This is the last of a series of stories about the bravery and heroic actions of the crew of the USS Cochise … a Yard Tug that possibly saved hundreds in the Bayshore area of the Jersey Shore…

Read the previous stories:

Averting Disaster

Fire & Explosion

Naval Ammunition Depot Earle

In the wake of the fire aboard the tanker Sunoco and the aversion of a tragedy that could well have blown up a good part of the Bayshore were it not for the quick thinking and bravery of military personnel, the US Navy conducted its own review of the entire incident with an eye towards lessons learned.

There were four major lessons NAD Earle and its officers readily believed they could take from that Jan. 1, 1945 incident in Sandy Hook Bay where a sudden fire midships  left a tanker derelict and heading for Earle Naval Ammunition Depot where there were four ships loaded with 16650 tons on ammunition.

In typical Navy style, commendations were recommended for heroic sailors, sympathy expressed for lost lives and medical assistance given for survivors … Then the hard work of ensuring it wouldn’t happen again got underway.

In his report and recommendations Dockmaster Commander John A O’Pray pointed out that there had never been any supplies of Foamite on the piers. It is only on the fire trucks, he reported to his superiors.  His immediate suggestion, therefore, was that “the piers be supplied with Foamite for prompt emergency use.”

Nor is there any availability for voice radio communications  between the Dockmaster’s office, the piers, and the yard tugs at Leonardo, he wrote.

But it appears he lost no time in getting this corrected even before even writing his report. “It is suggested,” the Commander wrote, “that the delivery of such communication equipment which have been ordered, be expedited in order that communications may be maintained  between the piers and the tugs at all times for obvious security reasons.”

The third lesson learned was also already underway, the report continued. “It is the plan of the Dockmaster to have the Docking Pilots assigned to the pier area available al all times for the purpose of moving any vessel necessary during emergencies.”  He put that plan in place immediately since, he wrote, “the fact that the pilots dispatched here from New York for this emergency did not arrive for approximately three hours shows that dependence upon outside pilots may, at some future time, prove disastrous.”

Commander O’Pray’s fourth and most important recommendation and lesson learned from the fire in waters close to Earle Naval Ammunition Depot  seemed almost too obvious to him to report. Yet he did.

“It is also obvious that there is a great danger in having too many ships at the piers at one time and the difficulty in getting them away without adequate crews is too great a responsibility for this activity. It is therefore apparent that all ships should arrange with this activity, their liberty program in order that a necessary number of men be aboard at all times to handle the ships. “

Then he concluded as his final recommendation even during wartime, “This also bears out the idea that all ships should arrange to leave as soon as loaded instead of laying over.”

A serious accident had been averted for the Bayshore by swift action and swifter thinking. The Navy recorded it and routinely continued its mission of participating in a war in foreign seas  while providing safety and security at home along the New Jersey coastline.

Editor’s Note:  Capt. O’Pray went on to become a Captain in the Navy and lived another 22 years after the Sandy Hook fire. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia.

Whether BM1 R.L. Tooker every received a medal, or whether Seaman Second class Bruno Patruno was further recognized for his bravery are not yet known. VeniVidiScripto is awaiting a response from the Naval Archives in Maryland to report on that action but invites anyone who may know whether these sailors were honored, or whether they continued in their naval careers, to inform VeniVidiScripto so they can be recognized here, and perhaps also by local Navy, township, county or veterans organizations.

If you haven’t yet, read the previous stories leading up to the little tug that could

Navy Earle and the Day the Bayshore Almost Blew Up

Fire & Explosion in Sandy Hook Bay

The four ships at the Earle Naval Ammunition Depot piers in Leonardo  in the time after midnight on Jan. 1, 1945, were the SS John P. Harris, loaded with 6000 tons of ammo; the SS. Arthur M. Hulbert, with 4000 tons of ammo aboard, the SS Joseph Stanton with 1150 tons of ammo and the SS John Walker with another 5500 tons of ammo.  So there were 16,650 tons of ammo sitting at the pier in Leonardo, a gale force wind blowing,  a derelict tanker with 15,000 barrels of bensoil on fire in Sandy Hook Bay, and Sailors and Coast Guardsmen fighting the blaze that engulfed the boat with hoses whose nozzles were freezing with the frigid water and high winds.

Dockmaster John A. O’Pray had done all he could, summoned all his crews, taken every precaution possible and the piered ships’ crews were alerted to be prepared to get underway.

Out on the water, in the dark lit only by the flames of the burning barge-like Sunoco tanker, Boatswain’s Mate First Class R. L. Tooker was guiding his YTM 216, a yard tug,  closer to the burning vessel.   Recognizing the tanker was unmanned, drifting dangerously close to the Leonardo piers, and knowing the ships were loaded with ammunition at the Navy installation in the quiet neighborhoods of fishermen  and clammers and their families, BM1 Tooker took the first action he thought would work.

The sailor rammed his little tug into the burning Sunoco to shove it away from the piers, away from land, and away from tons of ammunition.

His action diverted the course of the Sunoco so that she cleared the piers “by a scant margin”. He then continued to ram the stern of the vessel until she went aground. There  is no doubt that this prompt action averted a major disaster at this activity.”

BM1 Tooker was recommended for “the highest commendation possible within the limits of this extraordinary display of judgment and heroism and given promotion fitting a man of such caliber”.

Still, this was not the end of the heroism aboard that little tugboat. Seaman Second class Bruno Patruno was in the boatswain mate’s crew. He also rescued one of the crew from the stricken ship. It was this boat’s crew , in spite of immediate danger and the tug being severely scorched, that removed two members of the Sunoco’s crew from the burning vessel and another crew member from the life raft.

At just after 3 a.m., two hours after the first alarm, the tugs were recalled to the base. They had remained on scene searching for more merchant seamen who had fled the flames and jumped in the water. But it was determined, given the ice and gale winds, that there was no further possibility of anyone surviving the icy waters.

The official log reports simply:  Emergency secured  at 0556.

Next: Lessons Learned

This story is a continuation of https://www.venividiscripto.com/weapons-station-earle/

It was the Sun Oil Company vessel, the Sunoco, that went on fire and exploded in Sandy Hook Bay not far off Naval Ammunition Depot (NAD) Earle in the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 1945. The massive fire, which could be seen throughout the Bayshore area, lunched immediate safety precautions and actions by the commanding officer, dockmaster and Sailors and Coast Guards personnel aboard the ammunition depot.

Owned by the Sun Oil Company, commonly known as Sunoco and leased to Atlantic Refining Co, the  vessel was enroute from Perth Amboy to Philadelphia when the incident occurred.

Although the precise cause of the fire, which started amidships, was never determined, there was considerable speculation the vessel struck submerged materials, speculation primarily since the decks of the vessel were clean and the hatches were intact rather than blown open.

Considered small by tanker standards, the Sunoco was 246 foot in length and could be compared to a barge. It had loaded 15,000 barrels of benzoil at Barber Asphalt Co in Perth Amboy. Benzoil is used to create 100 octane gasoline, and the shipment was enroute to Atlantic Refining’s refining plant at Point Breeze, Philadelphia. Because of the gale force winds and rough seas during a severe January storm, there was the strong possibility the Sunoco had anchored in Sandy Hook Bay east of the Fort Hancock station, and was pulling up anchor when the explosion occurred.

Captain John J. Jenkins was the 57 year old captain of the Sunoco, a long time experienced merchant mariner who hailed from Wilmington , Delaware. Born in Virginia, he had lived in Delaware for 30 years and had been working for Sunoco for 15 years. He was one of the eight men reported missing when the first alarms went out for assistance.

Navy and Coast Guard boats from NAD Earle and New York responded to the emergency,  as well as the Firefighter, a New York fire-boat under Chief John Horton. That boat reported running into burning oil along the waterways enroute from New York to the scene just off NAD Earle.

Navy and Coast Guard boats rescued six of the 16 member crew, bringing them to the Naval dispensary at Leonardo and the Coast Guard hospital at Fort Hancock. Of the 16 crew members, the final tally showed three died, seven were reported missing and not recovered, and Sailors and Coast Guardsmen rescued six.

Firefighters met all kinds of disastrous conditions as they attempted to rescue survivors, including both a dead body and a rescued merchant seaman found on a raft in the turbulent sea. Additionally they had difficulty hosing down the blaze since the frigid temperatures caused the nozzles on their hoses to freeze and create considerably heavier weight in handling the hoses.

With the captain among the missing, men either dead or in the water, the Sunoco was  left without any control and began drifting towards the Navy piers at Earle.  The swift turn of events came after initial reports that the vessel appeared to be stationery in the water and not presenting any threat. However,  within a few minutes of that information, another call came to the Leonardo pier from Bos’n Gross  whose smaller boat was heading to the Sunoco in the rescue efforts. He reported the Sunoco was on the move, was burning fiercely and was on a direct collision course with the three piers at NAD Earle.

The Dockmaster, Lieutenant Commander O’Pray, got in his car and headed out to the pier area

He could see the flaming boat was within the area ,if not already alongside one of the piers. This was a vessel, loaded with benzoil, abandoned by its crew and officers, a derelict not under control.

At the three piers at NAD Earle, there were four ships berthed, each carrying a heavy load. Together, it totaled 16,650 tons of ammunition. And a burning derelict vessel headed towards them.

NEXT:  Another problem at the Pier

Looking back at all the challenges a military installation face, both in war and peace time, it would seem that the Navy with its waterfront installations might many more in both its efforts to help people at sea as well as to protect its installation from both land and sea problems.

It is a tribute to the planning and orderliness of the US Navy that there are few serious accidents that have occurred at what is now Naval Weapons Station Earle. When built during World War II in 1943, the base was known as Earle Naval Ammunition Depot. Today, it is Naval Weapons Station Earle with its waterfront complex in Leonardo and its headquarters in Colts Neck.

The Navy installation spans more than 11,000 acres in Monmouth County, including more than 100 miles of rail tracks built to accommodate locomotives, flat cars, box cars and more between the Leonardo pier and the headquarters and other buildings and facilities in Colts Neck.

There are three piers on the Leonardo side, and in the beginning, in addition to Navy and Marine personnel, the Coast Guard also reported here during wartime,  and were accommodated for housing at the Coast Guard base on Sandy Hook. With merchant vessels also carrying ammunition in addition to Navy ships, the Coast Guard’s work efforts intensified and by July of 1944, there were four Coast Guard officers and 60 enlisted men reporting for duty at NAD Earle.

It was the bravery, quick thinking and swift action of Navy and Coast Guard personnel and rugged equipment of the US Navy that averted an accident that had the potential of wiping out a large percentage of lives and homes in the Bayshore.

One sailor with his crew almost single handedly prevented that disaster because of his own bravery and their swift action.

It happened one cold night in January 1945.

Lieutenant Commander O’Pray was at home and in bed when he received a call from Chief Boatswain Alexander Gross. Gross reported to the dockmaster there was a vessel on fire just east of the pier area in the vicinity of Sandy Hook.

It was around 1 a.m. in the morning; there were extremely rough seas, and gale winds blowing throughout the area between 50 and 60 miles an hour.

O’Pray’s first orders were to get all the rail cars moved from the pier area. The cars were loaded with ammunition at this time eight months before the end of the war,  and the commander made safety of personnel and land his first priority. Next, the dockmaster ordered that action be taken to get the ships berthed at the Pier away from the area, clear of any danger and ordered the largest yard boat to be in charge of that directive.  Next, Lieutenant Commander O’Pray ordered that no fewer than three of the yard vessels head out to the stricken burning vessel and assist in every way possible in putting out the fire and rescuing personnel.

One of those three vessels sent out in the middle of a dark night, in the height of heavy seas and gale force winds, was YTB216, a tugboat.

Named the Cochise, and under the control of  R.L. Tooker, was this the right move to make?

Did R.L. Tooker respond in the way he should?  Stay turned for Part II of the story…