First . . . click on the photo below to see its context on Auke Visser’s T-tanker page.
What do you suppose its cargo was as Angelo Petri? It bore that name from 1957 until 1970, and I believe it entered the Narrows bound for Port Newark many times during that period.
As you ponder this, let me explain the JS reference. I’m blessed that this blog has readers. My favorite readers sometimes comment on this blog or on Facebook or send me emails directly to gmail. I just love the most cryptic notes JS sends. Years ago he worked on ships that called at NY/NJ ports. In response to the recent posts on an orange juice tanker and small oil tankers . . . he wrote “Any wine tankers around? I remember passing that baby in the Canal 50 yrs. ago” The “Canal” was in Panama and “that baby” was Angelo Petri.
So if you clicked on Auke Visser’s photo, you may have learned that it was a T-2 launched from Swan Island in 1943 as SS Sackett’s Harbor. While hauling fuel in March 1946, it broke in two 800 miles south of Adak, Alaska. The bow sank with the loss of two cats. The bow powered itself, stern first, to Adak. Later it was towed to Anchorage, where it became a power plant, providing more than half of that city’s power for the next nine years. Later it was renamed Angelo Petri, fitted with a new bow and stainless steel tanks to transport . . . .
wine, 2.5 million gallons of it per voyage from 1957 until 1972, going through some additional name changes. Click here for a postcard of it loading in Stockton, CA for the east coast. Here’s a short bio of the man behind the name.
Click here to see a short video of the vessel after it lost power off San Francisco loaded with wine. Later the tanker went by SS Californian and Sea Chemist before it was scrapped in Spain in 1978 in a place called . . . Vinaroz.
Click here for photos of some contemporary wine tankers.
JS . . thanks for the email that sent me looking for Angelo Petri. Anyone else have recollections of having seen this baby?
tugster: a waterblog 
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March 15, 2014 at 9:50 am
walt
Thank you for Sharing.
Why Pray Tell does the Wine Tanker Rhone have the No Smoking Signage? Regarding land based power plants: This T-2 applicacation
is like Duran, EC, and the Baldwin locomotive Once used for thier land based power plant. Onassis started out with T-2’s.. The Marine Electric was a T-2 re-purposed to haul Coal. Talk about Swords to Ploshares: The Angelo Petri’s Photograph should be in the Wikipedia, under this heading!
February 14, 2016 at 4:12 pm
tugster
I’m posting here from an email: “In 1963-5, I shipped as a deckhand (Ordinary Seaman) while also in college . . back and forth until the Army made me feel “wanted”. One of my ships was the T-2 tanker, Angelo Petri. We delivered wine from Stockton to Port of NY with several “shift” locations. We picked up caustic acids for delivery to Lake Charles, LA. From there to Houston’s Hess docks for special petroleum products. . . Then, back home to Stockton. It was a 45 day turnaround and I was on for two trips. . . Four times through the Canal. Once, heading to NY, we had just cleared the Canal and were heading due North between Cuba and Haiti. I was on the midnight lookout and the islands look dark and foreboding. Cuba had just seized another US freighter days earlier, so we all held our breath until we were clear.
BONUS! Yesterday, I saw “Finest Hours” about the sinking and rescuing of the Petri’s sister ship in 1952. It was like old home movies for me and incredibly well done. It really depicts the ship realistically. Also, I just learned that a similar breaking apart had happened to the Petri before I shipped on her. . . only, they were able to sail the stern safely into port.”
Paul Zane
Paul–Thanks for sharing the story.