By James Heinz
In 1977 I was 20 years old. I remember seeing a picture in a magazine of a man walking down a Manhattan sidewalk. The accompanying caption said he was the richest man in the world and that no one knew who he was. His name stuck in my mind.
He was Daniel Keith Ludwig. He started his career as a Great Lakes mariner.
Ludwig was born June 24, 1897, in South Haven, Michigan, on the shore of Lake Michigan. Ludwig’s father and four of his granduncles made their living as captains of Great Lakes vessels. His grandfather built Ludwig Pier for Great Lakes ships in South Haven. His first venture into shipping was at the age of nine, when he salvaged and sold a sunken twenty-six-foot boat.
Wikipedia says Ludwig’s parents separated when Daniel was 15, and that his father took him to Port Arthur, Texas. Ludwig left school after eighth grade to work in various shipping-related jobs on Lake Michigan and in Texas, learning such trades as ship chandler, machinist, marine engineer, and ship handler. He was a technician for Fairbanks Morse diesel engines.
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At 19, Ludwig bought his first ship, an old passenger steamer called IDLEWILD for five thousand dollars. Wisconsin Marine Historical Society (WMHS) files show that the steamer was built as the GRACE McMILLAN at Wyandotte, Michigan, the same year Ludwig was born. His biographer claims Ludwig was born at the moment IDLEWILD docked at Ludwig Pier. His granduncle may have commanded the ship on the Chicago to South Haven run. She had an iron hull, a walking beam engine but no ballast tanks. Crew members maintained her trim by rolling large barrels of sand from one side of the ship to another. Reputed to be the finest steamer on the Lakes when built, she was broken up in 1940 at New York after an accident.
Ludwig cut down the 312-ton, 161-foot long steamer, sold her boilers and machinery, and converted her into a barge. He then advertised in New York City for a charter, receiving one to deliver molasses up the Hudson, through the Erie Canal, and across Lake Ontario to a Canadian distillery.
His connection to the distilling trade apparently led to his 1922 arrest as the captain of a rum-running schooner off the coast of New York. A crew member claimed he had been shanghaied and beaten to make him work. Ludwig was able to avoid prosecution on a legal technicality, according to a biography, the 1986 The Invisible Billionaire by Jerry Shields.
After this episode, Ludwig became involved in hauling another dark fluid — oil. He slowly built up a fleet of oil tankers, many of them surplus World War I vessels bought at such suspiciously low prices from the federal government that his biographer believed that political influence was involved.
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Eventually Ludwig bought the tanker TRANSOIL, which he put to work hauling oil on the Great Lakes. WMHS records show that the 1,571-ton, 250-foot long ship was built in 1936 at Chickasaw, Arkansas. On Sept. 26, 1940, at Maumee, Ohio, the tanker exploded, killing the captain and a steward, and injuring ten others while destroying a barge and a tug. After repairs, TRANSOIL was chartered to the British Ministry of War Transport in 1944 and moved fuel during the Normandy invasion. In 1968 she was sold to Canadian interests to haul fresh water from Puerto Rico to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
According to Wikipedia, in the nineteen-thirties, Ludwig developed a novel approach to financing his expansion. He borrowed the construction cost of tankers and used pre-agreed charters as collateral. His National Bulk Carriers became one of the largest American shipping companies, eventually owning about sixty vessels. In the nineteen-forties, one of his shipyards in Virginia developed a welding method instead of riveting, and side launching, which saved time during World War II. After the war, he had ships built in Japan, where labor costs were lower. Wikipedia states that his ships transported oil around the world. In the nineteen-fifties he pioneered the construction and use of the new oil supertankers and was known as the father of the supertanker, according to American Shipping magazine.
Ludwig diversified into a wide range of holdings: an oil refinery, banking, cattle ranching, insurance, lumbering, and real estate, per Wikipedia. He invested in mining and exploration projects in the Americas, Africa, Australia and the Middle East. He created the Princess chain of luxury hotels in Mexico, Bermuda and the Bahamas, and developed Westlake Village, California, according to Wikipedia.
At his peak, he owned more than two hundred companies in fifty countries, and his fortune was estimated at four and a half billion dollars. In 1976, London’s Sunday Telegraph declared Ludwig the richest man in the world, and Fortune magazine said he was one of two American billionaires. Ludwig was No. 1 on the first Forbes 400 Richest Americans list published in 1982, with an estimated worth of two billion dollars — more than four billon dollars today.
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His biggest, and possibly most controversial, venture was the Jari Project.
Wikipedia reports that in the nineteen-fifties Ludwig noticed the rising world demand for paper. Ludwig planned a site where the natural forest would be replaced by a tree farm. In 1967, Ludwig bought one million, six hundred thousand acres for three million dollars on the lower reaches of the Rio Jari, an Amazon River tributary. He cleared the land and planted trees from Burma. Ludwig also built two seven hundred and fifty foot long floating factory platforms in Japan and towed them to the Jari Project to process the timber.
The project largely failed because of the soil, insects, humidity and tropical disease. Some workers told visitors that they were being kept against their will, reminiscent of the shanghaied crewman in 1922. Rising Brazilian nationalism and environmental movement objections contributed to its failure. Ludwig invested over one billion dollars in the project and seems to have lost much of it.
His biographer wrote that Ludwig was reputed to be the most secretive man alive. A biographer of Howard Hughes said, “Compared to Ludwig, Hughes was a press agent’s dream,” which is ironic since Hughes often lived in Ludwig’s hotels and was returning from one to America when he died. Ludwig only gave two known interviews. His friends Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, and Clark Gable never spoke of him either.
Your Dictionary.com states that business success brought Ludwig everything he ever wanted, seeking no other recognition. When the emperor of Japan wanted to award him the country’s highest honor, the Order of the Chrysanthemum, Ludwig refused, asking that it be given to his shipyard manager instead. Ludwig wore cheap suits, shoes, and eye glasses bought at bargain prices in department stores.
He did not smoke, drank moderately, swam daily, and ate bananas and butter milk for health. Other than business, he had no interests or hobbies. His New York Times obituary described him as “A tall, lean man with a pronounced stoop, he used to be seen strolling in midtown Manhattan. He wore the same plastic raincoat for years. He liked to lunch in midtown restaurants, often alone. He often flew economy class.” The stoop was the result of a back injury suffered in a tanker explosion in 1926.
Ludwig was married twice. He divorced his first wife after she gave birth to a daughter whom DNA testing later proved was not Ludwig’s child. His second wife was as mysterious as Ludwig; his biographer could not determine if she had either one or two children by a prior marriage.
As for the 1977 photo, when the 80 year old Ludwig noticed the photographer, he tried to put the younger man in a half nelson in an attempt to seize the camera before the photographer could escape.
Ludwig died August 27, 1992, at age 92. He is buried in Darien, Connecticut. His grave, like the man, is modest, frugal, and inconspicuous.
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Photo at top of this page: Daniel Keith Ludwig. Wikipedia Photo Credit
See other photos:
The passenger steamship IDLEWILD is pictured in 1901 at Toledo, Ohio. She was built as the GRACE McMILLIAN at Wyandotte, Michigan, in 1897, according to Wisconsin Marine Historical Society records.
She had an iron hull, a walking beam engine and no ballast tanks. Crew members maintained her trim by rolling large barrels of sand from one side of the ship to another. Reputed to be the finest steamer on the Lakes when built, she was broken up in 1940 at New York after an accident.
Photo credit: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society and Milwaukee Public Library
The tanker TRANSOIL hauled oil on the Great Lakes. Wisconsin Marine Historical Society records show that the 1,571-ton, 250-foot long ship was built in 1936 at Chickasaw, Arkansas.
On Sept. 26, 1940, at Maumee, Ohio, the tanker exploded, killing the captain and a steward, and injuring ten others while destroying a barge and a tug. After repairs, TRANSOIL was chartered to the British Ministry of War Transport in 1944 and moved fuel during the Normandy invasion. In 1968 she was sold to Canadian interests to haul fresh water from Puerto Rico to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The ship is pictured near the Soo Locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, in 1939. The locks allow ships to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes.
Photo credit: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society and Milwaukee Public Library
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Sources and suggested readings:
Steamships Built by Daniel K. Ludwig and National Bulk Carriers
James Heinz is the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society’s acquisitions director. He became interested in maritime history as a kid watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventures on TV. He was a Great Lakes wreck diver until three episodes of the bends forced him to retire from diving. He was a University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee police officer for thirty years. He regularly flies either a Cessna 152 or 172.
