Dave Boone, son of Camden fire fighter Maurice Boone and nephew of Camden fire fighter George Boone, spent most of his professional life working on or with the tugboats that ply the Delaware, serving the ports of Camden and Philadelphia. Since retiring in 1999, he has made a name for himself as a painter, concentrating of tugboats and other waterfront scenes.

Suring the summer of 2006, Dave was kind enough to furnish 3 discs with high-resolution scans of various images of Camden, mostly pictures involving the river in one way or another. The sheer volume of images and my desire to try and get the page that would host them up in an orderly fashion dictated that I would have to block out some time to create a page for them. Family and work obligations being what they are, I am setting up the page with links to the images first, and will add thumbnails or quick loading versions later, as these images really deserve to be available to the public, and I do not want to delay this any further.

Please write with any comments!

Phil Cohen
Camden NJ
September 22, 2006

Mary Allaband Erekson is the daughter of the late David Allaband, who worked on the river as a longshoreman and aboard tugs beginning at the age of 12 in the mid 1920s. I've set up a page about his life and times, which you might find interesting. Includied are images of the tugboat Rancocas, and another that I have not identified.

Please write with any comments!

Phil Cohen
Camden NJ
July 28, 2007

Marie Gibbs Johnson sent some newspaper clippings with pictures of Cooper's Point and of Smith's Island and Windmill Island, both of which were in the Delaware between Camden and Philadelphia and which were removed to allow the navigation of the river by larger ships. Both islands were popular entertainment centers in their time. 

Phil Cohen
Camden NJ
October 12, 2007

Warren Fairess sent three photos taken in 1929 from the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and Dave Boone sent three photos and some text pages about the South Jersey Port in Camden from 1931.... on the same day in July! It just goes to show, great minds think alike!

Phil Cohen
Camden NJ
July 20, 2007

Sailing Ships docked off of Cooper Point -1890s

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Windmill Island

Smith's Island

The amusement park and beer garden on Smith's Island attracted thousands of pleasure seekers before the Federal government removed the island in the 1890s. Legend has it that a ship sank on the spot and the island was created from river silt piling upon it. The view below was from the old Federal Street ferry house.

Cramer Hill & North Camden

RCA factory buildings then still standing are at rear of photo

UNKNOWN, UNKNOWN, &  R.A. BANKS

Cramer Hill & North Camden

ABANDONED
1960s

CHARLES M. SHAW AT LEFT

John H. Mathis & Company Ship Yard

John H. Mathis
Company
Shipyard

Cramer Hill & North Camden

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PETTY'S ISLAND
Looking West
from
Cramer Hill

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circa 1910

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TIDEWATER SHIPYARD
&
Cramer Hill

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500 Block of Vine Street
circa 1900

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Petty's Island

PETTY'S ISLAND
Looking South
towards
North Camden
&
the
Benjamin Franklin Bridge

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PETTY'S ISLAND
Looking West
from
Cramer Hill

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Piers & Ferries

Built in 1919 as Norwegian  War Timiskaming, then became French Oise 1919 (Cie Generale Transatlantique, St.Nazaire), Estonian Kotkas 1929 (Kronstrom & Kowamees, Tallinn, Estonia), Panamanian Farida 1941, Panamanian Nidaros 1946, Norwegian Nidaros 1946 (Rederi A/S Nidaros, Oslo), Chinese Kien Yuan 1948 (Kien Yuan SS Co, Shanghai). Her fate is given as "sunk, January 27, 1949, in collision with str. Tai Ping, both vessels sinking, off Wenchow, in position 30 degrees 37N x 112 degrees 25E. Vessel bound from Keelung for Shanghai with coal."

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A Russian freighter converted into a tanker, the Ashkabad was torpedoed off the coast of North Carolina by U-402. 

The Ashkhabad had several previous names such as, the Dneprostroi, the Kutais, the Mistley Hall, the Aldersgate, the Milazzo, and the War Hostage. She was originally constructed as a freighter, but was converted to a tanker to carry fuel oil. The ship had a crew of 47, three of which were women. On April 26, 1942, the Ashkhabad left New York on her way to Cuba. The night sky on April 29, 1942 was clear and had a full moon that allowed six miles of visibility. The HMS Lady Elsa was escorting the Ashkhabad on her journey. In accordance to Navy regulations, both ships were zigzagging.

At 9:50, the HMS Lady Elsa spotted a U-Boat that was 500 yards off the starboard side of the Ashkhabad. None of the crew on watch aboard the Ashkhabad saw the U-Boat. The HMS Lady Elsa fired one shot that caused the U-402 to dive for cover, but not before firing a single torpedo. The torpedo hit on the starboard side just below the waterline in the No. 4 hold. The No. 4 hold, the deep tank, and the engine room flooded. Even though the Ashkhabad didn't have any watertight doors, only the stern of the ship flooded.

The U-402 partially surfaced about 500 yards off of the starboard side of the ship. The crew of the Ashkhabad, fired three shots from the forward .30-caliber gun, but all three missed. An hour after the attack, Captain Alexy Pavlovitch put all of his code books in a weighted box and sank them. Then he gave the order to abandon ship. The HMS Lady Elsa picked up all of the crew and took them to Morehead City.

At 10:00 a.m. the next morning, the crew from the HMS Hertfordshire, a British armed trawler, boarded the Ashkhabad and "salvaged" valuable navigational equipment and clothes. At 3:00 p.m., Captain Pavlovitch, some of the crew, and a Fifth Naval District Intelligence Officer returned to the Ashkhabad to find that it had been looted. The HMS Hertfordshire had already left the area.

The next day the Russians returned to their ship again and this time they were early enough to catch the HMS Hertfordshire tied up to the Ashkhabad. The British were removing all of the loose items from the ship. They were told that she was not abandoned and salvage tugs were on the way and the British returned all of the items that they had taken.

On May 3, 1942, the USS Semmes, a destroyer, came upon the Ashkhabad and determined that she was abandoned and a navigational hazard and fired three rounds from her 3-inch guns. The hits caused the midship superstructure to catch fire. Seeing the fire, the HMS St. Zeno went to the Ashkhabad. The HMS St. Zeno fired a shot at the Ashkhabad, under the authorization of the commanding officer of the HMS Hertfordshire, who was in command of all British armed trawlers at Morehead City. His explanation was that he thought the HMS St. Zeno might sink the Ashkhabad and extinguish the fire, which he considered a menace to a large convoy expected in the vicinity.

When the Navy tug, Relief, arrived to tow the Ashkhabad to shore for salvage, the ship was already a total loss. In 1943 and 1944, the Ashkhabad was blasted with explosives because it was a navigational hazard.

The Ashkhabad now lies in 55 feet of water, about 22 miles southeast of the Beaufort Inlet. The high parts of this wreck are the boilers and the condenser. Some of the ribs of the ship can also be seen in the section fore of the boilers. Deck plates and twisted beams are scattered about the wreck.

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Delivered in November 1920 from A. McMillan & Co. Ltd., Dumbarton as Torrey for A/S To (Martin Mosvold), Kristiansand. Martin Mosvold encountered economical difficulties and the ship was taken over in 1922 by A. I. Langfeldt, Kristiansand. Purchased by H. M. Wrangell & Co. A/S in June-1923 and registered as Augvald for D/S A/S Augvald. Transferred to Skibs-A/S Corona (same managers) in November, of 1929.

On March 2, 1941, at 2212, Augvald, under the command of Captain Rolf Svenson, which had lost sight of Convoy HX-109 in bad weather the day before, was hit by a torpedo from U-147, commnaded by  Korvettenkapitän Reinhard Hardegen, and sank. 29 men died, among them two young English boys age 14 and 16. Able seaman Rasmus Kolstø survived 11 days alone on the sea and was picked up by the British corvette HMS Pimpernel about 150 miles NW of Loch Ewe. U-147 was in turn sunk on June 2, 1941 north-west of Ireland, in position 56.38N, 10.24W, by depth charges from the British destroyer HMS Wanderer and the British corvette HMS Periwinkle. 26 dead (all hands lost).

Top: Camden, NJ - February 5, 1939

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At Built in 1929, at the Greenock Dockyard Co Ltd, Greenock.  the Barrwhin was a 4,998 ton freighter. She was carrying 8200 tons of grain and military stores from Halifax to London as part of Convoy HX-212

At 21.18 hours on October 29, 1942, the Barrwhin (Master Thomas Sydney Dixon) in convoy HX-212 was hit by one torpedo from U-436 and sank quickly south of Iceland at 55.02N, 22.45W - Grid AL 5482. The Barrwhin had rescued 60 survivors from the Kosmos II, which had been sunk by U-624 (Soden-Fraunhofen) at 03.05 hours the same day. 12 crew members and 12 survivors were lost.

The master, 41 crew members and 48 survivors were picked up after about eight hours from rafts by the HMCS Kenogami (K 125) (Lt P.J.B. Cook) and landed at Londonderry.

U-436, captained by Kapitänleutnant Günther Seibicke was sunk 26 May, 1943 in the North Atlantic west of Cape Ortegal, Spain, in position 43.49N, 15.56W, by depth charges from the British frigate HMS Test and the British corvette HMS Hyderabad 47 dead (all hands lost).

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On November 16, 1941 a convoy of steamers BLAIRATHOLL (3319grt), BARON NEWLANDS (3386grt), SHUNA (1575grt), CISNEROS (1886grt), and OTTINGE (2870grt), and oiler BROWN RANGER departed Gibraltar escorted by destroyer HMS WILD SWAN, sloop HMS DEPTFORD, and corvettes HMS CONVOLVULUS, HMS RHODODENDRON, and HMS MARIGOLD. 

The convoy, Operation CHIEFTAN, was a diversion for Operation CRUSADER in the eastern Mediterranean . A U-boat contact was made by destroyer WILD SWAN on the 16th. The destroyer was joined by corvette HMS SAMPHIRE. Corvette MARIGOLD sank the U-433 south of Malaga in 36-13N, 04-42W. Six officers and thirty two ratings the submarine were rescued. Six ratings were lost in the submarine. The convoy proceeded towards Malta , but after nightfall on the 18th, the steamers returned to Gibraltar .

Blairatholl had arrived at New York from Partington on October 26, 1942 and left New York as part of Convoy SC-110 on November 17 for Loch Ewe and Tyne. After joining Convoy HX-216, at 20:51 on November 26, 1942 Blairatholl reported by W.T. that is was in collision. At 05:14 on the 27th reported foundering 51 25N 48 30W. Blairatholl had collided with the Norwegian freighter John Bakke. The following Royal Navy personnel were lost: 

PATTISON, Harry, Act/Able Seaman 
QUINAN, Edward J, Act/Able Seaman 
STEELE, William, Act/Able Seaman 

A 2,730 ton freighter, this ship was built in 1919 as the American Lake Elkwater for US Shipping Board of Washington DC. In 1929 she was sold to Mooremack Gulf Lines, New York and renamed Commercial Bostonian. In 1940 sold to Lloyd Brasilieiro of Rio de Janeiro Brazil and renamed Ozório.

On 8 Jun, 1942, the Ozório rescued eleven survivors from a lifeboat of Robin Moor in 00°16N/37°37W and landed them at Recife, Brazil. 

At 01.10 hours on 28 Sep, 1942, U-514, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Hans Jürgen Auffermann attacked a small convoy consisting of two merchant ships escorted by USS Roe (DD 418) off the Amazon estuary about 75 miles north of Salinas and sank the Ozório in shallow waters. At 02.15 hours, the U-boat fired a torpedo at the second ship, the Lages, which also sank in shallow waters with only the bow visible in 00°12N/47°55W.

The unarmed Ozório (Master Almiro Galdino de Carvalho) sank 25 minutes after being hit. The master and four crew members were lost.

Both vessels were sunk in shallow waters and later salvaged, but not repaired until the war ended, thus regarded as total losses. 

U-514 was sunk 8 July, 1943 north-east of Cape Finisterre, Spain, in position 43.37N, 08.59W, by rockets from a British Liberator aircraft (Sqdn. 224/R). 54 dead (all hands lost).

late 1950s - 1960s

The SS Copan was owned by the United Fruit Company and was used to bring produce from Central America to the United States. Still plying the seas as late as 1963, the Copan was one of eight ships whose use was donated by the American Steamship Line to help evacuate survivors of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. The evacaution was completed between Christmas Day 1962 and July 4, 1963.

Owner: Skibs-A/S Skibsfart & Skibs-A/S Salvesen
Manager: Jacob Salvesen, Farsund
Tonnage: 2475 gt, 1420 net, 4120 tdwt.
Dimensions: 295.5' x 43.7' x 20.6'.
Machinery: Triple exp. (G. T. Gray & Co., South Shields), 232 nhp.

Built in 1921 (R. W. Jordan says she was started by Newcastle Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. and completed by Forth Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd. in 1921, while a Norwegian source states she was completed by Pusnes Støberi & mek. Verksted, Arendal and delivered in Oct.-1922). Delivered as Ravnefjell to A/S Rudolf (Olsen & Ugelstad), Oslo. Sold in Sept.-1937 to Skibs-A/S Skibsfart & Skibs-A/S Salvesen (Jacob Salvesen), Farsund and renamed Far.

Captain: Sverre Jakobsen (from 1938 til Dec.-1945).

1st Mate was Reimert Pedersen (from 1938 till 1944), 3rd Mate was Aage Simonsen (from the fall of 1943 until the end of the war, had previously served on M/T Sommerstad and M/S Tigre), Chief Engineer Severin Andreassen (also from 1938 till Dec.-1945). She also had a donkeyman named Ole Johan Nilsen.

Far was in service U.S.A.-England in the period 1941-1943, then in the Mediterranean.

She was scheduled for the slow Sydney [C.B.]-U.K. Convoy SC 54 in Nov.-1941 but instead joined SC 55, pulp wood for Manchester.

She's also listed in Convoy SC 76 from Halifax to the U.K. in March-1942, cargo of phosphates for Ipswich. Early in Aug. that year we find her in the slow Halifax-U.K. Convoy SC 95, cargo of lumber for London, joining with the Sydney, C.B. portion of the convoy. The following month she's listed in station 32 of the westbound North Atlantic Convoy ON 128.

A year later (Sept.-1943) she's listed in station 55 of the slow Halifax-U.K. Convoy SC 141. In Nov.-1943 she shows up in Convoy OS 58/KMS 32 (see external link below), voyaging from Oban to Sicily with coal in station 23. KMS 32 will be added to my own site in due course.

In Jan.-1944 we find her in the Bizerta portion of Convoy MKS 36.

She was loading ammunition at Barletta, Italy in May-1944 when an explosion occurred in one of the cases of ammunition, but the crew, lead by the captain, the 1st and 3rd mates as well as a British lieutenant Terry were able to extinguish the resulting fire before further explosions occurred, thereby saving not only the ship, but the city from destruction. 2 other ships with the same kind of cargo were right behind Far, so the situation was quite dramatic for a while. The ruined cargo was then unloaded and new ammunition taken on board, before she continued to Ancona, which was in ruins at the time. After having unloaded there for 2 days she moved further out, and shortly afterwards a diver found a magnetic mine in the spot were Far had been discharging her cargo.

According to an article I have found, Far was at Bari in the fall of 1944(?) unloading (loading?) ammunition. A Liberty ship was next to her unloading bombs. Far missed the convoy she was scheduled to leave with, but the captain decided to try to catch up with it instead of waiting for the next convoy. About 4 n. miles out she was shaken by an enormous explosion occurring in Bari harbour; those who were below decks thought they had had an explosion on board. It turned out the Liberty ship had exploded, with the loss of her 80 crew as well as several hundred other lives, and again Far had narrowly avoided disaster. I'm a little suspicious here and wonder if the dates and events have become somewhat confused, so that what happend at Bari during the aircraft attack in Dec.-1943 when the Liberty ship S/S John Harvey blew up (see my text for Bollsta), has been mixed with the events of the spring of 1945 when the ammunition ship S/S Charles Henderson exploded during the unloading of cargo (D/S Knoll was set on fire at that time, follow link for more). I don't know enough about the Liberty ships to confirm whether a separate incident did occur at Bari in the fall of 1944, as stated in this article.

Far continued in the supply service in the Mediterranean until Nov.-1945. She ran aground on January 8, 1950, off Flekkefjord, and broke up during a storm, when on a voyage from the Tyne to Copenhagen. No casualties.

Built in 1923 and operated by the Hamburg-
America Line, Iderwald was a 5033 ton German owned passenger-cargo ship. She had been in port at Tampico, Mexico at the outbreak of hostilities. 

 Idarwald was intercepted by the British light cruiser HMS Diomede on December 8, 1940. The United States Navy destroyer Sturtevant DD-240 stood by and did not interfere or take part in the operation, as the U.S. was not then at war. Before a capture could be effected the crew of the German freighter set it afire and scuttled it off Cabo Corrientes, Cuba.

This Swedish-owned and operated freighter was built in Germany around 1924. She was lost on July 11, 1942 near the Vastervik Archipelago, Sweden when torpedoed by the Russian submarine S-7. Eight lives were lost. The S-7 was later torpedoed herself by a Finnish submarine.

The Mediceo was built in Glasgow in 1918 as the War Singer for the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company. In 1921 the ship was renamed Akera. The ship was sold in 1927 to Prebensen & Blakstad, Risør, Norway. 

In 1939 the ship again changed hands. Sold to Ditta Marino Querci, of Genoa, Italy, she was converted to cargo ship and renamed Mediceo and placed under the Italian flag. When Italy surrendered to the Allies in September of 1943, Mediceo was seized by Germans and handed over to Mittelmeer Reederei GmbH. She was bombed by British aircraft January 31, 1945 and sunk off Tagliamento, Italy.

Top: Camden, September 18, 1934

The Swedish motor-ship Tisnaren of 5,747 tons was built by the shipyards "Götaverken A/B of Gothenburg" in Sweden in 1918. Tisnaren belonged to the shipping company "Transatlantic Rederiaktiebolaget".

Besides calling at Camden in 1934, Tisnaren visited Auckland, New Zealand two times between December 17, 1930 and December 20, 1931, and also called at South African ports during its active career.

On October 15, 1937 Tisnaren sailed with cargo and passenngers from Oslo, Norway to Cape Town, South Africa, Arriving in Mid November. In the latter half of 1938, Tisnaren sailed from Vancouver, Canada to Brisbane, Australia, calling at San Francisco, Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide.

On October 3, 1941 Tisnaren saved from Oban to Freetown in West Africa as part of Convoy OS-8, arriving on October 26, 1941 without incident. Tisnaren went on from there to Cape Town, Bombay, and Karachi. 

On March 14, 1942 Tisnaren sailed from Free Town, bound for Gibralter and Clyde, Scotland as part of Convoy SL-103. She made Gibralter on March 22, and arrived in Liverpool on Aril 2, 1942, before proceeding to Clyde. Tisnaren's next journey proved to her her last. 

On May 2, 1942, Tisnaren salied from Liverpool as part of Convoy OS-27, bound for Rio de Janiero. On May 19th, 1942 the Italian submarine Cappellini, operating out of the wartime naval base at Bordeaux, France, located Tisnaren, which had become separated from the of convoy  and sank it. The position of the attack was given at 03° 38' to N 32° 01' W, while the ship sank in position 03 N 33 W; there were no casualties and the 40 crewmembers were later rescued. 

"My father John Arnold Smith from Manchester was on the Tisnaren when it was torpedoed. The ship was sailing from Manchester to South America with a cargo of Scotch Whiskey. He and other crew members were adrift in an open life boat for 2 days before being rescued by the United States vessel S.S. Black Hawk. They were then taken to Port of Spain, Trinidad to recover. My father told me that after being torpedoed, the attacking submarine surfaced and started to fire machine guns towards the sinking Tisnaren. My father served on British and American vessels in many theatres of war between 1941 and 1945. The Tirnaren was the only neutral ship he sailed on in this period. Apparently when attacked, she was floodlit with a large Swedish flag painted on both port and starboard signs to indicate her neutrality. It was believed an Italian Submarine carried out the attack.

John Smith,  February 20, 2005

Piers & Ferries - Beckett Street Terminal

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A Luckenbach freighter
at the
Beckett Street Terminal
July 24, 1933

Beckett Street Terminal
July 14, 1933

Originally built as USAT Marica was built at Chester, Pennsylvania, as an 8738 gross ton freighter for the Luckenbach Steamship Company of New York. Upon completion she was taken over by the Navy, converted to a transport, and placed in commission in June 1919 as USS Marica (ID # 4031). Following a few months' service returning U.S. service personnel from Europe, in mid-September 1919 she was decommissioned and turned over to the War Department for operation as the U.S. Army Transport Marica. She was soon returned to her owner, which reconverted her to a freighter and at some point renamed her Lillian Luckenbach. The ship's long commercial service lasted until 27 March 1943, when she was sunk off the U.S. East Coast in a collision with the S.S. Cape Henlopen.

2/22/1943 - The vessel sailed from Liverpool, UK to New York, carrying 3,500 tons sand ballast, Robert C. Forbes Master, as part of Convoy ON-166. At 7:20 PM, position 46.54 N, 34.30 W, East of St, John's Newfoundland, while steaming at 9.5 knots, the U-606 (Dohler) fired a torpedo, striking the ship in the center of #4 hold. The explosion lifted the vessel out of the water, blew the hatch covers of #3 and #4 holds, tore the deck booms away and probably severed the main shaft. The ship quickly listed to starboard and settled rapidly. Just 2 minutes after the explosion the Master ordered the ship abandoned, with water reaching the welldeck 1 minute later. The vessel sank by the stern in about 15 minutes. The 10 officers, 27 crewmen and 21 armed guards left the ship in 4 boats and 1 raft. The Canadian Corvette TRILLIUM (K-172) rescued the survivors 3 hours later. Ten of the gun crew transferred to the USCG SPENCER (WPG-36) landing in Argentia, Newfoundland, the rest landing at St. Johns. All hands survived the attack.

"At 2120 there was a tremendous explosion at number four hold on the starboard side. It seemed to lift the ship out of the water; blew off all the hatch covers of number three and number four holds. The shaft was broken. There was nothing to do but abandon ship."

"Heroes in Dungarees", page 116

Within a few hours the U-606 herself was sunk by the Polish destroyer ORP Burza and an American Coast Guard cutter, USCG Campbell.

Benjamin Franklin Bridge

Benjamin Franklin Bridge - 1929
Photos courtesy of Warren Fairess from the collection of his mother, Marie Fisbeck Fairess

This shows Campbell's tomato processor along the River, they received a good deal of their fresh tomatoes via barge and small freighters from NJ and Delaware farmers.  The ship (below) anchored in the stream is a suction dredge, she shows up often in other photos of this area and this must have been her "spot" when not dredging." 

- Dave Boone, July 2008

Ferries

circa 1895

Captain John G. Hutchison was superintendent of the ferry for over 30 years, beginning in 1857.

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built in 1879 for
The West Jersey Ferry

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