Last modified: 2006-11-19 by ivan sache
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L. Dens & Co. is presented by by G. Devos & S. Vanfraechem (Volle kracht vooruit! Een eeuw Antwerpse Scheepvaartvereniging. Full steam ahead! A century Antwerp Shipping Federation. Pandora, Ghent, 2001) as a shipping company founded by Leon Dens in 1900. In 1903 followed the S.A. Belge d'Armement et Navigation Océan. Host - in London - to the First World War meetings of the Antwerp Shipping Federation, Dens went further than his Liberal party colleague Tonnelier in becoming not only a Senator but the Minister of Defense as well albeit briefly. In 1933, Océ was reformed as Cie Dens-Océan.
Searching for the company name(s) leads to a subsidiary of the Dutch Vroon group, specialized in the transportation of livestock, Livestock Express:
Carrying live animals at sea is a delicate job. Livestock Express is a 100% Vroon subsidiary and specialised in this field. The highly qualified ships and crew have enabled Vroon to become the world's biggest independent seaborne livestock carrier. We have over 40 years experience in carrying livestock on a worldwide basis.
Jan Mertens, 26 January 2006
The house flag of Dens is shown as #1514, Océan Soc. Anon. Belge d'Armement et de Navigation, in Lloyd's book of house flags and funnels of the principal steamship lines of the world and the house flags of various lines of sailing vessels, published at Lloyd's Royal Exchange. London. E.C. (1911), also available online thanks to the Mystic Seaport Foundation. The flag is sky blue flag with the word OCÉAN in
sans-seriffed yellow letters, placed in a rising diagonal position; in the upper hoist
corner is placed a yellow lion rampant.
The colour of the house flag begs the question: was it the blue of the
Liberals, or just a coincidence?
