65 Years of growth in the Bulk/Oil trades

The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. is the largest private sector shipping company in India and was formed at a time of great political and religious turmoil. In August, 1947, India became an independent republic with 28 states and seven federal territories, but this process was violent and tragic. The two independent nations of India for Hindus and Sikhs, and Pakistan for Muslims, were created with Pandit Nehru (1889-1964) as India’s first Prime Minister. Some 15 million people were forced to move across the new borders to the country of their religion, with one million killed in riots and violence in one border province of Punjab alone between August and October 1947. This turmoil exemplifies the struggles that Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi (1869-1948) went through in order to return India to a free society. On his way to a prayer meeting in New Delhi on 30th January 1948, he was shot in the chest and died shortly afterwards. His assailant was a Hindu nationalist, who had opposed his powerful fasts and conciliatory policy towards Muslims. The funeral took place in New Delhi, but many Bombay residents came together on Chowpatty beach for ritual mourning.

The supremacy of the British Raj had been broken, and several new Indian shipping companies were formed to take over the shipping business of the departing British. Indian independence severely affected the trades of Anchor Line, Bibby Line, British India, Brocklebank, Clan Line, Ellerman, Paddy Henderson, Harrison Line and the powerful P. & O. One new Indian company to begin trading in 1948 in the new free and liberal Indian society was The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd., formed on 3rd August, 1948 with a capital of two million rupees. The promoters were Ardeshir H. Bhiwandiwalla and his family, together with the Mulji (Sheth) brothers Maneklal U. Mulji, and Jagjivan U. Mulji. Maneklal and Jagjivan were involved in the textile business and later in the establishment of an efficient network for the distribution of sugar, and the new shipping company was to carry many cargoes of sugar. The brothers Maneklal and Jagjivan were known as the ‘Sugar Kings’ of India, and they gained their experience in the chartering of ships from their sugar importing business. The ‘Jag’ nomenclature of all company ships is an abbreviation of the name of Jagjivan, which means ‘To the World’. Ardeshir H. Bhiwandiwalla was Chairman of the company from 1948 to 1973, and Vasant J. Sheth, son of Jagjivan U. Mulji, was the sole manager of the company for several years and a prime mover in developing the tramp shipping side of the company. The business links between the Bhiwandiwalla and Mulji families had begun in the early 1930s when a loan from the Bhiwandiwalla family had kept the Mulji textile mills and sugar business running.

The Tramping Years

The young 19 year old Vasant J. Sheth was sent to London and Washington in 1947/48 to complete his business education. While in the United States, it was suggested to him that he should apply on behalf of A. H. Bhiwandiwalla & Company for the release and purchase of a war built deep sea tramp of 10,000 dwt. He referred to his family for clearance and an application for the purchase of such a ship from the many laid-up vessels was prepared and forwarded to the United States Maritime Commission (USMC) in February 1948. He returned to India and received a telegram on 9th April 1948 that his application had been successful with a vessel delivered to A. H. Bhiwandiwalla & Company on 3rd May 1948 after payment of the purchase price. The vessel was registered under the managing agents of A. H. Bhiwandiwalla & Company for three months until transferred to the newly formed The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. The vessel concerned was the laid up standard ‘Fort’ type, Fort Ellice of 10,000 dwt. She had been completed in 1942 by the Burrard yard in British Columbia and was managed throughout the war by Lambert Brothers of London, and then returned to the United States Maritime Commission in 1946 and laid up. She was renamed Jag Vijay, which meant ‘World Victory’, and she traded for the company for twelve years until broken up at Bombay in 1960.

Jag Viyay carried her first commercial cargo for the company from Baltimore to Civitavecchia in Italy with coal, then she ballasted to Aden to load salt for Calcutta, where she discharged and loaded coal for Port Okha at the entrance to the Gulf of Kachchh in north east India, and she then moved south to her home port of Bombay. These voyages had been under the command of Capt. E. W. Kent with a British crew and some American nationals, who had for various reasons been replaced by Arab and Italian seamen. On arrival at Bombay, Capt E. W. Kent had a mutiny on his hands with the mutineers replaced by Indian seamen and the operation of the vessel transferred from the Eggar, Forrestor & Verner Ltd. of London to The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. and the Managing Agents of A. H. Bhiwandiwalla & Company (Bombay) Pvt Ltd., in which the Mulji and Bhiwandiwalla families had equal 50% interests. Capt. E. W. Kent and the British officers remained in command of the vessel, which then traded with coal from Calcutta to the west coast of India, returning with salt from the west coast to Calcutta. The vessel was converted to oil burning in 1952, and continued in profitable trading, mostly to Australia.

A time chartered ship almost caused the new company to go out of existence during its first year of operation. The Canadian steamer Haligonian Duke ex Fort Capot River of 10,000 dwt had been time chartered to carry a cargo of coal from Calcutta to Melbourne for the Victorian Government. The Australian Seamens’ Union was notorious for ‘blacking’ ships in labour disputes and the dockers refused to unload the cargo. The vessel carried a non Canadian crew and the Canadian Seamen’s Union had insisted that all Canadian vessels must be manned by Canadian nationals but the owners refused. A long stalemate was avoided due to a coal miners’ strike in Australia at the time, with the Victoria Government using military personnel to unload the much needed cargo, but the vessel lost her return cargo of wheat to India. The arbitration court case in respect of claims and counter claims for charter hire and losses was later heard in London, with Dr. Kantilal Sheth handling the case very competently for the company, which was paid £20,350 by the Victorian Government in respect of the delays caused by the detention of the vessel, while the Canadian owners were awarded £6,000 against the company. Haligonian Duke was sold in 1950 to Counties Ship Management Co. Ltd., London and traded for seven years as Notting Hill. She was eventually lost by collision in fog off Cape St. Vincent on 21st November 1964 whilst on a voyage from Wismar to Italy with iron ore under the name of Zakia.

During the first three years of its existence, chartered tonnage was much greater than owned tonnage, and thereafter chartered tonnage formed a significant part of total tonnage employed. Agency work for Yamashita Lines of Japan and Hellenic Lines of Greece also made a useful contribution to profits. Wartime rationing lasted in India until 1950, and cargo services were also begun on the Indian coast with the completion of two coastal vessels of 1,527 grt in May and June 1951 by the Naka Nippon yard at Kobe. Jag Ganga and Jag Jamna were four hold engines ‘midships coastal traders with some passenger accommodation, as well as several derricks on two masts for cargo handling. An American ‘Jeep’ type coastal vessel of 1,791 grt was also purchased in 1953, having been built in 1942 at Superior in Wisconsin by the Walter Butler Shipbuilding yard as Richard Bearse, and was renamed as Jag Bindu. Coastal trading continued by the company on the Indian coast until 1970 although it was intermittent at times, and a final 29 cargoes of coal and salt were carried coastwise during the years 1971 to 1973. The company replaced its own vessels with chartered ships for the Indian coastal trades, and used its own vessels in worldwide trading.

The fleet was increased in size with no fewer than a dozen British tramping vessels purchased during the years from 1950 to 1962. The first was the former Lambert Brothers vessel Temple Pier of 8,400 dwt, which had led an eventful existence since completion at the William Hamilton yard at Port Glasgow in 1928. On 17th June 1940, she was taken by the Vichy French at Algiers having arrived from Cardiff with a cargo of coal. She was abandoned to insurers and badly damaged and sunk by aircraft attack at Tunis on 14th December 1942. She was refloated in 1946 and taken to Sfax and then to Genoa for repair for new owners G. Strubin & Co. Ltd. of London and was renamed Lake Geneva. She was purchased by the company in 1949 and renamed Jag Rani and traded for two years and then sold for almost double her purchase price. Four standard ‘Empire’ types of 10,000 dwt were then purchased from British owners and renamed Jag Laadki, Jag Shanti, Jag Janani and Jag Devi.

The former John I. Jacobs tramp Glenwood of 9,200 dwt, completed by Laing at Sunderland in 1940, was purchased from the Trader Navigation Co. Ltd. as Durham Trader in 1957 and renamed Jag Sevak. She ran aground when leaving the port of Vizakhapatnam on 15th July 1965 with a cargo of cement and general, and after breaking in two was declared a constructive total loss. The similar sized Watts, Watts tramp Twickenham was purchased in 1958 and renamed Jag Mata. She also had an eventful war career, being torpedoed with her forefoot blown away on 15th July 1943 in convoy OS51 off the Canaries while on a voyage from Hull to Buenos Aires with coal. She part steamed and was part towed to Dakar for temporary repairs, arriving on 31st July 1943. After a year at Dakar, she sailed on 21st October 1944 for Middle Docks in South Shields and completed her repairs.

The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. completed their purchase of British steam and motor tramps with one steam and four post-war motor tramps. The steamer was Caledonian Monarch of Raeburn & Verel of Glasgow, completed by the Caledon yard at Dundee in 1948, and was purchased in 1958 and renamed Jag Doot. She traded for Great Eastern for eight years until sold to World Wide Maritime as Central America and then became Saint Francis two years later. In November 1968, she caught fire off the Philippines and sank five days later. The motor tramps Windsor and Wokingham from Watts, Watts in 1963, Trelawny from Hain in 1963, and Jersey Spray from Morel Brothers of Cardiff in 1962 were renamed Jag Ketu, Jag Kranti, Jag Rahat and Jag Rakshak respectively.

The first newbuilding to come from the Hindustan Shipbuilding yard at Vizakhapatnam was completed for the company in May 1952 as Jag Rani (2) of 8,010 dwt. She had a split superstructure profile with five holds and several derricks on two masts, and was powered by a triple expansion steam engine supplied by J. G. Kincaid & Co. Ltd. of Greenock. She had been launched as Jalapushpa for Scindia Line of India and traded for the company for thirteen years. Another vessel of 7,000 dwt was also purchased at the fitting out berth of the Frederikstad yard in Norway as Magnus Stove and completed as Jag Tara in 1954. She was powered by a four cylinder compound steam engine giving a service speed of 12 knots and also traded for the company for thirteen years.

A Japanese built closed shelterdecker newbuilding of 13,470 dwt was completed at the Hitachi Zosen yard at Osaka as Jag Laxmi in 1957 as the largest vessel under Indian registry. She had her engines ‘midships, a B & W diesel of 5,400 bhp giving a service speed of 14 knots. She had sixteen derricks for cargo handling including two heavy lift derricks of 50 and 30 tons capacity. A second tramp of 6,290 dwt was completed by the Hindustan Shipbuilding yard at Vizakhapatnam in June 1959 as Jag Mitra, having been launched as Raj Kumar. She had four holds and four hatches and was powered by a five cylinder 2SA MAN diesel of 3,000 bhp giving a service speed of 14 knots. In the same year of 1959, the Hamburg yard of W.H. Schlieker completed the engines aft Jag Jiwan of 14,275 dwt, also as the then largest vessel on the Indian registry. She was renamed Jala Jag Jiwan on charter during 1960/63 before regaining her original name and being sold the following year to Chinese owners as Yellow Sea. A total of eighteen derricks served her five large holds including two heavy lift derricks of 50 and 30 tons capacity, and she had a fast service speed of 16 knots from a seven cylinder MAN diesel of 7,860 bhp.

Two sister motor ships of 12,620 dwt, completed for Norwegian owners in 1956/57 by the Uddevallavarvet yard in Sweden as Fernleaf and Skaubo, were purchased in 1963 and renamed Jag Manek and Jag Ratna. Their 6-cylinder Gotaverken diesels were placed ‘midships to give a service speed of 16 knots, and they had sixteen derricks of ten or 7.5 tons capacity as well as a heavy lift derrick of 30 tons capacity for cargo handling. They traded for the company for ten years worldwide in a fleet of fourteen new and second hand steam and motor ships. This included two closed shelterdeckers completed in 1962 as five hold engines ‘midships ships of 13,130 dwt from the Hitachi Zosen yard at Innoshima as Jag Shanti and Jag Vijay (2). They had eighteen derricks for cargo handling including two heavy lift derricks of 50 and 30 tons capacity, and a fast service speed of 16 knots from a B & W oil engine of 5,500 bhp. Good quality fast cargo-liners such as these were used on The Great Eastern liner service in the 1960s from the Pacific coast of U.S.A. and Canada to Far Eastern and Indian ports.

The tramping trades are mostly operated on important Contracts of Affreightment, and those of the company during the first decade included 1.1 million tons of Australian wheat to India per year, 70,000 tons of sugar per year from the UK to India, 52,000 tons of Australian railway sleepers and 60,000 tons of fertilizer from Europe, Japan and China to India per year. The company won a contract to ship 60,000 tons of iron ore per year from India to Japan in 1956 after the entire export of some 7.2 million tons of Indian iron ore to Japanese steel mills was at first given to Japanese shipping companies. At the end of 1958, the company owned 14 ships of 120,973 dwt, but was to lose two of its founders during 1959. Maneklal U. Mulji died on 22nd April 1959 aged 74 years, and his brother Jagjiwan U. Mulji died on 5th July 1959 aged 69 years. The other family founder, Ardeshir H. Bhiwandiwalla continued as Chairman until he resigned on 18th October 1973, and was much admired by all of the shareholders until his death on 20th April 1991. The yellow funnels of the fleet bore his initials ‘AHB’ on a white diamond on a red and green diagonally divided houseflag.

The Oil Trades

The tanker trades had been entered in March 1956 with the purchase of the tanker Bianca of 13,125 dwt from Rederi A/S Mascot of Norway for 89 million rupees, and was renamed Jag Jyoti for time charter to Stanvac Oil for operation on the Indian coast. She had been completed by the A/B Gotaverken yard at Gothenburg in 1948 and had a service speed of 12 knots from a six cylinder diesel engine by her builders. The Indian coastal trade in oil refined products in 1956 was 1.8 million tons per year. Jag Jyoti was the first Indian owned tanker, however the Indian Government did not allow private sector Indian shipping companies to have any further owned tankers for over a decade. She was later on charter to the British owned oil companies Burmah and Shell, and the American oil company of Caltex. These oil majors Burmah, Shell and Standard Vacuum had built and completed new refineries at Bombay at this time, and Caltex had a new refinery opened at Vizakhapatnam, the port of the Eastern Ghats area of India.

The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. tanker fleet was, after a decade of prohibition, to greatly increase starting with a second tanker of 16,600 dwt purchased from Ugland of Norway as Sarita and renamed Jag Jwala in 1965, and then many more tankers in the 1970s and 1980s e.g. Jag Jyoti (2) the former Athelknight of 17,610 dwt in 1972 They were then placed on charter to the oil majors and the Indian Oil Corporation, as the Indian Government’s Industrial Policy Resolution was that the oil industry should be under State control and ownership. The Indian Oil Company was formed in 1959 and then in September 1964 it merged with the State owned petrol refiner and retailer Indian Refineries Ltd. to form the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). The IOC later became the single biggest purchaser of crude oil on the Dubai spot market, with The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. benefitting from many charters.

Overseas Liner Trades

In November 1962, a liner service from India to the west coast of the United States and Canada was begun. The company ships had been carrying iron ore from India to Japan since 1956, and after discharge of the iron ore, from late 1962 they continued across the Pacific to load general cargo in Canadian and American ports for India. The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. was the first Indian shipping company to operate a liner service on this route, although later the rival Scindia and Jayanti Shipping Companies also operated on this route leading to overtonnaging. The company had been prevented from operating on the main liner service from India to Europe and the UK in 1959 by the refusal of the India to Europe/UK Conference members to allow another Indian shipping company to operate as there were already two Indian shipping companies on the route in Scindia with ‘Jala’ prefixes to the names of their ships and the Indian Steamship Co. Ltd. with ‘Indian’ prefixes to their names of their ships.

This liner service ran for thirty years, the latter part of which it had become a Round the World service after relaxation of Europe/UK Conference rules. Two general cargo ships with part container capacity of 272 TEU capacity were used in the India to North America and Round the World liner trades until 1992, with Jag Kala and Jag Yamuna often seen loading and discharging in the British ports of Tees, Sunderland, Tilbury and Swansea. The ending of liner services allowed the company to concentrate wholly on the worldwide oil and dry bulk trades.

The First Bulkers

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The bulk carrier era was entered in February 1966 with the completion of the first of two sister ships, Jag Jawan of 41,800 dwt, at the Nippon Kokan yard at Tsushima. She was ungeared with her six holds suitable for the carriage of ores, grain, coal and other bulk cargoes such as bauxite and manganese and copper ore from Mormugao in Goa. She was fitted with a six cylinder Gotaverken diesel of 13,200 bhp giving a good speed of 16.5 knots, and her sister Jag Kisan followed from the same yard four months later. By 1966, The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. fleet had increased in size with their yellow funnels with a red and green houseflag bearing ‘AHB’ on a white diamond then seen worldwide. Four cargoliners of around 16,000 to 17,000 dwt were then purchased from Norwegian and European owners in 1967/68 as Belvera, Dageld, Cedar and Cypress and became Jag Arti, Jag Asha, Jag Anand and Jag Anjli respectively. They had service speeds of 16 knots, and a good array of derricks and heavy lifts for cargo handling on five masts, bipod masts in the case of Jag Anjli and Jag Anand. They were used on the Pacific liner service to Japan and West coast of America and Canada from India. The company owned 16 ships of 284,119 dwt at the end of 1968.

Two new German built geared cargo ships of 21,500 dwt were then completed in June 1968 and June 1969 as Jag Dev and Jag Darshan. They were built to the standard Blohm & Voss ‘Pioneer’ design with six holds and six hatches and sixteen ten ton derricks on five sets of posts. A quartet of ships to this design was later built for the company at Vizakhapatnam in the mid 1970s, continuing the ‘D’ class as Jag Doot, Jag Dharma, Jag Dhir and Jag Deesh, as well as four other sisters for other Indian shipowners. The ‘D’ class was used on the liner services to the Far East and the Pacific West coast of America, with two of the class in service until 1992 when these liner services were ended. Jag Dev was sold to Tata Chemicals in April 1977 for 4.87 million rupees and renamed Veer Varuna with management retained by Great Eastern. All of the fleet now carried ‘GREAT EASTERN’ in large letters in white on both sides of their grey or black hulls. Jag Doot suffered fires and explosions in Japanese waters while on a voyage from Fukuyama to Yokohama on 14th February 1989 and was so badly damaged that she was sold to breakers and arrived at Kaohsiung towards the end of the year in tow of the Chinese tug De An.

Two second-hand cargo liners were then purchased during 1971/74, and had the remarkable names of Green Walrus and Purple Dolphin, renamed as Jag Ravi and Jag Rekha. They had five holds and nine hatches and a good array of cranes and derricks for cargo handling on two masts and a goalpost mast in front of the bridge. Two sister bulkers of 21,756 dwt were then purchased from Brovig of Norway as Anne Mildred Brovig and Andrea Brovig, having been built six years earlier at the Hitachi Zosen yard at Osaka. They were much used in the manganese ore trade from Mormugao, and had three cranes for handling other bulk cargoes carried in six holds. Two British bulkers of 27,000 dwt were then purchased in 1974 from Cunard-Brocklebank Ltd., their Brocklebank blue and black funnel colours changed to the brighter yellow Great Eastern colours.

This British pair had been built at Seville in Spain in 1972 as two of a class of eight ‘Euskalduna 27’ types as Cunard Caravel and Cunard Campaigner, renamed as Jag Shakti and Jag Shanti respectively. Cunard Campaigner had been launched on 23rd October 1971 by an important sponsor, the wife of Cunard Chairman Nigel Broakes. They had seven holds and seven hatches served by four Haggland hydraulic deck cranes of 15 tons capacity, and two derricks placed aft for the loading of supplies. They were strengthened for ore cargoes and traded for the company for twenty years until Jag Shanti suffered a flooded engine room when one hundred miles off New Mangalore on 28th May 1994 while on a voyage from New Mangalore to Eregli with ore. She was taken in tow and brought to within 25 miles of New Mangalore, one of the ports of the Western Ghats area of India, but then sank while underway in the anchorage on 5th June. I remember this pair well as they repaired several times at Tyneside yards during their long Indian careers, Jag Shakti lasting until she arrived at Alang in India for scrapping on 8th April 1997, her scrap value being $1.08 million.

In 1978, The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. fleet of twenty ships contained nine cargo-liners, five bulkers, three tankers and three very large ore, bulk and oil (OBO) carriers. These were the twin funnelled sisters Jag Laxmi (2) and Jag Leela of 135,890 dwt, completed in 1976 by the Gotaverken yard at Gothenburg. The third OBO was the nine hold Jag Laadki of 103,128 dwt completed by the same yard in 1972 and on charter to Athel Line for three years during 1974/77 as Athel Laadki. This trio were used worldwide particularly in the ore trades with back cargoes of oil in the Japan to India trades, American trades from Bullen Bay in Curacao, and the Persian Gulf to Europort crude oil trades. Jag Laadki was broken up in India in 1991, but Jag Laxmi (2) and Jag Leela kept on trading for Turkish owners after their sale in 1996 after twenty years of trading.

Two interesting product tankers were completed by the Scotts yard at Greenock in 1974 as Jag Prakash and Jag Priya. They had hulls of the same length and beam, but Jag Priya was nine feet deeper to give a greater carrying capacity of 32,575 dwt as against 25,075 dwt for Jag Priya. Their hulls were subdivided into 22 centre and side tanks, and both had identical six cylinder 2SA Sulzer diesels of 12,000 bhp, giving Jag Prakash a higher speed than her near sister by two knots. Five new tankers of 30,000 dwt were later completed in Japanese and Korean yards as Jag Preeti, Jag Pari, Jag Palak, Jag Prabhat and Jag Prakati, the ‘P’ letter denoting a tanker for Great Eastern. A coastal oil, molasses and chemical tanker of 7,260 dwt was purchased in 1987 and renamed Jag Prabhu for the Indian coastal trades.

The Great Eastern Shipping Co. (London) Ltd. was set up in 1985 as an agency subsidiary. A bulker was also purchased by the company at auction in June 1985 in unusual circumstances. This was the Greek owned bulker Sonid of 20,360 dwt which had been built as Rachel in 1968 and was purchased by the Glyfada Seafaring Corporation of Greece in 1980 and renamed Sonid. In May 1985, the Indian Government chartering agency Transchart had arranged a shipment of 18,000 tonnes of urea from Rostock to India on this vessel. The cargo belonged to the Indian Government and the vessel called at Pylos in Greece en-route to India and was promptly arrested by the Bank of America as the shipowner had failed to repay the loan borrowed from the Bank. The vessel was then sold at auction on 16th June 1985 with the Indian Government asking The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. through Transchart to bid for the vessel and ensure safe delivery of the cargo to India. The company purchased the vessel for $480,000 and the Indian Government duly received the urea cargo in due course with the vessel renamed as Jag Krishi. She continued in the urea trade from Rostock to India for another four years until scrapped in 1989.

The company fleet had grown to thirty four ships of 1.475 million dwt by the end of October 1993. The largest dry cargo bulker in the fleet was now Jag Lata of 104,750 dwt, the former Walchand of Scindia Line built by the Gotaverken yard in 1973 and named after one of their founders. Scindia Line was now experiencing severe financial difficulties, and the sale of their nine hold flagship to the company had been necessary. The company bulk fleet was now switched to trade on more profitable voyage charters rather than Contracts of Affreightment, achieving better financial results. A large fleet of eighteen second hand Handymax bulkers of around 40,000 dwt were then purchased during the years 1987 to 1995. Some of these were purchased on self financing schemes by using exchange credit abroad and foreign exchange loans from the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Vasant J. Sheth died at Houston (Texas) on 13th May 1992 aged 64 years after a heart by pass surgery operation, leaving a wife and daughter. He had been the sole manager of the company during the first years of its existence, and in overall charge of the management of the company until his death. He always stressed the importance of the sale and purchase market, having personally purchased 58 ships and sold 38 ships in the first 35 years of the company’s existence.

Offshore Oil Fleet

Indian land based oil production in Assam province had increased to 700,000 barrels per day by 1983. In the same year, The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. expanded into a new line of business, the offshore oil exploration and survey work, and which, together with oil production facilities including an oil tank farm in the middle of Kochi (Cochin) harbour, has continued to the present day. This was in response to the discovery in 1974 of the major Bombay High offshore field with a strike by a Japanese built drilling rig. The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation of India (ONGC) had been set up in 1959 as a State owned body by an Act of Parliament, and in 1963 it set up the research foundation Kashava D. Malaviya Institute of Petrol Exploration. A large fleet of over fifty oil rig supply vessels has since been built up by Great Eastern, initially with names beginning ‘Malaviya’ followed by a numeral e.g. Malaviya 1, Malaviya 2, Malaviya 3 and Malaviya 4, all built in Japanese yards that could also be used as anchor handlers and fire fighting vessels. Second hand offshore vessels came later from the ‘Tender’ fleet of Wilhelm Wilhelmsen including Malaviya 5 and Malaviya 6, and also from other fleets with vessels completed in Romania, Russia and Singapore. Kashava D. Malaviya was the father-inlaw of Vasant J. Sheth and was regarded as the father of the oil industry in India. A joint venture was initially signed between the Bhiwandiwalla Group and Atwood Oceanics Inc. for the hire of two offshore oil rigs.

In September, 2001, the Offshore Division opened an office in Dubai to service a Saudi Aramco contract as well as those for all the oil majors and Enron Oil and Gas, NPCC, Cairn Energy and Hardy Oil. At a meeting of directors on 31st August 2005, it was decided to demerge the Offshore Division under Great Offshore Ltd., with another company set up in 2006 as Greatship (India) Ltd. to own all types of offshore vessels including the jack up oil rig Greatdrill Chetna. This rig was joined in March, 2011 by another more sophisticated rig named Greatdrill Chitra and able to drill down to depths of 30,000 feet off the West coast of India. In September, 2008, Greatship (India) Ltd. and DOF Subsea ASA of Norway announced a joint venture in complex subsea construction operations down to similar depths. DOF Subsea owned the largest and most modern fleet of subsea construction vessels in the world at this time. The offshore fleet has been added to by many more vessels with ‘Greatship’ prefixes to their names for oil drilling and exploration in the seas off India, Indonesia and the West coast of Australia.

The current offshore fleet is a large one of 54 oil rig supply vessels, survey vessels and tugs under Great Offshore Ltd. and Greatship (India) Ltd. Most have names beginning ‘Malaviya’ or ‘Greatship’ followed by a numeral, and two of the largest are Greatship Rashi of 3,500 grt, completed in 2011, and Malaviya 21 of 2,162 grt, completed as the first such ship to be built in India at the Ratnagiri yard on the West coast in 2005. The total of Indian onshore oil production, mostly in Assam, and offshore oil production is currently around ten million tonnes annually. The offshore oil production is one quarter of this total, mostly due to the exploration and drilling efforts of the Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. In recent years, the offshore India drilling fleet has consisted on average of thirty jackup rigs and drillships in the search for oil, with ONGC owning ten of these rigs and having the rest on charter. Indian offshore and imported crude oil is processed at several refineries including a large refinery at Mumbai, and another at Vasco da Gama on the tip of the Mormugao isthmus in Goa.

Millennium Deep-Sea Fleet

At the Millennium, The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. fleet was a big one of thirty four large oil tankers and bulkers, with equal numbers of both types of ships, and one LPG gas tanker. The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. had recently formed an LPG gas tanker pool with Shipping Corporation of India and Varun Shipping, with the gas imported on a Free on Board (FOB) basis. The former Houlder Brothers gas tanker Lord Kelvin of 28,040 dwt, completed in 1978 by the Nuovia Cantieri yard at Marina di Carrara in Italy, was purchased and renamed Jag Vaya. She traded for Great Eastern until she was beached at Chittagong for breaking up on 13th March 2009. Two former Fred. Olsen Red Bank tankers also joined in the fleet, with Knock Adoon and Knock Sheen becoming Jag Laadki and Jag Lakshya respectively.

A pair of large double hull tankers of 105,100 dwt, Jag Laxmi (3) and Jag Leela (2), had been completed in 1999 by the Samsung Heavy Industries yard at Koje Island in South Korea. Fifteen new and second hand Handysize, Aframax and Suezmax tankers then joined the fleet during the next five years e.g. the Suezmaxes Magellan Spirit and Sudong Spirit from the Teekay fleet, renamed Jag Leena and Jag Lamha respectively in 2003. The dry bulker fleet was updated with Panamax bulkers such as Jag Arnav and Capesize bulkers such as Jag Arjun, as well as Handymax bulkers such as Philipp Oldendorff and Cora Oldendorff, both built at Balamban in the Philippines by Tsuneishi Heavy Industries (Cebu) Inc., and renamed Jag Rahul and Jag Reena respectively, and Jag Ratan ex Tarsus and Jag Ravi ex Sea Satin.

The East Coast of India oil shipment contract from the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) was renewed in 2004. In a diversification move in June 2004, the company acquired a 38.64% stake in the paid up equity share capital of P. & O. Travel India Ltd. from P. & O. Cruises. The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. had purchased its first ever VLCC in November 2003 and renamed her Vasant J. Sheth of 261,167 dwt, the first to be Indian owned. She was single hulled and had been built in 1990 as Tsukubasan Maru by Sasebo Heavy Industries, and was traded by the company for eighteen months before sale. A second VLCC, Ardeshir H. Bhiwandiwalla of 265,955 dwt, was purchased in June 2004. She was also single hulled and had been completed in 1992 as Izusan Maru by Mitsubishi at Nagasaki, and was powered by a big six cylinder two stroke Mitsubishi diesel engine of 25,330 bhp to give a service speed of 16 knots. She was also given the name of one of the founders of The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. but was sold in 2007 shortly before the expiry of her three year charter to an oil major. A trio of new double hull VLCCs of 318,000 dwt was contracted in April 2010 from Hyundai Heavy Industries for delivery between January and May, 2012. They were again given the names of the founders of the company as Ardeshir H. Bhiwandiwalla, Maneklal Ujamshi Sheth and Vasant J. Sheth, but on delivery the trio were sold to new buyers. Their original order had been modified from two Suezmaxes to a trio of VLCCs.

Current Fleet

The current fleet is a large one of 30 ships of 2.4 million dwt, comprising 21 tankers (8 crude oil carriers, 12 product tankers and 1 LPG carrier), and 9 dry cargo bulkers (1 Capesize, 3 Kamsarmax, 1 Panamax, 4 Supramax and 1 Handymax) with an average age of 9 years. An ‘A’ class of 6 vessels was completed between 2008 and 2011 by the STX yard in South Korea, consisting of 4 product tankers of 75,000 dwt and 2 bulkers of 80,400 dwt. 2 ‘R’ class product tankers of 56,800 dwt were also completed in 2011 by the Cosco yard at Zhoushan in China. In August 2012, The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. took delivery of a Very Large Gas Carrier (VLGC) built in 1990 with a capacity of 75,000 cbm or 49,700 dwt. She was renamed Jag Vidhi and replaced the smaller LPG tanker Jag Viraj of 22,478 cbm capacity purchased in 2004 as Gaz Diamond.

The current leaders of The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. are Executive Chairman K. M. Sheth, born in 1932 and who joined the company in 1952, and became Deputy Chairman and Managing Director in 1975, and Chairman and Managing Director in 1992. He currently guides the company in strategic and policy making decisions, along with the current Chairman and Managing Director, Bharat K. Sheth. Many new large oil tankers and bulkers have been built or purchased during the last seven years as a result of their wise strategic decisions. The tankers are engaged on voyage or time charters to BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, TotalFina and the Indian Oil Corporation.

The Group employs around one thousand people including seafarers and oil workers, and is listed on the main Indian Stock Exchanges, the Mumbai Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange. In a long and interesting history of 65 years, the company has become a leader in the bulk and oil trades. The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. has its current headquarters office at Ocean House in the Worli district of Mumbai, but for a long time it was in Mahatma Gandhi Road, the main north to south road in the Fort area of south Mumbai. This road is the location of all the former colonial Victorian and Gothic public buildings including Mumbai University. The Port of Mumbai handles half of all of the foreign trade of India as well as having a major oil refinery. When visiting Mumbai, the press of humanity of its 16.4 million population, the extremely heavy traffic and the persistent beggars can induce culture shock in Westerners. One third of the world’s poor live in India, yet this dynamic country has rapid economic growth. I am sure the Group and its subsidiary in Singapore will meet with further very great success in the future. I wish to express my thanks to S. N. Sanklecha for information obtained from his excellent book ‘Tramping to Success’ published in Bombay in 1994.