SHIPPING: The Biggest Tankers

Daniel K. Ludwig, 60, owner of the world’s second biggest privately owned shipping fleet, is so publicity-shy that almost nobody knows what he is up to. But last week word came out of his modest Manhattan office that Ludwig was up to a great deal: one of the biggest private shipbuilding orders ever. Beginning next June, his shipyard division in Kure, Japan will start building five huge, 103,000-dead-weight-ton tankers, dwarfing Ludwig’s 85,000-d.w.t. Universe Leader, world’s biggest tanker, and boosting Ludwig’s fleet to more than 3,000,000 deadweight tons by 1960. When the ships are launched, they will put him ahead of Stavros Niarchos as the world’s No. 1 independent shipowner.

The new leviathans will be 131 ft. shorter but a full 16 ft. wider than the Queen Elizabeth, world’s biggest passenger liner. Though none of the ships will be able to squeeze through the Suez or Panama Canals, they will cost far less to operate while hauling far more cargo than smaller ships, even though forced to take longer routes.

Skipper Ludwig, a long, lean, lone-wolf operator who speaks softly and seldom, sailed to his riches through heavy seas. Born in South Haven, Mich., he started as a marine engine mechanic in his teens. At 27 he bought a small surplus oil tanker for use in the East Coast trade. When it blew up accidentally in 1926, Ludwig was nearly killed, his small company almost wrecked. But Ludwig recovered, raised credit to buy three more tankers, expanded his fleet further by chartering his tankers to oil and steel companies, borrowing against the charter to build or buy more tankers. He opened a shipyard in Norfolk, Va., built 18 more tankers, flourished mightily during and after World War II.

Today Ludwig is the sole owner of National Bulk Carriers, Inc., Universe Tankships, Inc., Seatankers, Inc., has a 58.7% interest in American-Hawaiian Steamship Co. To build ships for only $150 per d.w.t. (v. nearly $300 in the U.S.), he signed a lease on the old Imperial Japanese Navy shipyard in Kure in 1951 that runs to 1961, can be renewed to 1966. To fuel his fleet of more than 40 ships, which he sails with low-cost West Indian crews under the Liberian flag, Ludwig is building a 70,000-bbl.-a-day day refinery in Panama, also has a 1,000,000-acre Venezuelan ranch whose 10,000 head of cattle may soon supply his ships with meat.

Ludwig’s personal fortune has been estimated as high as $350 million, including a 197-ft. $2,000,000 yacht, the Danginn, on which he has entertained celebrities ranging from Clark Gable to Saudi Arabia’s King Ibn Saud. Aside from the yacht, Ludwig’s only hobby is making money. To that end, he once ordered his designers to work out a way to carry oil in tankers’ big hollow masts. When this proved impractical, Ludwig simply ordered his ships built from then on with no masts at all—just pipes to carry navigation lights.