Document ymgRxyBnKGKVj6ogj8ZnyBKmX

PUBLISHED BY THE MARINE DEPARTMENT. HUMBLE OIL & REFINING COMPANY Volume 13, Number 21 ,Officers Crew Clean Up San Francisco' To Avoid Further Delay In Shipyard "It was the most outstanding example of teamwork and co operation that I have ever seen," Chief Mate Marshall G. Price said in describing a recent "clean-up" job performed by the officers and crew in the Esso San Francisco. The ship, which had been in October 25, 1971 Sun Shipyard for inspection and repairs, was delayed in returning to service, mainly because of the magnitude of a coating repair job in the forepeak tank in which a great deal of staging and sand blasting was involved. In order to return the vessel to service with out further costly delay, the San Francisco, under the command of Captain T. A. Johnson, left the shipyard on October 2 in less than shipshape condition. For one thing, her deck was dirty. Also, the engineroom needed cleaning up. But the big job consisted of removing sand left over from sandblasting operations in the huge 40,000-barrel forepeak tank. "The temperature down there was up to 100 degrees at times, and sand stood 3 and 4 feet deep in places," Marshall said, and added: "Anyone who has been down in one of these tanks knows that there are plenty of beams and tight places where sand can accumulate. I guess there wasn't a square inch of clean space in the whole tank. The only way to remove the sand was to hoist it out in buckets. It looked like a tremendous job--and it was. The only way we accomplished it was (See CLEAN-UP, page 4) IS IT THAT TIME AGAIN? Yep, the Christmas season is rapidly coming into focus. The Stewards' Department in the Marine headquarters office several weeks ago contacted an artist to prepare the covers for the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's menus for the fleet. Here, Art Baldwin, assistant port steward, watches Jerrold Goodman, artist in the company's General Services Department, put finishing touches on the Christmas menu cover. The one for Thanksgiving is at the left and the one for New Years is on the right. All are in color. The menus have been selected. Suffice to say that the meals will upset a lot of diets. Equity Unit Value $10.32 The Thrift Fund Trustee has advised that the value of each unit in the Equity Portfolio as of the last business day in September 1971 is $10.32. Last Business Day Of May, 1971 June, 1971 July, 1971 August, 1971 September, 1971 Unit Value $10.00 $10.06 $ 9.76 $10.35 $10.32 - . plans call for a helicopter to pick up our mail -WALTER ZEKOS, AB. . . the first time I've ever had a letter flown by heli- copter . . --ROBERT FIELDS. OS. CAPTAIN HAROLD L. SHOLES, who retired ear lier this year, writes that while visiting a friend, Captain Russell Terry, head of the department of advanced studies at the Maine Maritime Acad emy, he learned that Esso Fleet News was being used by academy instructors to teach students about various problems in marine operations. "For example," Captain Sholes writes, "the arti cle describing the disruption of normal traffic during hurricanes, such as Hurricane Camille in 1969, and the resulting problems and solutions handled by the traffic and office personnel in re scheduling ships and cargoes, was read to stu dents to point out the complexities of marine management," Captain Sholes said. "I remember Camille well because my ship was one of those involved in the storm." Captain Sholes was also impressed by various phases of training at the academy, especially the construction of a model tanker, complete with pipelines, valves, and re mote controls. When the model is completed, students will be able to transfer colored liquids from one compartment to another, just as in a regular tanker. "This is an example of the kinds of teaching aids being used at the Maine Mari time Academy, and others, to provide graduates who are well trained in all facets of tanker op erations," Captain Sholes pointed out. <r o zu PrC--J f<. UUJ >< UJ { b-- , == > cy; H ` 2 Zr. 3 UJ U! ^ 2 IC i i- . . you'll never guess how this letter got from our ship . . - -JOHN TRAINOR, AB. . . P.S. Sorry, arriving too late for helicopter . . -- ISAAC HUNT, OS, & C. C. CAMPBELL. Messman. IT'S OBVIOUS THAT these men are writing letters. What isn't obvious is that each letter starts out with about the same sentence: "This is being flown from our ship to a shore station via helicopter." The letter writing took place in the Esso Houston when she was returning to the states after discharging grain in India. An an nouncement was made that the ship would arrive off Capetown, South Africa, about noon on Octo ber 9 and that letters from the crew would be picked up by helicopter and delivered to a shore station for further mailing to mothers, wives, sweethearts, etc. As Captain Phil Babcock ex plained: "This was to be the first time that I know of that a helicopter had been scheduled to pick up mail from an American Esso Fleet tanker (except the SS Manhattan)." As it turned out, the men had to hurriedly add a "P.S." to their letters, explaining that mail from the ship wasn't being delivered by helicopter after all. The ship arrived off Capetown at night when there is no helicopter service. But in keeping with the tradition that the "mail must go through," the company arranged for a launch to make the pickup. AFTER 12 MONTHS of work, as time permitted, Third Mate Gary B. Chiljean has completed a four-foot model of an Esso ship, shown here. And it contains every breathtaking detail from stripper valves, to life preservers, to bulbous bow. "It's sort of a combination Esso Newark, Esso Florence, Esso Lexington, and Esso New York," Gary said. For this reason, the ship still lacks a name, but many possibilities are being considered. "Maybe I'll call it the EXXON I," he said. How much would he sell the model for? "As any model builder knows, when you con sider all the hours of work and unending patience that goes into making a model of this sort, it really isn't possible to come up with a price for it. However, if anyone expresses a real desire to purchase the model, I would consider their offer." Page 2 Esso Fleet News TALK TOWING ICEBERGS? That's what a team of engineers and scientists representing four oil companies and Memorial University of St. John's, Newfoundland, did recently to see if towing the bergs away would be a practical method for protecting offshore installations, such as drilling platforms. To trap the icebergs, the research teams used a "net" made of cable, chains, and ropes. After attaching ropes to each end of the net, a coastal freighter (especially modified for the job) encircled the berg, captured it in the net, and linked the two ends of the ropes to form a type of sling. A third rope was then used to at tach the sling to the ship so that the iceberg could be towed. During the three-week test, the vessel towed six icebergs ranging in mass from 85,000 to 391,000 tons. One of the icebergs towered 114 feet above the surface of the choppy seas. The results of the tests are still being studied. r. >' SissffiB WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, was an extra good day for personnel in the Esso Baltimore, writes Captain R. E. Parkhurst. For one thing, it was payday. For another, two ABs celebrated birthdays and just about everyone got in on the surprise birthday cake baked by Johnny L. Hill. The two ABs were Alexander McDonnell and Robert Garcia whose combined ages total 93 years. "It wasn't hard to see who the most nervous man was at the surprise birthday cele bration," Captain Parkhurst said, and added: "It was Johnny Hill. He is relatively new to the baking game and he wanted that cake to be his masterpiece. Well, Johnny has no worries. There wasn't a crumb left." Kneeling from left to right are Russell Pergerson, AB, and Kenneth Lyons, CM. Standing, from the left: Joao Costa, cook; Emery St. Clair, pumpman; Donald Robinson, OS; Johnny Hill; Prosper Thomas, OM; Mr. McDonnell (60); John Rachal, AB; Mr. Garcia (33); Walter Brelsford, chief mate; and Joaquim Correia, steward. CHIEF ENGINEER CHARLES LARATTA sent in the accompanying pictures. The top one shows an old school house that was on some property he purchased in Calkins, Pennsylvania. The second picture shows how the "old school house" looks today. Mr. Laratta remodeled the building and divided it into two five-room apartments. "My wife and I are living in one side of it and we planned to rent the other side, but we've changed our minds about that," he explained. "We de cided to keep it so that our kids can use it when they come to visit. Besides, this second apart ment makes an excellent place for me to put a pool table and the TV. The picture below shows Mr. and Mrs. Laratta when they visited a national park at Yorktown, Pennsylvania, recently as part of a trip to celebrate their 40th wedding anniver sary. "I don't know many men in the fleet who have been married that long," he said. His formula for a successful marriage? "A patient wife. And Vir ginia is just that type of woman. We have three sons and a daughter and they along with our seven grandchildren bring a lot of happiness to our home. I can also add that a job with a good company has contributed much to our happiness and ability to raise such a family." . ' - V*-,' L -4; 7 7\i ' - October 25, 1971 Page 3 U< c5 LU o: Li. < fee f>- '1 O2 UJ I CJ tr EXX-MOR-008150 I (CLEAN-UP, continued from page 1) I through the cooperation and teamwork of a lot of men. "The men even stood their scheduled watches and then re ported for cleanup assignments," Marshall pointed out. "Over a period of some three days, they removed over 4,000 buckets of sand and had the tank completely cleaned, including all equipment which they put back in place in working condition. By the fourth day, the deck had been washed down and the engineroom was clean. In fact, the crew did a re markable job in getting everything shipshape in all parts of the ship and the whole job was completed with no lost-time injuries." In addition to Marshall Price, officers and crew members in volved in the cleanup job were: Millard C. Whitson, second mate; Richard A. Nicholas, third mate; Gaylord Gay, William Page, J. D. Smith, Manuel D. DeAfonseca, Arthur Koller, and James Ferrari, all ABs; Thurbert Joseph, Robert Petrikat, and Herbert Eddy, all OS ratings; Alton Burns, Jr., third AE; Adolphe Koppel, pumpman; Alexus Michelson, MM/2P; George Macklin and Jose Dovale, oilers; and Jesse Watts, MU. OBITUARY LENNES A. TALBOT, died on September 17 at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was 65. He retired as chief engineer in the Inland Waterways Fleet in July, 1963. Mr. Talbot joined the company as deckhand on December 16, 1922, and served in the old Lighterage Department's steam sternwheel towboats. He sailed in various un licensed and licensed capacities aboard the company's Mississippi River vessels and was promoted to chief engineer on September 1, 1944. His last vessel was the Esso Tennessee. Mr. Talbot is survived by his widow, two sons, and a daughter. LEONARD J. SPINNER, 51, utilityman in the Esso Chester died at TWO SAFETY AWARDS were presented on September 2 to personnel in the Esso Chester when she was in port at New York. The Jones F. Devlin Award was given for operating four calendar years without a lost-time injury. The ship's last reportable lost-time injury was on June 10, 1966. From then until December 30, the period covered by the award, ship's personnel worked 1,665 consecutive days without a lost-time in jury. There have been no lost-time injuries so far this year. The second award was the Humble Marine Safety Certificate for no lost-time injuries for the calendar year 1970. Attending the awards ceremony were, from the left, Charles D. Hahn, third mate; Jose Santos, OS, John M. Dunlap, OS; Captain H. C. McCartney who received the awards on behalf of the ship and her personnel; Walter Rosypal, second pumpman; William Motto, chief engineer; H. R. Smith, steward; Captain C. P. Sperl {mak ing the presentations) assistant port captain, New York; Raymond Mc Grath, chief cook; and John Sappington, chief mate. On the ladder are: Robert J. Wolfe, OS; and Walter Lunt, AB. sea on September 29, apparently in his sleep. The Chester, bound for Charleston, docked there about 3Vz hours after the body was discovered. Mr. Spinner began his seagoing career as utilityman in the Esso Binghampton in June, 1956. He served pri marily in the Steward's Depart ment in various ratings except for brief periods as wiper. He is sur vived by a son and a sister, both of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Butterworth Inventor Dies Col. Arthur B. Butterworth, re tired marine engineer and in ventor of the internationally known Butterworth System, died in a hospital at Newport News, Virginia, on October 6, following a brief illness. He was 84. The Butterworth System, the first method devised for cleaning sea going oil tankers while under way, was developed in 1927 and is still in worldwide use. Dick Vukin, Harvey Borgen Get New Job Assignments Richard L. Vukin became op erations manager, New York Branch, on October 1. He suc ceeded Harvey J. Borgen who has accepted an assignment with Jersey Standard in the New York headquarters office as an advisor in the Logistics Department. Mr. Borgen had been opera tions manager in the New York Branch since May, 1970. Mr. Vukin was senior research engi neer and a project leader at Esso Production Research Company in Houston at the time of his new assignment. In December, 1968, he served with the Humble Marine Department as study coordinator for the Arctic Marine Task Force. ESSO FLEET NEWS is published every other Monday for active and retired employees of the Marine Department. Humble Oil & Refining Co.; Emmett A. Humble, General Manager; Sydney Wire, Assistant General Manager. GENE LEGLER, Editor Vukin Borgen HAROLD L. "FLASH" GORDON, 60, Employee Relations Representative in the New York Branch Office, died suddenly on Sunday, October 24. He suffered a heart attack while on vacation in Sarasota, Florida.