"Consul General" Axel Johnson

Axel Johnson was born in Jönköping on 23 March, 1844 and moved to Stockholm at the age of 17.  He began working as a desk clerk with  W.Ullberg & Co where he stayed for about ten years doing business in commissions and in 1870 he began trading stocks and bonds. By 1873 he had a gained private capital of 12,000 SEK and on August 15, 1873 Axel Johnson reported to the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce that he had established a trading agency firm called A.Johnson & Co. In 1889 his private and company capital had grown to 700,000 SEK.  In 1875 Axel Johnson was married to Therese Wieting, the daughter of a German sea captain. They had four children named Axel JR 1876, Helge 1878, Harry 1881, and Thorsten 1883. In 1885 he bought the steamship W.T Marshall named after the mine owner and secretary in South Steam Coal Owners Association. She was built of wood in a shipyard in Sundsvall in 1873 and could carry 900 tons of cargo.  W.T Marshall was used to carry coal from the Humber outlet to Sweden.  In 1889 the Uddevalla steamer Sitona, built 1885 and owned by the Thorburn Company, was used in time-chartering freights.

On the 30 January, 1890 the steamer Cyklop, owned by the Hamburg-Amerikanische-Paketfart AG, was sold on auction and bought by Axel Johnson for 130,000 German marks and was renamed after Axels wife Annie Therese.

Axel Johnson founded the shipping company AB Nordstjernan on 19 May, 1890 together with Gustaf Lettström who bought 5 shares, as did Carl Schnell and C.G. Thulin. Ernst Edlund bought 2 shares and Captain Gustaf Blomberg   1 share while Axel Johnson kept the remaining 179 shares for himself of the 200 shares issued.

Axel Johnson was the first ship built for the shipping company  was delivered in 1891.

In 1892 Axel Johnson was appointed Consul General of Siam (Thailand).

In 1904 the company started a shipping route to South America under the name Johnson Line.

S/S Oscar Fredrik inaugurated the traffic to La Plata on 26 November, 1904 although S/S Drottning Sophia already had been to Buenos Aires on to explore.  S/S Oscar II was the second ship put in traffic on the La Plata route.

On the 13 May, 1910 Axel Johnson passed away.

  "Consul General" Axel Ax:son Johnson

Axel Ax:son Johnson Sr. was born in 1876.

Axel Ax:son Johnson and Helge Ax:son Johnson took over the leadership of the company Axel Johnson & Co already in 1909 and after the death of his father, Axel assumed all  responsibilities of his father and became Chairman of the Board  in AB Nordstjernan, CEO in Axel Johnson & Co and Chairman of the Board in Avesta Jern AB, a steel company. In 1911 he was appointed Consul General of Siam. On 30 June, 1913 Axel bought the remaining part of Helge’s shares in the company.

On 26 April, 1914 he started the South Pacific route by loading Kronprinsessan Margareta  with destination Chile. 

On 17 June, 1914 the North Pacific route was started when the Kronprins Gustaf Adolf was loaded for destinations on the North American West coast.  The second ship on the North Pacific route was the Pacific, delivered in December 1914, which also hauled cargo for ports in Central America and the West Indies.

During 1919-1921 the Company had three 9000-ton motor-ships built at Götaverken, the Balboa, Buenos Aires and Canada that all were placed on the growing North Pacific route.

During 1920-21 there was a massive worldwide reduction in shipping and 12% of the entire Swedish commercial shipping fleet  was stored. In 1920 the Company  sold the steamers Lao, Nordstjernan, Annie Therese and Reserv, and in the fall of 1921 they sold the remaining 7 steamers to Hugo Stinnes in Hamburg at low prices.  These ships were:  Kronprins Gustaf, Drottning Sophia, Oscar Fredrik, Axel Johnson, Annie Johnson, Kronprinsessan Victoria and Prinsessan Ingeborg.  They also sold the entire stock holdings  in Karta & Oaxen Kalkbruk,  Engelsberg- Norbergs railroad,  Pershyttelotterna,  forestland in Härjedalen, Strå AB, and Buildings.

In 1923 Nordstjernan AB began to report greater profit and a new  ship was ordered from Götaverken. Axel Johnson was delivered in 1925 and soon followed by Annie Johnson in 1925 and Margaret Johnson in 1928.

In 1928 Axel Johnson founded a refinery in Nynäshamn and bought Nya Asfalt.  He took a branch within the Johnson Concern called Nya Murbruksfabriken and restructured it to an independent company which he combined with Nya Asfalt.  The new Company became known as Svenska Vägaktiebolaget and  would together with Nya Asfalt  be of great importance for the future Nordstjernan,  and via JCC and ABV be incorporated into NCC.

As pricing on ships was very low in the 1930:s he ordered a big fleet of both cargo ships and tankers.  In 1934 he placed an order for the first 4 cargo ships in a series that would number a total of 21 ships, 17 of which   were to be built at Götaverken during a period of 10 years.  In 1935 the first four ships were launched, these being Argentina, Brasil, Nordstjernan and Uruguay.  This was the beginning of the Argentina-series and they were followed in 1937 by the Colombia and Chile.  In 1938 Peru was launched and in 1939 the Venezuela.  In 1940 the Equador was launched, in 1943 Argentina II and Brazil, in 1944 Suecia and Venezuela II, in 1945 the Panama, in 1946 the Bolivia, in 1947 the Paraguay, and in 1948 the Guyana.  All of these were built at   Götaverken. From the Kockums shipyard  four ships were launched: La Plata in 1943, Amazonas in 1943, Orinoco in 1944 and Bio-Bio in 1944.

When the Germans occupied Denmark and Norway on 9 April, 1940 the Skagerak blockade was implemented.  The Nordstjernan Company had seven ships inside Swedish ports and six outside.  The route traffic was halted and the six ships outside Swedish ports were placed in traffic across the Pacific between Vladivostock and the USA.  In 1940 Sweden managed to get the countries at war to allow limited traffic to and from Swedish ports. This safe-conduct traffic continued with few breaks until 1945.  During 1944 fourteen of Nordstjernan’s ships were part of this safe-conduct traffic with a combined 20 trips making a net profit of 13 million SEK.

In 1942 Great Britain time-chartered the Lima.   She was painted grey and put under blackout conditions as she left Bombay with a cargo of 600 Indian carpets and Tea for England.  She sailed via Cape Town were she left a sick crewmember.   Her closest destination was Freetown in Sierra Leone were she was to join a convoy.  On 12 September, 1942 at 10:30 PM she was hit by a torpedo from a submarine that later turned out to be Italian.  Lima was hit in the engine room and was one of ten ships that Nordstjernan lost during WWII. Altogether 128 crewmembers and 12 passengers were killed.

During the forties Axel Ax:son Johnson fulfilled his and his father’s plans to own a shipyard and bought Lindholmens yard in Gothenburg. The steel for the ships came from Avesta and from the newly acquired companies they bought the following products: KaMeWa propellers from Karlstads Mekaniska Werkstad, auxiliary engines from Hedemora verkstäder, propeller shafts from Motala verkstad and interior decorations from AB Gustaf Flinta.

1947 the first ship in the Seattle series was launched, a series that would number eight ships: Seattle and  Golden Gate in 1947, Los Angeles in 1948, Lions Gate in 1949, Silver Gate in 1951, Portland in 1952, and California   and Canada in 1953. All ships were built at Kockums except  Silver Gate and Portland that were built at Howaltswerke in Kiel.  In December 1948 the first ship in the newly created Far East route began to load in Bombay and set off on New Years Eve 1949. This route was operated jointly with Everett Orient Line and became to be known as the  Everett Star Line. On the Far East route they put the three  LIBERTY-ships of C2-type:  Arcturus, Alcyone and Betelgeuse.  They were registered in Panama and got the prefix STAR in front of their names.  In the fall of 1949 a fourth ship was put in traffic, the Nordstjernan and in February 1951 they put in the Thai.  This five-vessel  line was not to last for long due to the breakout of the Korean War  in June 1950 that caused enormous shortage of tonnage.  The Swedish government demanded that all Swedish shipping companies should transport coal from the USA to Sweden. As a result Nordstjernan was forced to make two of the Panama boats available for  transporting coal.  In 1952 Lao was placed in this service and in 1958 Capetan Cardamelitis that was bought and renamed Star Bellatrix.

Mining Engineer Axel Ax:son Johnson Jr.

Axel Ax:son Johnson Jr. was born in 1910, and married Antonia do Amaral Souza in 1941. Axel Ax:son Johnson was appointed vice president of Nordstjernan on August 30,  1952.  In 1956 he was appointed  president of the company.

In the mid fifties Axel Ax:son Johnson and foremost Robert Fredriksson began  planning a new series of ships, namely the Rio series, to be built by their own Lindholmen shipyard.  Robert Fredriksson had already been thinking about the Rio-series the day he was hired by the company and made contact with the engineer Gustav Pielstick at Maschinenfabrik in Augsburg. Gustav Pielstick moved to France after the war and started to develop his idea of the Pielstick engine.  In 1948 the development had reached so far that Axel Ax:son Johnson Sr. bought the license for the Pielstick engine.

The first boat in the Rio-series was named Rio de Janeiro and was delivered in December 1956, followed by  Buenos Aires and Montevideo in 1957, Santos in 1958, Brasilia in 1961, and Bahia Blanca in 1963.

 Axel Ax:son Johnson’s betting on nuclear powered ships was not to be as fortunate as the Rio-series. In February 1956 Nordstjernan hired a group of qualified technicians that would work under the name the Nuclear Group. Five engineers  with Masters Degrees were hired and located in Nynäshamn to do research in the nuclear area. In 1958 came their first report on nuclear powering of ships. In the spring of 1960 Robert Fredriksson was getting increasingly worried about nuclear powered ships, primarily because of the economic aspects., " A small amount of time may be saved annually", he wrote, "due to a reduced need for bunkering but this time saving will at most represent a few days per year which in the greater perspective in no way can be of major significance".

But there were others within Nordstjernan who were considerably more optimistic. In preparation for an up-coming meeting in December 1961 Fredriksson saw himself in need to document his position, which had strengthened even more, in writing. He wrote among other things "I hereby confirm my previously stated opinion that the building of nuclear powered ships presently is a waist of  engineering talents and money.  There is no sound economic foundation for such a construction at present".

The deciding reason that had caused Fredriksson to change his opinion was an article in the British paper " The Motor ship", in which it was reported that Great Britain was to postpone it's building of nuclear powered ships due to a leak in the primary circuit in the American ship Savanna that took six months to repair.

In the early sixties Nordstjernan had to charter reefer ships to manage the transportation of fruit from Argentina.  Axel Ax:son Johnson started to toy with the thought of building special ships for transportation of cold cargo but was reluctant to do so due to substantial investments required.  By retrofitting the cold storages in his existing ships and lowering of the cooling temperature from –12C to –18C the Johnson Line managed to take over some of the Danish meat-transportation.  But would the fruit-importers choose Nordstjernan to transport their fruit transports?  At this point Ax:son Johnson began to consider  traditional Johnson principle: to support  itself and buy a fruit import company.  In 1963 they bought Frans A Sanden AB for the price of 14 million SEK, keeping the Sanden brothers in charge of running the company. With this company behind them Nordstjernan dared to cross the line and ordered new cold transport-ships.  In August 1963 Yakima Valley was delivered, in August 1964 the Rio Negro Valley was delivered from Lindholmen, in February 1964 the Hood River Valley, in February 1966 the Okanagan Valley from Blohm&Voss in Germany, in 1968 San Joaquin Valley was delivered and in October 1968 finally the Aconcagua Valley was delivered from the Wärtsilä yard in Åbo.

In 1966 Axel Ax:son Johnson was elected  Chairman of Sveriges Redarförening (Swedish Ship owners’ Association).

Towards the end of 1966 four container ships were ordered from Wärtsilä with an option for two more.  The container traffic started in September 1968 with one of the rebuilt Rio-ships, the Montevideo. In June 1969 the first special built container ship the Axel Johnson was delivered followed by Annie Johnson in September the same year.  In February 1970 Margareth Johnson was delivered, in August 1970 San Francisco and in October 1971 Antonia Johnson.

In 1969 the Lindholmen shipyard was sold to the Eriksberg shipyard owned by the Broström Concern at a price of 40 million SEK. This was in the neck of time as the business began to deteriorate for both Eriksberg and the Broströms and, as a matter of fact, most  of the Swedish shipbuilding industry was wiped out.

In 1972 Nordstjernan started to share the traffic between Europe and the American west coast with the Danish Östasiatiske Kompagnie and the English Blue Star Line.  The three companies built a consortium with nine ships and was called the Johnson Scan Star.

In 1975 Nordstjernan gained a majority in Rederi AB Fredrika and Stjärnbolagen and thereby also a majority in Rederi AB Svea who had a fleet of 25 ships and 10 sightseeing boats in Stockholm.

In 1975 Axel Ax:son Johnson had a brain hemorrhage and in 1979 it was clear that he was unable to continue as president of the company and he resigned on the first of January in 1981.  Bo Ax:son Johnson took over as president in Nordstjernan.

Axel Ax:son Johnson Jr.  passed away in Florida on the 18 of February 1988.