Lloyd Bergerson, General Manager of the Quincy, MA. shipbuilding division of General Dynamics (GD) had a vision. The shipyard could be converted to build liquid natural gas (LNG) carriers for transporting LNG from places like the Middle East and Indonesia to industial nations in America, Europe, Asia and South America. LNG was already being shipped into nearby Boston from the Middle East.
Late in 1968, if I remember correctly, Lloyd requested my services to travel with him and several Quincy engineers to Norway, the purpose being to evaluate a ship the Norwegians were building in an Oslo shipyard and assess feasibility of building a similar design in the United States. Our counterparts in Oslo were helpful in describing the design and its operational characteristics. On the evening of the last day, we were hosted at a dinner given by Mike Kroner, manager of the Oslo shipyard. Our driver to the restaurant was an immense Norwegian named Olaf.
As the evening wore on, we concluded with drinking and exchanging stories. Stocky Mike Kroner kept staring at me from across the table. He finally asked, “Did you play football?” I said I didn’t and he said, “I want to arm wrestle you.” I agreed, and announced to the gathering, “Gentlemen, we are about to determine for the first time, and possibly the last, whether the aerospacemen of California are tougher then the shipbuilders of Norway.” My earlier life as a logger and operating a dairy farm stood me in good stead and I put him down after a brief struggle. He was amazed and called to one of his men, “Go get Olaf;” Fortunately, Olaf was off on some errand and was nowhere to be found.
Returnng to my room at the the Bristol hotel, I spent several hours writing my report. Later, I learned that it was on the strength of that report that Lloyd Bergerson received approval from GD headquarters to go ahead with the project.
Bergerson offered me a job at Quincy, but I declined. He could have insisted, but a close friend and colleague, Alan Schuler, a fine engineer, went in my place and did a superb job. His wife and daughters (both Mensa) didn’t much like the idea of moving to the East Coast. One daughter, Sherri Lightner, is currently President of the San Diego City Council.
In a matter of a few month Bergerson was fired and replaced by P. Takis Veliotis, who had approached GD Headquarters and made the case that he and his shipbuilding crew from Canada should be hired to build the ships.
Veliotis rose to manage two divisions, Quincy and Electric Boat, where nuclear submarines are built. He was given a top secret security clearance. He sat on the GD board of directors and enjoyed lucrative executive compensation.
During the 1970’s ten enormous, beautiful, fast ships were built, each equipped with five, one-hundred twenty foot diameter insulated spherical containers. All ships were sold into the Asian trade and served for many years before being decommissioned. Only one still remains in service.
The tenth ship was a hard sell, so the demand for ships was deemed by GD executives to have dried up. The Quincy shipyard was shut down and dismantled.
Takis Veliotis was indicted by the Federal Government in 1982 for taking kickbacks from a supplier. General Dynamics moved to freeze his assets but success was questionable as he had transferred major investments, including GD shares to Canada and sold them. He retired in 1983 and moved to his native country, Greece, to live out his life, presumably in luxury.
Just a few years later worldwide demand for LNG began to burgeon. Unloading facilities for LNG ships and regasification plants now exist in twenty-five countries. At the present time there are outstanding contracts for construction of ninety-four LNG carriers. Most will be built by Mitsubshi Heavy Indistries in Japan and Hundai in South Korea.
Lloyd Bergeson’s vision for the future of LNG and the ships for transporting the fuel was vindicated. Some may say General Dynamics missed the boat on this one, to the tune of twenty billion dollars or more.
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