Norma Andreasen - Missing A Story of American Merchant Mariners in World War II

Copyright 2004 Norma Andreasen
All rights reserved.
ISBN 13: 978-1-4664-8542-6
ISBN: 1466485426
Library of Congress Control Number: 2011960022
CreateSpace, North Charleston, SC

This book is dedicated to my father,
Hans Didrik Andreasen,
and to the 59 other souls who lost their lives on the
Esso Williamsburg in September of 1942,
and to my mother,
Anna Cecilia Olesen Andreasen,
who valiantly took over the family helm when our captain was lost.

THE CREW:

Anderson, Morris A.
Andreasen, Hans D.
Baccaro, Michael
Boucher, Fred S.
Brown, Lester T.
Callahan, Dennis F.
Cannes, Felix
Chambers, Fred L.
Cloyd, Cecil T.
Conception, Innocencio C.
Craddock, Isaac L.
DiStefano, Arturo
Driscoll, Florence N.
Fitzgerald, Raymond
Gayle, Lea M.
Geisendafer, George
Hastings, John W.
Hempenstall, Patrick J.
Herron, Donald B.
Jackson, Reuben
Johnson, Edward F.
Jones, Fred M.
Lally, Albert J.
Lehde, Henry F.
Linton, Harold C.
Madden, Robert E.
Maher, James F.
Mountain, Varise P.
Nash, Roger W.
Navarro, Manuel
Nostdahl, Olaf A.
Palonis, Charles
Partridge, Fenton
Raynard, Stanley W.
Reilly, Richard P.
Richards, Hobart H.
Strawn, Claude A.
Teague, William S.
Tucker, Guthrie K.
Tweed, John
Vennell, Clarence E.
Wentworth, John J.

U. S. NAVY ARMED GUARD

Baker, Glenn H.
Bryant, Donald A.
Byrd, Walter
Gaddy, Reuben R.
Glover, Robert L.
Glover, Stephen F.
Goodrich, Moses H.
Greenwell, John H.
Grifith, Doyle W.
Hamburg, Leo T.
Hicks, Bruce O.
Kindl, Fred J.
Maliszewski, Alexander
Mathews, Glen D.
Mayhew, Merle N.
Mcclintock, Thomas B.
Mealman, Roy E.
Reaves, Iris. V.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Acutely aware that there are still so many families and friends of American Merchant Mariners lost in World War II who, as of this date, still have no knowledge of when and how their loved ones died, Ive written this book as a key to ways in which the truth can be discovered, even after more than a half century has passed. Books published over the years contain vital, well-documented information on American merchant vessels lost in the war. Archives in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany are filled with documents that, when pieced together, tell stories that are heretofore unknown to those most interested. The World Wide Web and related web sites provide an infinite and ongoing source of information and opportunity to contact people whose individual stories, when woven together, reveal what really happened to so many brave souls and their ships.

This book was also made possible by the generous contributions of time, letters, emails, photos, and documents by people desirous of seeing the story of the Esso Williamsburg made public for recognition of the sacrifice made by the men of her crew, and for the sake of historical accuracy relating to the sacrifices made by the men of the U. S. Merchant Marines in World War II. Without their help, this story could not have been told:

Bobbie Mosher and her sister Patricia Webb (daughters of Varise Mountain)

Frank Maher (son of James F. Maher, Jr.)

Arthur Mohr of College Station, TX (uncle of Henry (Buddie) Lehde)

Captain Arthur Moore (author of A Careless Word... A Needless Sinking)

Katrina Wenger (daughter of Cecil Cloyd, Jr.)

Armond Jones (nephew of Fred McLee Jones)

Matty Loughran (historian of the American Association of American Merchant Marine Veterans, North Atlantic Chapter)

Don Pottie together with Leo Bouchie (nephew of Fred S. Boucher)

Carole Condon (sister of William S. Teague)

Lt. Colonel Kenneth J. Vennell, Illinois Air National Guard (nephew of Clarence Vennell)

Harry Hutson, author and historian, of Cleethorpes, U. K.

Warwick Lister, Florence, Italy (nephew of Harold Cedric Linton)

LeRoy McClelland (John Henry Greenwell, U. S. Naval Armed Guard)

Dick McClintock (Thomas B. McClintock, U. S. Naval Armed Guard)

PROLOGUE

By the end of World War II, 32 American merchant vessels had, quite simply, vanished. The men who sailed them were never heard from again. In 1946, the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) published Ships of the Esso Fleet in World War II, a compendium of war records of 135 tankers owned by the company and its subsidiary, the Panama Transport Company. One article, All Hands Lost, gives an account of the disappearance of the Esso Williamsburg on a voyage to Iceland:

In September, 1942, on her way from Aruba to Iceland, with a cargo of Navy fuel, the Esso Williamsburg was lost in the North Atlantic. The circumstances of her sinking are not known.

The article goes on to relate that:

At the outset of her 29th voyage, from which she did not return, the Esso Williamsburg sailed from Aruba on September 12, 1942. She was commanded by Captain Tweed and her engine room was in charge of Chief Engineer Maher. Her cargo of 110,043 barrels of Navy fuel oil was destined for Reykjavik, Iceland, where she was due to arrive about September 24.

On October 24, 1942, the War Shipping Administration reported the vessel and her crew long overdue and presumed lost as a result of enemy action.

This book is about the Esso Williamsburg, one of 32 merchant ships that disappeared in the fog of World War II, and the fate of the 60 crew members who were on board for its final voyage.

These 60 men represent the 4,720 U. S. Merchant Mariners who are listed as missing in World War II. Perishing with the mariners were 1,810 killed or missing members of the U. S. Navy Armed Guard stationed aboard merchant ships that sailed enemy waters carrying food, materiel and troops.

The Newly Commissioned Esso Williamsburg, 1941.

C H A P T E R O N E

THE SHIP

May of 1942: then Vice Admiral Karl Dnitz writes in his monthly report to Kriegsmarine headquarters:

... the U-boats with their extensive war experience are superior to the defense. The American airman see nothing, and the destroyers and patrol vessels proceed at too great a speed to intercept U-boats and likewise having caught one they do not follow up with a tough enough depth charge attack.

During these happy days of U-boat operations, ships on coastal runs of the United States are constantly in danger. The Esso Williamsburg is such a ship. Since the wars inception in December of 1941, she has been racing up and down the Eastern coast of the United States, carrying thousands and thousands of gallons of much-needed oil. Dnitz goes on to state: