Oldendorff Centenary Book - Flipbook - Page 283
Originally scheduled to be named
BIRTE OLDENDORFF (4) and TETE
OLDENDORFF (3), the vessels when
delivered into a period timecharter
with Senator Linie of Bremen were
christened LONDON SENATOR and
TOKYO SENATOR. The remaining four
ships went to operating companies of
the Bremer Vulkan conglomerate and
to Dutch shipowners, Vroon N.V. with
Egon Oldendorff acting as broker
against a commission for Senator
Linie, the brainchild of former HapagLloyd executive deputy chairman
Karl-Heinz Sager, commenced a fully
containerised round-the-world
service with chartered tonnage in
1987, offering fortnightly sailings on
one east-bound and one west-bound
route linking the world’s major trading
areas. Founding members of the new
venture included Bugsier-, Reedereiund Bergungs-GmbH, Bremer Vulkan,
Unterweser Reederei GmbH, and
several other parties. Egon Oldendorff
bought Senator Linie shares worth
DM 2 million in 1988, when also
Hamburg-Südamerikanische
Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft
Eggert & Amsinck became shareholders in Senator Linie. Kingston
Maritime Co. of Monrovia in 1988/89
acquired two multi-purpose freighters,
the JYTTE SKOU and BENNY SKOU
which under timecharter to HapagLloyd AG had been trading as
HAMMONIA and HOLSATIA. The major
parts of the ships’ hulls had been built
in 1982 by Nippon Kokan shipyard but
the after bodies including the engine
rooms had formerly been parts of
very stylish 1968/69 Danish-built
liner vessels. When handed over to
their new owners the ships delivered
into timecharters with Tasman
Asia Shipping Company and were
accordingly named T. A. NAVIGATOR
and T. A. MARINER instead of
HILLE OLDENDORFF (3) and IMME
OLDENDORFF (3) as per EO
nomenclature. TA is the acronym
prefix found on all Tasman Asia
Shipping Company (TASC) ships. This
New Zealand shipping company has
since become one of Oldendorff’s
most valued clients. One of the
largest New Zealand companies in
the forestry industry, Tasman Pulp
and Paper Company Ltd., merged in
1981 with Fletcher Holdings and
Challenge Corporation to form
Fletcher Challenge Limited, the
country’s largest public company.
The style of the affiliated shipping
company became Tasman Asia
Shipping Company in December 1988.
Multi-purpose freighter ECKERT OLDENDORFF in typical Hong Kong
midstream barge container handling operation
279
Since then TASC has chartered several
Oldendorff ships, mostly on period
contracts. TASC rapidly developed
into an important independent liner
operator with representatives and
agents throughout the area covered.
The bulk of northbound cargo is
generated by the line’s parent
company and consists of containerised
newsprint and cardboard. Other
containerised commodities include
refrigerated goods and dairy products,
granulated nickel from New Caledonia
and break-bulk cargoes such as steel,
paper and timber. Southbound, the line
carries consumer goods, chemicals
and textiles in containers and
conventional cargo such as motorcar
parts, steel, machinery, built-up motor
vehicles and construction material.
Tasman Asia had a service frequency
of three sailings per month in 1992.
Egon Oldendorff multi-purpose
freighters are ideally suited for this
particular cargo mix.
In 1989/90 Egon Oldendorff bareboatchartered, for a period of five years,
two 23,476 tdw geared multipurpose
freighters owned by Hyundai
Merchant Marine Co. and renamed
them HARMEN OLDENDORFF (2)
and CATHARINA OLDENDORFF (3).
Similar contracts were concluded
between October 1990 and January
1991 for three more Hyundai Merchant
Marine vessels, at just under 30,000
tdw among the largest tweendeckers
in the world merchant fleet with a
satisfactory container intake of 1,100
TEU. The ships have an excellent
cubic capacity of some 1,332,900 cu
ft each and their fuel consumption of
23 tonnes makes them economical
to run. All five Korean vessels had to
be adapted to Oldendorff standard at
considerable expense, including such
modifications to crew accommodation
as showers and changing rooms.
The ships were given the EO livery
and had their names painted in
Korean characters and Latin letters
since they initially remained in the
Korean register.
