# Overseas Tankship Corp. (OTC) New York - Caltex ship buddies



## Lorentz (Nov 6, 2013)

Hello

I'm new to this forum, but I have already read a lot of interesting things here. In particular I'm interested in information about Caltex T2 tankers and OTC in New York. Hopefully some of you might help me obtain more knowlage.

My grandfather joined OTC in New York as Captain of "War Bonnet" in 1947. This T2 tanker had just been delivered to OTC and was at Bethlehem Steel for repairs and refurbushing for civil use. I guess the guns and all war equipment was removed. The ship also recieved a new radio station. The officers were mostly Scandinavians at that time. He went on to command several T2 tankers for OTC, including Warrior Point, Caltex Saigon and others. He always liked the T2 tankers because of their quiet machinery.

I see that Overseas Tankship UK have their own "club" with web site. It seems that many of the t2s were transferred from OTC to OTUK in the 50s and 60s. I do not know if my grandfather continued for OTC or was transferred to OTUK as well. Many of the british officers have shared their stories here, but did you ever sail with any of the Scandinavians? Or perhaps even my grandfather?

His name was Captain Kristian Leonard Lorentzen of Hisøy, Norway. He went under the nick name of "Lucky Lorentzen." He earned this nick name during the war as he escaped several attacks. He was then in command of the Texaco tanker "New York" He was a distant relative of Caltex Port Captain Georg Andersen in Bahrain that some of you may remember.

My grandfather retired in 1960. By that time the T2s were "falling apart" according to some statements by forum members... However one of the ships he commanded, the Caltex Saigon had a long life as it was part of the jumboization program by OTUK.

I'm trying to make a time line of the ships my grandfather sailed on and their history. I would also like to better understand the company structure of Caltex and Overseas Tankship both in New York and UK.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Best regards
Lorentz K. Lorentzen
Chief Officer
M/T Bow Spring


----------



## gadgee (Jul 24, 2005)

Hello Lorentz and welcome to SN. Have you tried opening the "tanker" forum and entering caltex T2 or other appropriate terms into the search box. I tried it and some stuff comes up but I cannot be sure it is relevant to you? Good luck!


----------



## Burntisland Ship Yard (Aug 2, 2008)

Here is the link Lorentz, 
http://www.tota.co.uk/

Unfortunately some of the team have now "crossed the bar" however would do you no harm to make contact via the web site.


----------



## Split (Jun 25, 2006)

Lorentz said:


> Hello
> 
> I'm new to this forum, but I have already read a lot of interesting things here. In particular I'm interested in information about Caltex T2 tankers and OTC in New York. Hopefully some of you might help me obtain more knowlage.
> 
> ...


I was on the Saigon. I'd have to look at my discharge book to see whether I was 1st mate, or not! There were so many..... I left the company in 1962.

I was mate of one or two white oil t2s. That was a performance, I can tell you! I've loaded five grades, once. It was the Butterworth tank cleaning between loads that killed them. The crew used to shovel up hundreds of buckets of rust, to be dumped over the wall. 
God knows how much a t2 weighed by the time they were broken up.


----------



## lakercapt (Jul 19, 2005)

I too sailed on Caltex Saigon in December 1962 and it had not improved. Should have been re-named Caltex Thistlebond as that was what kept it going (hull wise).The power plant ran like a Swiss watch.


----------



## Lorentz (Nov 6, 2013)

Hello guys and thanks for the replies so far!

I will definently try to explore prevous discussions on this forum with the search function. I have visited the tota.uk site and will also reach out to their members.

As I understand, Caltex had several fleets and I'm trying to work out my grandfathers place in the system...

Thanks for a great forum and photo gallery!


----------



## Split (Jun 25, 2006)

lakercapt said:


> I too sailed on Caltex Saigon in December 1962 and it had not improved. Should have been re-named Caltex Thistlebond as that was what kept it going (hull wise).The power plant ran like a Swiss watch.


Of course, I remember now. I was 1st mate and she was my last ship. I left her in Avonmouth.


----------



## howardws (Aug 15, 2009)

I was Fifth Engineer on Texaco Saigon (as she became after jumboisation) in 1967 for a few months before being promoted to Fourth and moved elsewhere. As mentioned above she ran like a sewing machine. I was left alone to run the engine room after about half an hours makee learn and had no problems as the plant was so simple. We did have one major breakdown - we ran the main motor after bearing (white metal) and had to replace it with one that had been bolted to the bulkhead for about 24 years. Unfortunately it had spread and required much filing of the outer casing before it would fit. We had 17,000 tons of avgas on board at the time, destined for Saigon and while we drifted around we were buzzed by US Navy planes, probably wondering where their fuel was!


----------



## Ian6 (Feb 1, 2006)

Lorentz
I served with OTUK from 1954 to 1958 mostly aboard T2's in the fairly early days of Caltex UK. All the officers were British aboard those ships, I suspect any Scandinavian Officers 'displaced' from OTC went to Panamanian flagged Caltex ships.

Good luck with your search

Ian


----------



## MervynHutton (Feb 1, 2008)

The Texaco Saigon became the Texaco Singapore after the fall of Vietnam. I was on her in 1980 as Ch.Mate and she still ran pretty well in her jumboised form. I suspect she was probably scrapped in the early 80s along with some of the other Texaco T2s, e.g Texaco Rome, Tex Wellington, Tex Melbourne.

There is a nice photograph of her in the Tanker section of the gallery.


----------



## Klaatu83 (Jan 22, 2009)

I sailed for Overseas only once, in 1984, on the Overseas Arctic. They were the cheapest company i ever worked for. How cheap was that? So cheap that there weren't even enough pencils on board, so everybody had to hoard whatever pencil stumps they had. We were also reduced to scrounging pencils from the people working at the various terminals at which we stopped. I never saw another ship like it!

I also never saw a ship with such low morale among the crew. There was a pervading atmosphere of gloom and doom about that ship, unlike anything I ever experienced before, or have since.


----------



## surfaceblow (Jan 16, 2008)

I sailed on the Overseas Alaska for awhile around the same time frame. I did not see the doom and gloom that you witnessed. While I was on the Alaska we went through the yard period in Jacksonville. 

We were running from the BP ship's anchored off the Panama Canal to the Gulf of Mexico. The only problem I had was the Captain and Chief Engineer would not test the Emergency Generator under load. So when we needed to run the Emergency Generator the Circuit Breaker would not close due to the sand blast grit that got in to the breaker. 

Joe


----------



## Martlew (Aug 15, 2006)

*Overseas Tankship Corp.*

Hi Lorentz,

I joined OTC in New York in Oct. 1948 as Radio Operator and served on two ships "Carlsbad" and "Fort Stanwix". Carsbad was commanded by Petter Berg and Oluf Beck and the Fort Stanwix by Captain Larsen. I left OTC in July of 1951. I still correspond with two friends from OTC, Keith Rusby, former Chief Engineer and Bernard Hopkins R/O ex "Grand River". I have a fairly good memory so if you have any quetions I will try to answer them. 

Vincent


----------

