Transat Story (uncut) - Part IV

Mr Briese brought to ESC the business of Krey Schiffarhts of Leer (under the management of George Krey) and of Gerdes Reederei of Haren-Ems, Germany (headed by Joseph Gerdes). In the majority of case each vessel’s entire crew were given ESC contracts no matter what their nationality or country of residence.  Virtually all of the vessels would be registered under a flag of convenience (Antigua, Liberia, Gibraltar etc.). One or two would be registered to the German second register which would mean that a certain compliment of the crew had to be of German/European nationality and employed via a German company

In the years leading up to the dissolution of UFM the business the ESC fleet grew to eventually pass the 100 vessel mark, with the business roughly 70:20:10 coming from Briese/Leda, Krey, then Gerdes.  There were also to be other clients on and off with two or three vessels here and there, such Hanseatic Schiffahrts, Bremen , Bischoff Schiffahrts, Bremen, Opielok in Hamburg, Eilbrecht in Emden, Schepers in Haren

The general manager of Leda Shipping was a man called Ronald Bilski and it was he that oversaw the crewing of all the vessels and supervised all of the vessel operators in Leer.  All decisions as to how a vessel was to be crewed, who was to be employed in which positions and how much they were going to be paid were taken by Leda Shipping. Leda shipping personnel would contact manning agencies in Russia –  particularly NWT in St. Petersburg – and elsewhere looking for suitable crew.

 All contracts would be issued from Leer, printing of all (ESC) forms (cash box reports/confidential crew performance reports/certificates of service etc would be ordered by Leda Shipping in Leer at a local printers and delivered to the Leda Shipping offices where they would be stored and then distributed on board either by couriers or via embarking crew that were transiting via Hamburg or Bremen.  When ordering printing became obsolete and all captains had PCs on board they were provided with model templates designed in Leer. Wage scales were calculated by Leda (Mr Bilski) and implemented via Leer.

Applications for visas, seafarers passports and seafarers books were all done in Leer from the offices of Leda Shipping. No forms for the vessels whatsoever were designed, ordered, printed or distributed from the offices in Monaco.  The only things to go out of the office would be the monthly invoicing for the crewing lumpsums, sent by post at the time then later as pdf attachments to emails. The sole function of ESC c/o UFM in Monaco was to ‘run’ Leda Shipping crew ‘offshore’.  UFM received monthly cash and wage accounts from the vessels which were summarized and accounted for.  Invoices were sent out to the shipowners, money would come in and ESC would pay the salaries of the seafarers.  The Lumpsums to be charged by ESC to Briese and the other shipowners were decided on by consultation between Roelf Briese, Ronald Bilski and the head of Briese’s financial department - Mr Frank Dreyer.

A weekly summary, or ‘Updated Crew Planning, would be sent, by the head of Leda Shipping to all ‘in-house’ parties involved in crewing, listing the entirety of the vessels owned and managed by the Briese ‘entities’ and detailing upcoming changes in crewing,; changes in Captains and chief engineers, new buildings to be delivered in the future that would be requiring crews, and expiring contracts that were not going to be renewed.  All decisions on all aspects were taken in Leer, by Leda’s operators, or their manager, and with consultation on a regular basis with Roelf Briese, Frank Dreyer, and members of the technical & inspection department. New clients would be brought in by contacts between Briese and or Leda personnel or through what became the in-house chartering operation BBC Chartering.  No decisions on crewing whatsoever would ever be taken in Monaco.

It should also be noted that all employment contracts issued on behalf of ESC (later ITCC) no matter what the country of residence of the client ship-owner,  mentioned specifically public holidays as being the officially recognised German Public Holidays

                                                                                                                

(Aside)

1996/1997 to 2001/2

Parameter Navigation (of Nevis) was incorporated to be the offshore owning company of MV Porthos.  Shareholders were 65% R Briese 30% H Luikenga, 5% Coleridge

Vessel sold in 2002 – proceeds remained in MC and later distributed