We are 50 years back in time, but Dorte Skou and her seven identical sisters are still surrounded by nostalgia.
Not only in Denmark but also out in the world. There are still people alive who have either sailed with them or had dealings with them.
I am one of the latter, albeit only for two years, when I was a shipping apprentice at Ove Skou. Those who came after containerization can certainly also benefit from seeing what ships looked like when they were at their most beautiful.
They were white as swans – and that’s what Skou’s ships were called – even though it actually referred to a slightly older series with a midship superstructure. The D-ships, which were contracted in four rounds between 1966-70 at the owner’s favorite shipyard in Helsingør. They were delivered between 1968-74 and were the last general cargo ships built at a Danish shipyard for a Danish owner and also the last under the Danish flag at all.
Malicious tongues already said at delivery that they were outdated, and that was not entirely wrong. But Mr. Ove Skou did not compromise on the appearance, neither externally nor internally. Extra money was spent on mahogany and brass in the outfitting, where the D-ships also had four passenger cabins and an owner’s cabin. Even the crew quarters were nice.
The ships still only had A-masts with booms. Not even an electric crane here and there, which other owners’ last cargo liners had already from the 1960s. E.g. ØK’s A-ships (‘Aranya’ et al.) and Mærsk’s seven C-ships (‘Cecilie Mærsk’ et al.). They were 14,000 TDW as closed shelter-deckers.
Regardless of being a very conservative design – the last one, Dolly Skou, was perhaps the most classical newbuilding in the whole world that year upon delivery in 1974 – they were still popular with liner companies in South America and with some of the European ones with speed to ports, where container terminals and gantry cranes were only a future prospect.
They earned on time-charter up to 8,000 dollars a day, and 6-7,000 was not uncommon when I was in the company from 1979-81. When I later came to Torm Lines we thus had ‘Dagmar Skou’ on charter for the USA-West Africa route. It was only for a shorter period, so Torm’s funnel mark did not go on, but otherwise there were longer time-charters, which resulted in the ships having numerous different charter funnel marks over the years.
Ove Skou died in 1974, the same year ‘Dolly’ was delivered, and even though the company was doing well for the next 10 years, it was also clear that it was not keeping up with the times. Most ships were sold, including six of the D-series, when it was merged with Tschudi and Eitzen in 1990 into the company SITE, and the last one was sold in 1995.
That was the end of the shipping company, which was formed in 1935 and in the 1970s was Denmark’s 3rd largest in deadweight tonnage.
In the next issue, there will be more details about what happened to the ships, but here under the pictures there is a preview for three of them, with years and the new names.
