Ron van Maanen
An item dated The Hague 10 October reported that the Dutch company Van Ommeren’s Scheepvaart Maatschappij and the firm De Monchy invited the European owners of tankers for a meeting. They decided to cooperate with the Baltic International Maritime Conference and found an international organisation. The commission appointed responsible for all necessary preparations existed of De Monchy (1), Netherlands, Moller, Copenhagen, Denmark, Perrachon, Paris, France, Dannevig, Oslo (2), Norway and Esseberger (3), Hamburg, Germany. Representatives of other countries were to be invited.
The newspaper Het Vaderland morning edition dated 10 October supplied more details. The meeting was held a day earlier and was joined by some 40 owners coming from all European countries. The complete names of the members of the commission were mr. W.H. de Monchy, A.P. Moller, Jean Perrachon, T. Dannevig and John T. Essberger. During the meeting were also representatives of the Baltic and International Maritime Conference lead by their president W.A. Souter of Newcastle, England present. This item was confirmed by the morning edition of the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant dated the same day saying De Monchy was director of the Phs. Van Ommeren’s Scheepvaart Maatschappij. The main issue of the meeting was the measurement of the tankers. In an improved item reported this newspapers that decided was to found an international organisation of tanker companies without saying a word about the measurement.
Notes
1. Willem Hugo de Monchy (Rotterdam 23 October 1894- Rotterdam 20 December 1968), director of the Holland-America Lijn (since 1933) and Phs. Van Ommeren’s Scheepvaartbedrijf N.V. (since 1922), both located at Rotterdam.
2. Probably T. Dannevig of T. Dannevig&Co. of Oslo, Norway. In 1939 still active as oil and petroleum trader, address Kirkegaten 14-18, Oslo.
3. The website essberger.biz founded in 1924 the Atlantic Tank Reederei which became the nowadays still existing John T. Essberger (JTE). The website www.rantzau.de mentioned John Theodor Essberger (1886-1959), a officer in the German Imperial navy during the First World War who founded in 1924 at Hamburg the a tanker company later incorporated in the Deutsche Afrika-Linien GmbH&Co. Wikepedia said that he founded in 1924 at Hamburg the tanker company Essberger-Tankschiffreederei nowadays the Deutsche Afrika-Linien GmbH&Co./John T. Essberger GmbH&Co. (Dal/JTE) calling him of British origin who obtain the German nationality before 1914. The website http://www.munzinger.de/search/portrait/john+t+essberger/0/7250.html said that he was born on 19 February 1886 at Munchen and died on 8 July 1959 at Hamburg. His father John Augustus was director and shareholder of the Schiffsunion Elektrizitätsgesellschaft and the John Essberger & Co. GmbH. John Th. Founded in 1924 the Atlantik-Tank-Reederei GmbH which became in 1936 the John T. Essberger firm.
