History: Daniel K. Ludwig – father of the supertanker
Looking back at the career of the shipping giant and one of the world’s first billionaires.
In the annals of ship owning some individuals stand out - figures like Samuel Cunard, Alfred Holt, Aristotle Onassis, and Stavros Niarchos to name but a few. One such was the American Daniel K. Ludwig who was an early advocate of welding in shipbuilding and would later commission some of the largest ships built at the time.
Born in June 1897 in South Haven on the shores of Lake Michigan, Ludwig had great uncles who commanded Great Lakers and his own interest in shipbuilding was sparked at the age of nine when he salvaged an 8m boat. His early career was spent in various shipping jobs and setting up a freighting company. He later purchased a small tanker which he then leased to oil companies, enabling him to begin as a shipowner.
However, it was when he conceived a novel approach to funding newbuilds that his career really took off. By negotiating a provisional charter for a newbuild, he was able to use this as collateral for a bank loan to fund the building of the ship.
By 1936, Ludwig was President of the American Petroleum Transport Corp. and the same year he founded National Bulk Carriers which bought surplus World War I cargo ships and converted them into oil tankers. It then operated T2 tankers during World War II, but Ludwig had seen the potential of welded construction.
The use of welding in shipbuilding evolved gradually during the 1920s and 30s and was gaining in significance by the outbreak of World War II. Ludwig was aware of the advantages and proceeded to found a company, Welding Shipyards, in 1940 in Norfolk, Virginia, on the Sewell's Point peninsula. The company would build T3 tankers under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program.
Welding Shipyards operated a single construction berth and employed 600 workers. During 1943 and 1944, the shipyard would build five type T3-S-BF1 tankers, at 18,300 deadweight tons (dwt) and 168m long, the largest at the time.
Block construction was used to shorten the keel laying-to-launch time. The blocks were built as the keel was being laid and then the prefabricated parts were put in place and welded. With this construction method, time was reduced dramatically. Welding Shipyards and Ludwig had an important role in this new type of construction. All of the tankers were operated by Ludwig's National Bulk Carriers.
Largest tankers
Post war, through his companies National Bulk Carriers and Universal Tankship, Ludwig would go on to build one of the largest privately-owned fleets in the world, spanning tankers, bulk carriers and passenger ships.
In 1950 he leased Japan’s former Kure Naval shipyard that had built ships for the Imperial Japanese Navy including the world’s largest battleship, the Yamato, which was 263m long with a full load displacement of 69,998 tons. The yard was thus capable of constructing the large vessels Ludwig wanted to build.
A series of four 38,000 dwt tankers were built in the yard between 1952 and 1953, and by the end of 1954 it had delivered a 60,000 dwt ore carrier. In 1956, the 85,000 dwt Universe Leader was delivered. Then in 1959 there followed the Universe Apollo, which, at 104,500 long tons, was one of the first tankers to exceed 100,000 dwt and was joined by the sistership Universe Daphene in 1960.
Altogether Ludwig built 42 ships at Kure, and when his lease expired, the yard was acquired by Japanese shipbuilder Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI), which would go on to build more giants for Ludwig as well as George Campbell’s Freedom class of Liberty replacement freighters.
Ever bigger ships
In 1968, IHI delivered the tanker Universe Ireland, first of a class of six ships. At 326,000 dwt, it was then the largest ship in the world and described as the first Ultra Large Crude Carrier (ULCC). It went into service for Gulf Oil for the transport of oil between Kuwait and Whiddy Island, in the Republic of Ireland.
In 1982, he was listed by Forbes magazine as the richest man in America and would be known as one of the world’s first billionaires. His business interests were far and wide and included oil refining, banking, cattle ranching, insurance, real estate, mining and hotels. At his peak, he owned more than 200 companies in 50 countries, and his fortune was estimated at $4.5 billion. In later years he gradually withdrew from business, selling off his many assets and concentrating increasingly on philanthropy.
Ludwig remained a very private man throughout his life and passed away in August 1992 at the age of 95. In 1971, he had established the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, and after his death much of his fortune went to fund science. In 2014, his estate executed a $540 million donation to six top US cancer centres, including Harvard, MIT and John Hopkins.
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Image: world's Largest Tanker, Universe Ireland, being christened. Credit: KEYSTONE Pictures USA, Alamy.
