The SS KENSINGTON

In the late 1970s, while America was recovering from the first major fabricated oil shortage in history, Tom Archer, recent academy graduate, climbed aboard the SS KENSINGTON, a 225,000 ton tramp oil tanker as the new third mate and medical officer. The KENSINGTON was built in 1973 by Seatrain shipbuilding for International Oil Tanking to take part in the first oil shortage. It had recently survived a tidal wave caused by an earthquake off the coast of Spain that put its cargo control system out of commission and damaged the navigation equipment. Over the next six months the officers and crew would put this ship back into operation in preparation for the next planned oil shortage in 1980. This is the story of those voyages, coming directly from the third mate’s personal log.