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 (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

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 or the South Coast, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Tex ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

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

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

to ship cattle to

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

as a replacement for herds which were wiped out in the

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

. 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 Gulf Coast of the United States, coastal resort town, resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island (Texas), Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a pop ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

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

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

ports. In 1922, the Lykes Bros. Steamship Co. was set up as a separate company, owned by the Lykes Brothers. 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 () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

and

. Offices were opened in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, 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 east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

and

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

. 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 nat ...

, 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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. 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 LTV may refer to: Television * Lagos Television, a TV channel in Nigeria. * Lanarkshire TV, a defunct local television channel in Scotland - later replaced by Thistle TV * Latvijas Televīzija, Latvian Television * LRT televizija, formerly LTV, Li ...

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 ships ...

, 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, or International Organization for Standardization, ISO containers). Containerization, also referred as container stuf ...

, 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 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other ge ...

, 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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, the

region,

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. 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 primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

. 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, w ...

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 fr ...

, 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. Histor ...

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 AG ( trading as TUI Group) is a German multinational leisure, travel and tourism company; it is the largest such company in the world. TUI is an acronym for ''Touristik Union International'' ("Tourism Union International"). TUI AG was known ...

and merged in mid-2006 in the

Hapag-Lloyd Hapag-Lloyd AG is a German international shipping and container transportation company, the 5th biggest in the world. It was formed in 1970 through a merger of Hamburg-American Line (HAPAG) and Norddeutscher Lloyd. History The company was forme ...

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 author. 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 fourt ...

'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, military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of ...

novel ''

Red Storm Rising ''Red Storm Rising'' is a war novel, written by Tom Clancy and 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 forces, and is notab ...

''. 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'' * Velma 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, Al ...

(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 People's 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) 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 ''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 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1995 Transport companies disestablished in 2005 2005 disestablishments in Florida