultant and later as acting marine manager to Esso Sociedad Anonima Petrolera Ar gentina, Buenos Aires. About eight months later, he returned to the Marine Department as advisor to the general manager, but again only for a short period. He ac cepted yet another loan assign ment, this one to Esso Asia Ser vices Inc. in Singapore from July to November, 1973, when he re turned as advisor to the general manager, the position he held at retirement. Captain Moffitt is greatly re spected in the Marine industry. He has served on several industryrelated committees including the American Petroleum Institute and the American Institute of Merchant Shipping. He and Mrs. Moffitt will continue living in Houston. "I have no im mediate plans for the future ex- (See MOFFITT RETIRES, page 6) May 13, 1974 Page 5 MOFFITT RETIRES (continued from page 5) cept to take one day at a time," Captain Moffit said at a retirement ceremony attended by Marine De partment personnel and others in the Houston Office on April 25. ``I know that I'll miss a lot of people that I've worked with during my career. People make a company great and I've worked with some mighty great ones in the Marine Department." Jones Retires; Is Only Unlicensed Man With 40 Years Cleveland A. Jones, the only un licensed man in the fleet with more than 40 years of company service, retired on May 1. "I plan to go to Kingston, Jamaica and visit my parents' homeland. Then I will return to my home in Mount Vernon, New York, and do some work there. I have no other plans at present," Mr. Jones told ship mates in the Exxon Huntington from which he retired as cook. "During his last voyage with us, we all mustered on deck to honor Cleveland and wish him good health and success in his retire ment," said Captain A. Gregaitis, master in the Huntington. "We appreciated him, not only as a good cook, but he was a nice fel low as well. Shipmates wanted to give him a happy sendoff, so they presented him with a bag full of money." Mr. Jones completed 40 years' service on December 18, 1972, and was honored by Marine De partment representatives at a spe cial luncheon in Houston. It was estimated that he had probably served more than V/z million meals during his 40 years. He joined the fleet when he was 15, but he upped his age to 16 on his application form. "I think I was hired because of my father's good record with the company," he said. His father, who had been in the Stewards Department since Officers and crew members in the Exxon Huntington met on deck to wish Cook Cleveland A. Jones a happy retirement and present him with a bag full of cash and a going-away "Good Luck" sign which he and Captain A. Gregaitis hold at right. 1919, retired in 1945. "His last ship was the Fred W. Weller and I remember following him down the gangway thinking that 26 years was a long time to work, but I decided to equal it," Cleveland said. "I passed the 26 year mark in 1959; Dad died in 1960 and I just kept right on working in the fleet. Mr. Hodges (D. A. Hodges, port steward, himself a 40-yearplus veteran with the company) offered to promote me several times to chief steward, but I liked my job as cook so I kept it. "I have a 15-year-old son that I want to spend more time with. He still has college ahead of him and he doesn't know yet what kind of work he wants to do, but if he de cides to go to sea for Exxon, I won't discourage him. It's a great company." In addition to retirement cere monies aboard the Exxon Hunting ton, Mr. Jones was honored by New York Branch employees, sea going personnel, and annuitants at a retirement luncheon on March 6. Equity Unit $10.15 The Thrift Fund Trustee re ports that the value of each unit in the equity portfolio as of the last business day in April 1974 was $10.15. 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 6 Alexander W. Cullen Plans To Travel Alexander W, Cullen, who rer %jH| tired for health M reasons, plans 5 ` travel each ipBI state before ' V. ^ settling down at home in Maryd e I, Delaware. "I am glad that I had the oppor tunity of working with such good officers and men on board ship. I want them all to know how much I appreciate them and that I wish them good luck in all their future voyages." he said. Mr. Cullen joined the Wallace E. Pratt in Oc tober, 1945, as OS. He became deck maintenance man in the Esso Scranton in July, 1946, and AB in the Crown Point in June. 1949. After a period of broken service, he rejoined the fleet and elected to serve in the Stewards Department. He was messman in the Exxon New Orleans when he retired. Exxon Fleet News