Sjæklen

26.

Konsulatslister for Sortehavshavnene. Rigsarkivet.

DFDS jubilæumsskrifter omtaler ikke disse transporter.

27.

Grosserer Societetet. Handelsberetninger 1888 – 1922.

Statens Erhvervshistoriske Arkiv, Århus.

28.

Forfatterens skibsregister, Database og Grosserer Soci-

etetets årsberetninger 1888-1901.

29.

Holger Munchaus Petersen, Database.

30.

Burmeister & Wain. Byggekontrakt No. 195. Statens

Erhvershistoriske Arkiv.

31.

Handelsministeriet 1918 J. nr. 80, om DIESELEA/

ASTRID. Rigsarkivet.

32.

Dansk Søulykke-Statistik 1920-21,

p. 67.

33.

Forfatterens skibsregister.

34.

Politiken 30. maj 2008. p.9.

35.

Internet. Oil History.

Standardization, Barrels.

Forfatte-

rens samtaler med nu afdøde Pastor Arne Hægstad om Mål

og Vægt. Haldur R. Grüner.

Haandbog for Handlende og

Søefarende

…. København 1850, p. 423.

36.

Internet. Oil History.

Used Barrels.

Samuel T. Pees 2004.

37.

Det Danske Peteroleums Aktieselskab., Statistisk bereg-

ning 1920 m.v. Statoils Arkiv, København.

Summary

Petroleum became a major export product from the east

coast of the United States to other parts of the World about

150 years ago. The liquid was packed in wooden barrels,

each containing 40-60 gallons. Standardization took place

in 1872, when the producers agreed that the contents of a

barrel would be 42 gallons or nearly 160 liters of petroleum.

And this content is still the “trading” figure in the market.

The barrel was then transported to the quay, from where

further transportation was handled by sailing ships of many

different types and sizes. The author has found 264 voy-

ages made by Danish flagged sailing ships from the U.S.

east coast to Europe. Several hundred other sailing ships un-

der other flags also transported the product to Danish ports.

Return cargo from Europe was normally empty barrels.

Even when the steam tankers became part of the petroleum

transportation from the late 1880s, many sailing ships still

continued their part of the trade.

Some of the Danish ships in the trade were the cryolite

sailors, who normally departed from Copenhagen in April,

then proceeding to Ivigtut in Eastern Greenland, unloading

their cargo of men, provisions and tools, thereafter taking

cryolite on board, then proceeding to Philadelphia before

returning to Ivigtut, repeating the procedure and returning

to Philadelphia, Two or sometimes, under favorable weather

conditions, three voyages took place in a year. After the last

unloading of cryolite, the new cargo was petroleum in bar-

rels for a place inside the Skaw.

The main importation ports in Denmark were Aarhus

and the Copenhagen satellite ports Tuborg Havn, and Refs-

haleøen. Distribution for the south of Sweden and many

Danish provincial ports took place from the satellite ports

of Copenhagen.

Danish ships took part in the exportation of Russian oil

from especially St. Petersburg, first in sailing ships, and

from about 1890 by a growing number of steamers (not

tankers). A special “niche” was the DFDS regular routes on

the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. In the period 1888-

1894, the DFDS steamers left Batoum 69 times with very

different amounts of petroleum, ranging from 20 to 1,294

tons depending on the free space on the steamer.

Sheet metal was used to make more useful packing to

destinations in the Far East, Australia, and places in the Pa-

cific Ocean. The cases, often named coffins, each containing

five gallons, were very practical, and when emptied of the

liquid, the sheet metal was used to make roofs on buildings

or used for many other purposes. Not a single ship was seen

with a return cargo of empty cases from the Pacific.

Specially built tankers gradually took over the trade. In

Denmark, the steam tanker Christine, built in 1890, took 68

cargoes to Denmark and Sweden before she was taken over

by another Standard Oil company in 1901.

But in the early years of the twentieth century, sailing

vessels still took part in the trade. The very last Danish

sailing ship was the Astrid, a former French ship, built as

sailing tanker and used as a towing lighter until restored

to earlier glory, made the last transportation of petroleum

across the Atlantic in 1921.