Lykes Bros. Steamship Co., also called Lykes Lines, was a cargo shipping company acting from the beginning of the 20th century to 2005 having its main business in the trade to and from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

History

In 1898 the sons of Dr. Howell Tyson Lykes started a shipping business on the

Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South, is the coast, coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The list of U.S. states and territories by coastline, coastal states that have a shor ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

. They used a 109-foot, 75 ton three-masted

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoo ...

to ship cattle to

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...

as a replacement for herds which were wiped out in the

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (clock ...

. The tradition of naming their ships after family members dates back to that time, when this schooner was named ''Doctor Lykes'' after their father. Three years later, an office was opened in

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Ga ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, and Lykes began offering general cargo transportation between the US Gulf and

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean ...

ports. In 1922 the Lykes Bros. Steamship Co. was set up as a separate company, owned by the

Lykes Brothers Lykes Brothers Inc, is a corporation founded by the Lykes Family of Tampa, Florida, in 1910. This family would become the largest landowners in Florida, the ninth largest landowners in the United States and the wealthiest in Tampa Bay. In the 187 ...

. The seven brothers had been trading cotton, lumber and grain for years so owning their own ships was a natural extension of their operations. During the 1920s Lykes began to range beyond the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

and

. Offices were opened in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, and routes were extended to the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

and

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The t ...

. The 1930s saw Lykes acquiring 52 ships from Dixie and Southern States Lines, giving them a fleet of 67 ships. After passage of the

Merchant Marine Act of 1936 The Merchant Marine Act of 1936 is a United States federal law. Its purpose is "to further the development and maintenance of an adequate and well-balanced American merchant marine, to promote the commerce of the United States, to aid in the nati ...

, they committed themselves to the replacement of their fleet with modern freighters. Sixteen had been delivered by December 1941, when the US entered

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. During the war, Lykes carried 60 million tons of cargo and operated a maximum of 125 cargo ships for the government. 22 ships were lost along with 272 lives. During the postwar years, Lykes returned to commercial activity. By the 1950s, it had a fleet of 54 ships totaling 568,978 deadweight tons. That fleet underwent a complete replacement between 1960 and 1973, when 41 new ships were built. By then, Lykes steamship had become a subsidiary of Lykes Corp., which in 1978 merged with LTV Corp. In 1983 Lykes Bros. Steamship Co., Inc. was purchased by

Interocean Steamship Corporation Interocean Shipping Company, Interocean Steamship Company of San Francisco was a subsidiary of the Bethlehem Steel Company founded in the late 1930s and closed in 1986. During World War II Interocean Shipping Company operated Merchant navy ship ...

, a Florida corporation whose stockholders included descendants of the original seven Lykes brothers. With the start of

containerization Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers (also called shipping containers and ISO containers). Containerization is also referred as "Container Stuffing" or "Container Loading", which is the p ...

, Lykes was soon participating, becoming a container carrier in the trade lanes of the

East and Gulf coasts,

North Europe The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe Northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54°N, or may be based on other geographical factors ...

, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

, the

region,

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. Being registered in the U.S., the company had the privilege of being allowed to transport cargo for the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

. In December 1994 the company moved its headquarters from New Orleans, LA to Tampa, FL (to the former First Florida Tower (currently the Park Tower) at 400 North Tampa Street). The general offices were later moved to the SunTrust Tower at 401 East Jackson Street in Tampa. In October 1995, the company filed for

chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

reorganization. On February 24, 1997, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Alexander Paskay approved a bid by

CP Ships CP Ships was a large Canadian shipping company established in the 19th century. From the late 1880s until after World War II, the company was Canada's largest operator of Atlantic and Pacific steamships. Many immigrants travelled on CP ships f ...

, Ltd. to buy Lykes Brothers Steamship Co. In the following years, CP Ships integrated the services of

Ivaran Lines Ivarans Rederi AS was a merchant steamship company founded in Norway by Ivar Anton Christensen in 1902. The flag was red with a white "C" in the middle, for the founder's family name: Christensen (a picture of this flag can be viewed aFOTW. Histo ...

which they bought up in May 1998 and

Christensen Canadian African Lines Christensen Canadian African Lines (CCAL) was a Norwegian cargo shipping company that traded between Canada and Africa between 1948 and 2000. History Consul Lars Christensen founded the company in 1948 after a suggestion by his friend Alfred Cl ...

(CCAL) which was acquired in August 2000 into the Lykes Lines brand. In late 2005 the Lykes Lines brand was replaced by the CP Ships brand following CP's one brand strategy promoted by the "One brand – One team" project. CP Ships itself was bought up by

TUI AG TUI Group is a German leisure, travel and tourism company. TUI is an acronym for ''Touristik Union International'' ("Tourism Union International"). TUI AG was known as Preussag AG until 1997 when the company changed its activities from mining to ...

and merged in mid-2006 in the

Hapag-Lloyd Hapag-Lloyd AG is a German international shipping and container transportation company. Hapag-Lloyd was formed in 1970 through a merger of Hamburg-American Line (HAPAG) and North German Lloyd. History The company was formed on September 1, 1 ...

organization.

Awards

*IFW Shipping Line of the Year award *CIFFA award for Best Service to Africa *Lloyd's Loading List award for Fastest Transit Times on the North Atlantic

In literature

John McPhee John Angus McPhee (born March 8, 1931) is an American writer. He is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. He is a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the category General Nonfiction, and he won that award on the four ...

's ''Looking for a Ship'' (1990), a report on the state of the US Merchant Marine, centers on a South American voyage on the Lykes Brothers freighter ''Stella Lykes''. The shipping company is referred to in the

Tom Clancy Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of his novels have b ...

novel ''

Red Storm Rising ''Red Storm Rising'' is a war novel, written by Tom Clancy and co-written with Larry Bond, and released on August 7, 1986. Set in the mid-1980s, it features a Third World War between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Warsaw Pact for ...

''. The Soviet LASH ship ''Julius Fucik'', is disguised as the ''Doctor Lykes'' for the attack on Iceland in the opening phases of the Soviet battle plan.

International identifiers

SCAC Code: LYKL
Operator Code: LYK
BIC Codes (Container prefixes): LYKU, LYTU

Vessels

*''Adabelle Lykes'' (built in 1942)SS Adabelle Lykes
(PP. 150) Retrieved 2019-07-25 *SS ''Stella Lykes'' * SS ''Ruth Lykes'' * SS ''Cape Mohican'' * SS ''West Cobalt'' * MVs ''Charlotte'', ''Margaret'', ''Adabelle'' & ''Sheldon Lykes'' circa 1000 TEU container ships of the Elbe-Express-Klasse (730 TEU extendable to circa 1000 TEU), bought from Hapag Lloyd in 1984 and refitted to US flag standards, scrapped 1995/1996 at

Alang Alang is a census town in Bhavnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Because it is home to the Alang Ship Breaking Yard, Alang beaches are considered the world's largest ship graveyard. Demographics As of the 2001 Indian census, ...

(link points to German Wikipedia article for the class). The other two vessels in the class (730 TEU unextended) ultimately owned by Chinese shipping lines, reflagged Peoples Republic of China, now scrapped. * USS ''Hamul'' * USS ''Lenoir'' * USS ''Libra'' * USS ''Pollux'' * USS ''Valencia'' Lykes also operated three Barge carrying ships, unique in design and unlike LASH (

Lighter aboard ship The lighter aboard ship (LASH) system refers to the practice of loading barges (lighters) aboard a bigger vessel for transport. It was developed in response to a need to transport lighters, a type of (usually but not always) unpowered barge, be ...

) vessels. These ships had a submersible elevator capable of lifting 2 x 1,000 ton barges at a time. The barges were then moved into the ship via a "transporter". This electro/hydraulic "sled" moved onto the elevator and 76 hydraulic jacks lifted the barge just enough to bring it into the ship. It would then lower the barge onto blocks and return to the elevator for another barge. The transporters ran on railroad tracks. These vessels were truly state of the art for their time. * SS ''Doctor Lykes'', now SS ''Cape Mendocino'' (T-AKR-5064) * SS ''Almeria Lykes'', now * SS ''Tillie Lykes'', now

References

Bureau International des Containers
(Container prefix codes, now linking Lykes units to Hapag-Lloyd due to the merger) * CP Ships: Press release

28. April 2005 * SECDatabase.com

CP SHIPS LTD, Form 6-K, Filing Date Sep 7, 2004 * Lykes Lines
Official website
- page offline - please refer t

SMDG Group
(Carrier codes for

EDIFACT United Nations/Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport (UN/EDIFACT) is an international standard for electronic data interchange (EDI) developed for the United Nations and approved and published by UNECE, the UN Econ ...

messages, now having replaced Lykes Lines with Hapag-Lloyd due to the merger)

External links

Maritime Timetable images
(Collection of old company brochures) {{Authority control Defunct shipping companies of the United States Transport companies established in 1898 1898 establishments in Florida Companies based in Tampa, Florida Defunct companies based in Florida Transport companies disestablished in 2005 2005 disestablishments in Florida