The C.Y. Tung Biography ^* (1911 - 1982)

Late Mr. Chao Yung (CY) Tung, ( AKA ) the founder of Island Navigation Corp., was born in Zhou Shan, ZheJiang Province, China on August 18, 1911. He was the 3rd child among the 5 siblings in his family. Zhou Shan () is an island about 135 miles south of Shanghai (). CY was inspired by Admiral Zheng He () of the Ming Dynasty. He was the famous navigator and adventurer in the Chinese maritime history. Admiral Zheng commanded his ships and sailed to the south of China seven times in the 15th century. His fleet reached as far as Iran and Eastern Africa. In his youth, Mr. Tung dreamed one day that he could also have a fleet of ships. His ships could sail around the world just like Zheng He did. Mr. Tung dreamed of creating the first international Chinese merchant fleet when he was a teenager. Perhaps, his fondness of the seas may have something to do with his birth place - Zhou Shan.

In 1927, his father’s business bankrupted in Shanghai. Mr. Tung decided to pursue his dream and went to Tsin Jian () alone. He joined Tsin Jian Navigation Company as an apprentice at the age of 17. Because of his talents, diligence and ambition, he worked his way up and soon became an executive in the company. In 1933, he outbid his 3 large competitors (, , ) for the 45 mile-long sailing right between Tian Jin () and Tong Gu (). The success and profitability of this route set the path for the beginning of Mr. Tung’s glorious empire in the shipping industry.

In 1935, Mr. Tung moved to Shanghai with his wife (). His ambition was to establish a merchant marine fleet for China. He submitted a detailed proposal to the local government on how China could have her own merchant ships and service her coastal ports and overseas, and how they could partner with the British and French Shipping Companies. Due to the political environment at that time, his proposal was rejected by the government completely. In 1936, Chinese Maritime Trust Ltd. () was formed with the financial support from a local banker Dong Hang Zha (). In 1940, Mr. Tung registered Island Navigation Corp () in Delaware, USA. The first cargo ship was the 20 year old chartered ship (S.S. Ramona) which sailed across the Pacific Ocean and reached the USA. Because of the Japanese invasion to China, CY fled Shanghai and moved his China Maritime Trust Ltd. from Shanghai to Hong Kong in 1941. He registered it as China Maritime Trust (1941) Ltd () in Hong Kong. After the Japan-China War was over in 1945, he removed "1941" from China Maritime Trust (1941) Ltd in August 1946. On August 4, 1947, the first Chinese flag ship S.S. Tien Loong () sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Shanghai to Le Havre, France then to Norfolk, Virginia, USA. She was also the first ship with all Chinese crew and flew with the Chinese flag sailing across the Atlantic Ocean. A coast-wise shipping company named China Union Lines () was born in Shanghai in 1947. It was the 3rd company under Mr. Tung's umbrella. After the Communist took over the country, CY moved both Chinese Maritime Trust Ltd. and China Union Lines as well as his 7 ships from Hong Kong to Taiwan in 1950. However he still kept a branch office in Hong Kong. In 1952, Island Navigation Corp had its branch Offices in Hong Kong and Tokyo. The company emblem is a plum blossom, the national flower of the Republic of China.

After the end of World War II on August 15, 1945, Mr. Tung financed US$ 2.87M to purchase 10 Liberty ships, 3 Victory ships, 8 CIMAVI ships, 10 N3 ships, 3 tankers, 16 Great Lakes Ships and 4 auxiliary naval ships from the U.S. government. They were all naval retired ships from the WW2. With this fleet size, Chinese Maritime Trust Ltd/Island Navigation Corp. were able to expand their services around the globe. In 1956, Mr. Tung brought his first brand new breakbulk ship, S.S. Oriental Star () from the French Ship Yard. Two years later, he added another brand new bulk/tanker ship, S.S. Atlantic Faith () to his fleet. She was built at the Japanese ship yard. In 1959, the first largest tanker ever built in Asia and owned by an Asian was launched in the Japan ship yard for Chinese Maritime Trust. She was S.T. Oriental Giant (). In those days, Mr. Tung's fleet was predominantly the second-hand ships. Owning the brand-new ships was a giant step towards his dream to be the largest Chinese Shipping Company in the world. In Feb 1962, the first passenger/cargo Liner, S.S. Ru Yung () set sailed from KeeLung, Taiwan to Los Angeles, USA. She was also the first ship under the newly founded company, Orient Overseas Line (). As the entrepreneur and risk-taker, CY dared to build a new ship based on the laboratory ship-design for a high speed ship so-called a semi-submersed bow with the SV stern. That was his M.V. Oriental Queen () in 1966. She was a 12,759 dwt. multi-purposed ship with 12,800 hp low speed diesel engines capable of sailing at 21.3 knots of speed. It was the first of its kind in the naval architecture. The Seawise Giant () was the testimony of Mr. Tung's idealism, professionalism and dedication in realizing his dream in 1979. She is the largest ship built in the 20th century with a volume of 260,851 grt (564,763 dwt), a beam of 226 feet, a LOA of 1,504 feet, and a SW draft of 80.74 feet.

The Korean War broke out in June 1950. The relationship between Taiwan and the U.S. flourished and China Maritime Trust Ltd. became the main ocean carrier to transport the military supplies from the U.S. to South Korea while Taiwan became the U.S. military base in the Korea War as well as counteracted the communist influence by the People's Republic of China. In 1956, the Middle East War broke out. Ships were sunk in the Suez Canal during the British, French and Egyptian conflict. It blocked other ships from crossing the canal. All the West-East trades had to route the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa. As a result, the demand for shipping suddenly increased many folds. China Maritime/Island Navigation were able to deploy the Liberty ships, Victory Ships, CIMAVI and N3 ships to their full capacity. On July 8, 1959, the U.S. officially entered the Vietnam War after the death of two military advisors. The U.S. government sold more ships to the Tung Group at a discounted price so that those ships would be able to transport the military supplies to Vietnam for the U.S. government. During this period, the Tung's fleet rapidly expanded. He used the earned money to modernize his fleet with more and newer ships. During the Vietnam War Era, Japanese government on the other hand offered a favorable finance plan to the Tung Group in an effort to foster its own ship building industry. So, Tung took this opportunity to order more new ships for his increasing demands during the wars.

In 1967, Oriental Overseas Container Line - OOCL () was founded in Hong Kong. Its first fully cellular container ship of 300 TEUs was S.S. Hong Kong Producer(). She was converted from an OOL ex-liberty ship in Hong Kong Whompao Ship Yard in 1969. OOCL became the first Asian shipping line to transport containerized cargo across the Pacific, and in doing so changed the face of global trade in the Asia Pacific region. OOCL launched its first newly built fully cellular container ship of 1,200 TEUs, M.V. Oriental Leader () in 1971. OOCL listed as Orient Overseas (Holding) Limited on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1973. Mr. Tung purchased one-third stake of Dart Line () right after OOCL went public. To expand its market share around the world, he took over Furnes Withy of the UK (), the parent company of Manchester Line which had a fleet of 50 ships in 1980. One year later, he acquired Seatrain Pacific Services of the U.S. He was the first Chinese Shipowner who had the financial wealth to own 3 large European and American Shipping Companies. After 34 years in the container service, OOCL once again placed an order of building 11 largest SX-Class container ships with Samsung Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. of South Korea. The OOCL SX-class vessels were once recognized by the Guinness World Record as having the largest declared capacity in the world at 8,063 TEU, making it the largest containership in the world, with a service speed of 25 knots, a beam of 141 feet and a LOA of 1,059.5 feet. In April 2003, OOCL took delivery of the first SX-Class OOCL Shenzhen (). This has now been surpassed by container ships such as the Emma Maersk which was released on August 12, 2006 with a capacity of 11,000 TEUs.

His business in the cruise ships was as prosperous as his other lines of the shipping business, i.e., breakbulk, bulk, LPG, tanker and container ships. OOL inaugurated its first Asia- Americas cruise liner, S.S. Oriental Rio () in 1968. She sailed from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan to USA, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. In September 1970, Tung purchased the famous oceanliner RMS Queen Elizabeth to convert it into a floating university, to be known as Seawise University (), in his efforts to keep the World Campus Afloat program alive. On 9 January 1972, the ship caught fire during refurbishing and sank into Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor; the wreckage had to be scrapped three years later. The Universe Campus () was purchased to fulfill Mr. Tung's vision of shipboard education for the students coming from Chapman College in Orange, California, USA. The program continued to gain momentum through the 1970s and 1980s. In 1981, the program was brought to the University of Pittsburgh where it remained for 25 years. To this day, the Semester at Sea (formerly known as the World Campus Afloat Program) is still alive and resides in University of Virginia. In 2009, 516 students enrolled in this study on M.V. Explorer. American Hawaii Cruises was another legacy of the Tung's shipping empire. The first cruise ship, S.S. Oceanic Independent () sailed out of Honolulu for the 7-day cruise around Hawaii Islands on June 7, 1980. She was the former S.S. Independent owned and operated by American Export Lines. S.S. Oceanic Independent was the first Chinese owned U.S. Flag ship cruising on the U.S. Soil.

In 1972, OOCL had its first self-operated and dedicated container terminal in North America, i.e., Global Terminal in New Jersey USA. Subsequently LBCT in Long Beach, California, USA, Vanterm and Deltaport in Vancouver, Canada, NYCT in New York, USA and KAOCT in Kaohsiung, Taiwan were added to the list of the OOCL self-operated and dedicated terminals. However after 2007, only LBCT and KAOCT remained in OOIL, the parent company of OOCL.

OOCL Logistics Ltd. (OLL), the OOIL Group's international freight consolidation and logistics service unit, began in 1979. Services extend from basic freight consolidation services to the management and operation of more comprehensive programs involving multi-modal transportation, warehousing and distribution activities. It has an extensive network of some 85 offices in 24 countries around the world.

Besides the shipping business, Mr. Tung also owned the Global Union Bank () in New York and America Asian Bank ()in San Francisco and Los Angeles, a high-rise building, the Wall Street Plaza in Manhattan, New York City as well as the China Restaurant () in New York City in his hay days.

At its peak(1980), the Tung Group had a shipping fleet with over 150 freight ships, with a cargo capacity exceeding 10 million tons; it was one of the world's top seven shipping lines. He was often called the Onassis of the Orient. However, Mr. Tung's Empire confronted a seriously financial challenge almost leading to bankruptcy in 1985-87. This was partly due to CY's over-expanding and over-borrowing in order to become the world largest shipping company against his rival Sir Yue-Kong Pao () who owned World Wide Shipping Company () a Hong Kong based shipping company solely engaged in the tanker/bulk carriers. Ironically, late Sir Pao was also from Ningbo (), ZheJiang Province which is 34 miles west of Zhou Shan. Both Tung and Pao spoke the same Chinese dialect. Both were the shipping tycoons in Hong Kong in the 1970's. The world economic downturn and over-tonnage in the shipping market in early the 1980's also triggered the OOCL financial crisis. On Sept. 2, 1985, OOHL, the parent company of OOCL had to suspend its stocks from trading over a year in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. After the financial restructure, Orient Overseas (International) Limited was born in 1987 to replace OOHL. Regardless, Mr. C.Y. Tung was indeed the legendary figure and the pioneer who devoted his whole life to the modernization of Chinese Shipping. He achieved his dream and put Chinese merchant ships in international waters and restore China's maritime greatness to the era of Admiral Zheng He in the 15th century. On Jan 18, 2003, the C.Y. Tung Maritime Museum () was opened to the public in Jiao Tong University in Shanghai in memory of late Mr. C. Y. Tung. It houses the Chinese Maritime History Gallery and the C. Y. Tung Gallery.

Mr. C. Y. Tung passed away on April 15, 1982. He was survived with his wife, 2 sons, 3 daughters and 10 grand-children. His older son, Chee Hwa (CH) Tung, assumed the leadership of Orient Overseas (International) Limited (OOIL), OOCL's parent company for 14 years. In 1996, Chee Chen (CC) Tung took over at the helm on C H Tung's election as Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Today, OOCL is one of the world's largest containerized shipping and logistics companies, with more 280 offices in 58 countries around the world. OOCL provides 78 services covering international trading markets with a fleet of 84 ships of total capacity of 373,102 TEUs, including OOCL-owned, operated and chartered vessels.