Protection of Fuel Tanks Safety ahead! - GL Group

ed to gather more experience in agency business. In 1963
he returned to London, and two years later he took over
from Hans Schenkel as Managing Director. In 1967 he also
became the majority partner.
The late 1960s and early 1970s were characterized by
continual service optimization. Instead of volume-based
chartering, for example, the company began to charter
ships for specific periods (time charter). This, in turn, required
an adequate orders situation for the ships’ capacity
to be utilized. In this way, Union Transport developed into
more of a shipping company.
From Charterer to Owner
In 1973, the company bought its first vessel. It chose the
German coastal vessel Claus Jürgens: twelve years old, GLclassed
and at a price of 50,000 pounds. Its new name was
“Union Star”. The superfluous superstructure was removed,
and the mast and funnel were fitted with a tilt mechanism
so that the ship could pass under bridges when negotiating
rivers. In contrast to purely coastal vessels, the “Union
Star” was also seaworthy – enabling the company to offer a
service that its competitors could not provide: shipments
from European inland ports to the UK without any timeconsuming
stops along the way in Rotterdam or Antwerp.
Union Transport’s customers appreciated this competitive
advantage and the company’s proverbial reliability. In 1974
it added the “Union Sun”, “Union Moon” and “Union Venus”
to its fleet. Just three years later, Union Transport was able
to deploy its first newbuildings. The “Union Gem” transported
a thousand tons of sugar on its maiden voyage from
London to Basel – a quantity previously unthinkable.
The ships became bigger – making the question as to
whether the logistics services could still be performed efficiently
more pressing. The hydraulically-powered lifting
and lowering system for the wheelhouse had not yet been
invented. So the company simply removed the wheelhouse
roof to enable continued sailings to European inland ports.
In view of fluctuating water levels, this structural alteration
made it possible to extend the operating period of the Union
Transport fleet.
Apart from transporting cargo in bulk at sea, Union
Transport established itself as a reliable carrier for the
international oil industry and in the transportation of
heavy goods. For more than fifteen years it transported
machines and equipment for McDermott, an oil company
based in New Orleans. One of it biggest projects was
to handle the logistics for setting up the oil fields in the
Persian Gulf. Pipeline parts and cement were shipped
from Japan to the Middle East in consignments of up to
30,000 tons. McDermott, and therefore also Union Transport,
were likewise involved in equipping the oil fields
TRADITION.
Loading
and discharging
port indicators
for the
deployment
chart.
UNION TRANSPORT | MARITIME SERVICES
BRITISH COMMITTEE
“I am a busy man”
Not all the customers came into contact with
Germanischer Lloyd while they were still at school.
During a class trip, young Max Heinimann from
Switzerland noticed that most of the inland vessels
in the port of Basel were classifi ed by GL. This
must have been signifi cant. Later, as an aspiring
shipbroker, he implicitly trusted Germanischer
Lloyd’s technical professionalism. Most of Union
Transport’s chartered ships were German coastal
vessels with German owners and German crews.
And they were all classifi ed by Germanischer Lloyd.
The vessels chartered on a time charter basis, too,
were all classifi ed by GL.
The mixture. In 1986 Heinimann was asked by
the GL board member Helm whether he wanted
to become a member of the British Committee. “I
am a busy man,” was the reply. Helm had to do a
lot of convincing to tempt him to take part in the
annual committee meetings and specialist lectures
and debates. It’s the committee’s composition that
makes it interesting, says Heinimann: “The mixture
of shipowners, shipbrokers, insurance agents,
shipyard directors and representatives of banks
and investment companies, as well as representatives
of the fl ag states and other maritime institutions,
mean that you’re bound to learn something
new at every committee meeting.” Max Heinimann
was formally admitted at the annual meeting of the
British Committee on July 18, 1986 and has been an
active member ever since.
The development. Ten years later, he was
asked to take over as the chairman of the committee.
How does Max Heinimann see the development
of his classifi cation institution? “Over the
past few years, Germanischer Lloyd has increased
its activities and become more market-oriented.
Today we talk ‘business’. We offer a wider range
of services, customer wishes are put into practice
more quickly, and our readiness to innovate is
impressive. The important things are still reliability
and quality!”
nonstop 4/2006
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