SS Elsinore

In early 1910s Union Oil Company experienced significant shortage of shipping tonnage due to rapidly expanding South American contracts and looked to add several tankers to its existing fleet of 14. The company was engaged in oil transportation from California to ports in Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Hawaii, and Central and South America. On August 1, 1912 the Union Oil Company entered into an agreement with a British ship broker to charter for a term of seven years, commencing from the date of delivery, a "good British Tank Steamer, to be built....and estimated to have a total deadweight carrying capacity of about 9,700 tons".[3] The charterer agreed to pay £2,850 per calendar month commencing on date of delivery of the ship.[3] The ship was laid down in 1913 at Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson shipyard at Wallsend, launched on November 12, 1913 (yard number 931), and commissioned in early December of the same year.[1] As built, the ship was 420 feet 5 inches (128.14 m) long (between perpendiculars) and 54 feet 6 inches (16.61 m) abeam, a mean draft of 32 feet 4 inches (9.86 m).[2] Elsinore was assessed at 6,542 GRT and 4,169 NRT.[2] The vessel had a steel hull, and a single 484 nhp triple-expansion steam engine, with cylinders of 27-inch (69 cm), 45-inch (110 cm), and 75-inch (190 cm) diameter with a 48-inch (120 cm) stroke, that drove a single screw propeller, and moved the ship at up to 10.0 knots (11.5 mph; 18.5 km/h).[2]

Elsinore was delivered to their owner, Bear Creek Oil & Shipping Co. in early December 1913, and was immediately chartered by the Pacific Creosote Company to deliver creosote to their facilities in the Pacific Northwest. The vessel loaded her cargo in Amsterdam and departed on December 20, 1913 to St. Helens and Seattle.[4] She arrived there at the end of February, unloaded her cargo and proceeded to San Francisco where she arrived on March 1.[5]

Elsinore was formally transferred to the Union Oil Company on March 12, 1914, when she left San Francisco for Balboa stopping off to load oil at Port San Luis, the major oil storage and shipping facility for Union Oil.[6] She reached Balboa on March 27,[7] unloaded her cargo and left for California on March 30.[8] Upon arrival, Elsinore loaded 57,000 barrels of fuel oil and departed for Chile on April 21,[9] arriving in Antofagasta on May 4.[10] She departed Antofagasta three days later and reached San Francisco on May 27.[11] A week later she loaded 55,000 barrels of fuel oil at Port San Luis,[12] and headed again for Chile, arriving in Antofagasta on June 25, proceeding to Iquique which she departed from on June 29.[13] Upon arrival in Port San Luis on July 14, Elsinore took on more oil and headed for Balboa where she arrived on July 30, unloaded her cargo and departed on August 1.[14]

• Fayle, C. Ernest (1920). History of the Great War. Seaborne Trade, Vol. I. London, UK: John Murray.
• Bisher, Jamie (2016). The Intelligence War in Latin America, 1914-1922. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. ISBN 978-0786433506.