The Esso Huntington
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The tanker Esso Huntington, named for Huntington, W.Va., and
rail
tycoon Collis P. Huntington, was christened in 1953. When the
oil company changed its name to Exxon in 1973, the Esso
Huntington was renamed the Exxon Huntington.
The ship was scrapped in 1984.
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Because it was a global business, the
Standard Oil Co. of
New Jersey, generally known as Esso, operated an
ever-larger fleet of ocean-going tankers.
In the early 1950s, Esso contracted with
Virginia’s busy
Newport News Shipyard to build six new tankers.
Each of the six was named for a city. The fifth
of the six was the Esso Huntington, which
was christened on Aug. 18, 1953.
There was a direct connection between the
name of the
Esso Huntington and the Newport News Shipyard.
The new tanker was named for Huntington,
which was founded by rail tycoon Collis
P. Huntington, who also founded
the shipyard.
With Huntington as president, the
Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O)
Railroad regularly hauled long trainloads of West Virginia
coal to Newport News, where it was loaded onto large
cargo ships for shipment to foreign buyers. When
Huntington was unable to lease enough ships to
carry the C&O’s export coal, he established
the shipyard to build new vessels.
Over the years, the Esso Huntington was
the 32nd tanker
constructed in the Newport News Shipyard for Esso
and its subsidiaries. The first, the John D.
Archbold, was delivered in 1914.
When Esso changed its name to Exxon in
1973,
the Esso Huntington was renamed the Exxon
Huntington. The ship was scrapped in 1984.
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Note: This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on May 11, 2024.
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