Oldendorff Centenary Book - Flipbook - Page 183
AND THEN THERE
WERE TWO
With the fleet reduced to just two vessels,
Egon Oldendorff started bargain-hunting.
In the 1950s, German owners were buyers,
not sellers.
Egon Oldendorff had sold his three small steamers, the NORDKAP, NORDLAND
and NORDSTERN, during the war. All three prizes, SIGNAL, AXEL and WALTER
sank in 1944 and FISCHHAUSEN had to be delivered to Great Britain in 1945.
This left Egon Oldendorff with the GISELA OLDENDORFF and the NORDMARK
which, at 1,361 and 1,060 GRT, respectively, did not have to be surrendered to
the Allies. The company had lost eight ships during the war and thereafter
but still owned two vessels with which it could resume commercial activities,
an enviable position compared with many other, mostly larger companies who
had lost their entire fleets.
Identified by a number issued by the Control Commission for Germany painted
below the vessel’s name and flying the international flag ‘C’ in lieu of a national
flag, the ships went back into service in 1947, closely regulated by the Allies
and having been repaired to the extent possible in those days. People were
determined to reconstruct, but implementation was quite another story. Not
least because there existed several grey areas, and that included financing
and the legal side of things since some authoritative body had to sanction
reconstruction, but where exactly was that authority? It was not unreasonable
to expect government to assist since after all it had been government, albeit
the previous one, that had waged the war. However, the Allies who initially
constituted government in an early decree banned German participation in
deepsea shipping. They licensed short-range coastal shipping from 1946, but
subject to a permission for each and every individual voyage.
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