a selection of pictures of the

4
THE SUPEREVENT
Mr. Jonathan Holloway
The last shipbuilding contract Mr. Oldendorff
signed before he passed away, was a 4-ship
order with Hyundai Heavy Industries for
Panamax Product Tankers. Those ships the
"Planet Class" - NORDVENUS,
NORDMARS, NORDMERKUR and
NORDNEPTUN entered the fleet between
26th March and 6th May 2004. Having ships
ready for delivery so close together meant that
it was possible to do a combined naming
ceremony and therefore Mrs. Oldendorff
decided we should have a 'SUPEREVENT'.
It is certainly the first time ‘NORD’ has had a
quadruple naming ceremony. When the idea
was suggested to Hyundai Heavy Industries we
found out that this would also be a first for
them, even though the Ulsan yard where the
ships were being built is the largest shipyard in
the world.
If you are naming four ships then you need
four godmothers. It just so happens that
Mrs. Oldendorff has four sisters, so therefore
we had the perfect combination. However the
sisters live in different parts of the world so a
major logistical exercise was undertaken by the
Hamburg office to make sure they all arrived in
South Korea on the same day, as well as the
management representatives of ‘NORD’.
Unfortunately those travelling to the
Superevent left their homes with heavy hearts
when a few days prior to departure Mrs. Oldendorff
hurt her back and was advised by her doctor
that a long flight to South Korea would not be
possible. But all travelling were aware that they
NORD NEWS Summer 2004
By Jonathan Holloway
had an important task to do and would do the
best they could.
All those attending the Superevent met up in
Seoul on Wednesday 24th March, arriving on
different flights from different parts of the
world. The first thing most people do on
arrival in South Korea is rent a mobile phone,
this country has a unique mobile telephone
network that is incompatible with any other
system.
Our meeting place was the Westin Chosin
Hotel in the centre of Seoul, the oldest hotel in
Korea. South Koreans also very much like to
exchange business cards and therefore on
checking in at the hotel you are presented with
business cards that gives your name, the
telephone number of your hotel room, the
number of your Korean mobile and the
number of the fax machine in your room.
Everybody eventually got together over dinner,
a party of 9 people. The four sisters of
Mrs. Oldendorff; Mrs. Dorothea Schostack
godmother of NORDMARS, Mrs. Insa Thiele
godmother of NORDVENUS,
Baroness Margret von Schorlemer godmother
of NORDMERKUR and Countess
Bettina von Kerssenbrock godmother
of NORDNEPTUN; as well as
Christian and Nikolaus Oldendorff;
Mr. Peter Rybarczyk and Dr. Kurt Klemme
from our Hamburg office; and myself
from our Limassol office.
Thursday morning was the time for sightseeing
and to learn about the culture of our host
country. We travelled to the Royal Palace and
National Museum of Korea. In the museum we
learned that Korea does indeed have a very
long history. We saw that for many years the
country was divided into different regions and
the exhibits showed how the people in each
region developed over time. In the centre of the
museum was a large model showing how Seoul
looked one hundred years ago and how it
looked after the Japanese invaded and