General cargo ship Siena. Her magnificent original 1:100 scale shipyard model lives on on deck 6 of our permanent exhibition on modern merchant shipping history.
Det Østasiatiske Kompagni is a Danish shipping company founded in 1897 with the original aim of transporting passengers and goods between Northern Europe and East Asia. The company began expanding internationally very early on; since 2015, it has operated under the name Santa Fe Group.
The founder, Hans Niels Andersen (1852-1937), recognized very early on the new opportunities that the diesel engine offered for shipping. He worked closely with Ivar Knudsen (1861-1920) on this. Knudsen was the chief engineer at the Burmeister & Wain shipyard in Copenhagen. He had traveled to Germany to study the new engine invented by Rudolf Diesel in 1897. He secured the patent for the use of the Diesel engine in Denmark and began work on a version that could be used on ships. In 1912, his shipyard built the MV „Selandia.“ This was a motor vessel (MV) and not a steam ship (SS). Det Østasiatiske Kompagni concentrated on this innovative type of ship from then on.
In 1916, Hans Niels Andersen had a shipyard built in his birthplace of Nakskov, on the west coast of the island of Lolland. The shipbuilding company existed until 1987. The ship pictured, MV „Siena“, was built there in 1954. She transported general cargo for Det Østasiatiske Kompagni until 1975. As the ship was getting on in years, she was sold to Henry Stephens Shipping Company. She was then given the name „D.F. Fajemirokun“ and sailed under the flag of Nigeria. In 1978, she was sold again. Her new owners, TeX Dilan Shipping Co. of Panamá, christened her „SLS Everest.“ In late 1979, she was to make her final voyage from Casablanca to the scrapyards at Chittagong. She sank after covering only five miles.
But her magnificent original 1:100 scale yard model lives on on deck 6 of our permanent exhibition on modern merchant shipping history.