A brief history of the Bergesen d.y.

Family background

From The Bergesen Fleet 1935 - 2003

Family background

Before Sigval Bergesen d.y. was born in 1893, shipping was already  an established tradition in the Bergesen family. In 1830, his great-grandfather Berge Bergesen moved from Tasta to Stavanger, where he established a shipping company in 1840.

Sigval Bergesen d.y.`s father Sigval Bergesen, who was born in 1863, started his own shipping company - Sigval Bergesen - in 1887. His first vessel was the schooner rigged galeas EDDA, which had once been owned by his grandfather. His fleet of sailing vessels grew rapidly, transporting herring from Norway to the North Sea and the Baltic countries.

It was soon realised that sail would not remain competitive, so he gradually introduce stemships. Nonetheless, the company did invest considerably in the steel bark CHARLES RACINE, named after Sigval Bergesen´s father-in-law, which was delivered in 1892 and which sailed successfully until sold in 1916. In 1914, the company acquired its first tanker, Breifond - one of the first steam tankers under the Norwegian flagg - but she was not a commercial success. Sigval Bergesen d.y. joined his father´s company in 1916, and two years later, he and his older brother Ole were appointed partners. They were soon deeply ivolved in the buisiness of operating what was now the largest shipping company in Stavanger. Ole concentrated on management and technical operations, while Sigval Bergesen d.y., who clearly foresaw the future potential in bulk oil transport, was in charge of chartering and insurance activities.

Leaving his father´s company - stablished his own.

In 1934, Sigval Bergesen d.y. negotiated a newbuilding contract with Odense Staalskibsværft A/S for two motor tankers of about 15,000 tonnes deadweight capacity, despite the opposition of his father and brother. He decided to leave his father´s company to form his own - Sig. Bergesen d.y. ﹠ Co. - which was registered on 20 February 1935 and took over one of the contracts. Later that year, the well-known Danish shipowner A.P.Møller, who, in addition to his large fleet also owned the Odense shipyard, offered him a senior management position in his company, an offer which Sigval Bergesen d.y. accepted. He worked as A.P.Møller´s right hand man for a period of more than four years, which were to prove highly valuable for his own development. Erlend Bassø, his partner in Sig.Bergesen d.y.﹠Co., became responsible for the daily operations at the new company´s office in Stavanger, while Sigval Bergesen d.y.was working with A.P.Møller in Copenhagen. Erlend Bassø remained at the company´s Stavanger office after the head office was moved to Oslo in 1939, retiring in 1968.

In may 1935, the new company´s first vessel was delivered and named PRÉSIDENT DE VOGüE (named after the president of the vessel´s French charters). Two more tankers followed in 1937 and 1939: CHARLES RACINE, named after Sigval Bergesen d.y.´s grandfather, and ANDERS JAHRE, named after the well known Norwegian shipowner.(Sigval Bergesen d.y. chose this name in gratitude to Anders Jahre for selling him the newbuilding contract for the ship in Germany in return for a three-year charter of CHARLES RACINE.

The fleet during the war

When World War II spread to Norway on 9 April 1940, the company had three very modern tankers in operation. On 20 April 1940, the vessel`s management and operation were assumed by Nortraship, on the orders of the Norwegian Government. Nortrasship, which operated the Norwegian merchant fleet during the war, had two offices - one in London and one in New York. Sigvald Bergesen d.y.`s only son, Berge Sigval Bergesen, made his way to New York to work for Nortraship, while Sigval Bergesen d.y. remained in Oslo. He had moved his head office from Stavanger to Oslo just before the war broke out, but kept the office in Stavanger as a branch office, managed by his partner Erland Bassøe. The move to Oslo was made so that closer contacts could be developed with shipbrokers and major banks.

Sog.Bergesen d.y. & Co. lost one vessel during the war. On 10 March 1942, CHRLES RACINE was hit by tree torpedoes north of the West Indies while en route to Texas. The entire crew was rescued. The other vessels sailed without serious incident throughout the war. ANDERS JAHRE sailed independently in the Pacific and Indian Oceans most of the time. However, when sailing from the Persian Gulf or an Indian port, she would sometimes have to join a convoy for part of the voyage, and then proceed independently if her destination were Australia. For the duration of the war, PRESIDENT DE VOGÜÉ was in the Atlantic Ocean, sailing from the Caribbean and the United States to Iceland, the United Kindom and the Mediterranean. She was the first vessel in the Nortraship fleet to arrive in Norway after the war, sailing into her home port of Stavanger on 20 May 1945.

From The Bergesen Fleet 1935 - 2003

From The Bergesen Fleet 1935 - 2003