# Ludwig Tankers



## david freeman

I seem to remember seeing a ludvic supertanker 100KDWT long before they became fashionable. Steam ships with US Navy main steam plant, Austery accommodation and a woodbine funnel in the mid 60's. Any one remember of have photos of the er or accommodation spaces for interest. I think they sailed under the Liberian Flag or maybe the Panamanian, but they were american owned.(Thumb)


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## BillH

david freeman said:


> I seem to remember seeing a ludvic supertanker 100KDWT long before they became fashionable. Steam ships with US Navy main steam plant, Austery accommodation and a woodbine funnel in the mid 60's. Any one remember of have photos of the er or accommodation spaces for interest. I think they sailed under the Liberian Flag or maybe the Panamanian, but they were american owned.(Thumb)


I believe the owner was Daniel K.Ludwig and his business developed into Universe Tankships which in the 1980's chartered several VLCC's to Stena Bulk Ab. This latter concern eventually purchased the majority of Ludwigs fleet and I believe later his business also.


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## Baulkham Hills

Daniel K. Ludwig was one of the wealthiest men in the world, he ran National Bulk Carriers which owned ULCC's (reputably the largest tankers of their period Universe Ireland and Universe Kuwait 326,000 dwt in the late sixties with the terminal in Bantry Bay). He was renowned for the sparseness of the accommodation on his ships but he paid very well. He did a deal with the military government in Brazil for a 4 million acre timber plantation at Jari off the Amazon complete with a private airport capable of landing Jumbo jets. It ended up being a nail in the coffin of the military government because they basically let him set up a state within a state. A complete wood pulp mill was towed from Japan for the project. Eventually it was taken over by the Brazilian government in the eighties. 
My contact with NBC was during a period in the late seventies when I was working in Holland, I met an English C/E who was looking for a job who had previously worked with NBC and they had a manning agency in Rotterdam.
We both went down to this office and were interviewed for a job, for the first and last time we were each asked for a backhanded for the job. We both refused, that night the C/E called up NBC in New York and told them about this the next day the C/E went down to the office and the manning agent involved had been sacked and the C/E flew out to a ship that day. I was put on a waiting list but something else came up and I joined another company with Freezers and General cargo so I think it was the right choice.


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## trotterdotpom

Ludwig owned Clutha Bulk Carriers which were on the bauxite run from Weipa in North Queensland to Gladstone ... he was a tough cookie but he never beat the Seamen's Union of Australia!

John T.


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## gordy

Might be an urban myth, but a shipmate told me Ludwig saw his 1st ship design, (tanker) and queried the fancy funnel design. "How much oil gets carried in it" he asked, "none" he was told, hence the Woodbine funnels.


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## gadgee

David
There is quite a few photos of Ludwigs tankers in SN gallery. Here is one with some links:-
http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/14245/title/transfer-oil/cat/503

Just search Gallery and enter Ludwig in "comments" then search tankers.

Another link:-
http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/14242/title/danang-vietnam/cat/503


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## david.hopcroft

Not a woodbine funnel, but the spartan trend shows. The thumbnail is the 'George Champion' I was on a Mobil tanker when we responded mid-Indian Ocean to a request for fridge gas as theirs had leaked. 

David
+


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## Mike Griffiths

*Dea Maris*

I believe the Dea Maris was a Ludwig tanker ,I sailed on her in the early 70,s Paid off in Livorno, I was the only John Lime on her,sh.ort but eventful trip as I remember


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## gadgee

Mike
Dea Maris is here in SN gallery and Ludwig gets a mention:

http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/91290/title/unknown3d-dea-maris/cat/503


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## Mike Griffiths

Thank Paul,as I remember I signed the papers against Van De Vruchts corridor wall ,for a verbal $240US a month,and when I signed onboard at sea it was $214,in fairness I was a lot younger,and maybe thats why Ludwig was a millionaire,and I was a firebar


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## bill thompson

*Ore Regent*

This was one of Ludwig's OBO's,She was on the Australian bauxite trade,Gladstone Qld - Weipa Qld for several years.I was 2/3 mate in her for about three years in the early 1970's.

She was a very comfortable old ship,steam turbines combined with split accommodation made her very quiet midships.

Later I saw her in Antwerp when I was in one of Reardon Smith's ships,the "Fresno City" along with my wife and daughter,we were going walkabout for a while 

Anyway when I saw her in Antwerp she had been handed back to Ludwigs general fleet,she was an odd looking vessel,but my time in her was happy enough.


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## sidsal

When I was in Anglo American Oil as 2nd Mate in the late 1940's/50's I rember seeing this Woodbine funneled monster passing in mid Atlantic with her decks awash and only her bridge structure showing almost. It was one of Ludwig's first tankers and Iheard she was powered by engines from an US aircraft carrier
Incidentally Bill - there is a book due out end of this month - the story of Reardon Smith himslef - it's title is "From deck boy to baronet" or somesuch.
I have it on order from the Welsh Book Society.


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## bill thompson

*Smith's*

Thanks mate I will track down a copy.I served my time in Smith's 1958-1962.Best years of my life


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## shieldrow

I sailed on one of DK Ludwigs ships albeit in the guise of the Argyll shipping company of Bermuda, the ship the Coral Venture which was a converted T2 tanker into a bulk cement carrier (see my previous post in Bulk Carriers). He had a further ship under the British flagthe ss Argyll, this was a 50,000t bulk salt carrier and operated on the west coast of America between Baja Calafornia and Vancouver with cargo also to Long Beach. The ship was typical of National Bulk Carrier designs with minimal aestetics and moderate accomodation standards.

The main propulsion systeam was steam turbine allegedely provided from US surplus from a battle ship that was not completed. Striking features were provided by the fitting of two large deck cranes and a below hold conveyor system which made the ship self loading and discharging.
A photo of the vessel is available on the "T2 tanker page " website.


Getting back to tankers I remember all the pomp and ceremony atatched to the launching of the British Admiral as Britains first 100,000 ton tanker, Ludwig had been sailing his fleet of 100,000 ton tankers for years!, starting with the Universe Dapne and Universe Apollo, these two vessels did have woodbine funnels. The story I heard, was that when his naval architects showed him their designs he pointed to the streamlined funnels and asked what they were. The nervous architects answered back "its the funnel Sir!. I know that but does It carry oil?. No, then I dont want it replied Ludwig.


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## NoR

trotterdotpom said:


> ...... ... he was a tough cookie but he never beat the Seamen's Union of Australia!
> John T.


No, like the Kiwis and the Brits they beat themselves.


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## landoburns

Mike Griffiths said:


> I believe the Dea Maris was a Ludwig tanker ,I sailed on her in the early 70,s Paid off in Livorno, I was the only John Lime on her,sh.ort but eventful trip as I remember


I sailed with National Bulk Carriers/Universe Tankships in the 60's and 70's. (Ore Jupiter, Harold H. Helm, Universe Apollo, Dea Maris, Ore Venus, Universe Iran)

I was R/O on the "Dea Maris" around 1970 - was it Capt Korakis when you were there? I signed off with a Swedish 2nd Eng in Brunsbuttel and was relieved by an R/O called Ricky, I think he was from Geordie land..

Actually the "Dea Maris" was owned by a German Co DEA but was managed and crewed by NBC. It was the only motor ship in the Co, all the rest were steam and unlike the steamships it always seemed to be breaking down or blacking out. The accommodation, although not great, was less austere than the other NBC ships I sailed on.


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## Mike Griffiths

*Dea Maris 70/71*

Sorry for late reply,I know the skipper was Greek and I think it was Korakis,I paid off in Livorno with a Jugoslav engineer after a row with two german and Filipino 2nd eng.when the germans got the Filipino pissed and got him to salute and "heil Hitler" the Jugoslav,possibly not knowing his parents had been shot in the war,he went balistic ,and I spent an hour with my arms around him trying to stop him killing them with a wheelkey. Mike


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