Carebeka, 1939-1983 : history and fleet list

A history of CAREBEKA, an abbreviation of Capitein-Reders-Bevrachting-Kantoor, a company formed in 1939 with the aim of obtaining freight contracts on the best possible terms for the captain-owners who worked in the Groningen coastal trade. Much of the Dutch merchant fleet was in British waters at the time of the occupation of Holland, and many of the ships were chartered to the British Ministry of Shipping and later the Ministry of War Transport. Ten Carebeka ships were taken over for Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of Dunkirk, and two took part in the evacuation of Le Havre (Operation Cycle) returning around 5000 soldiers. After the war Carebeka changed its articles of association to become a shipowner in its own right and commissioned its first ship, also named Carebeka, which was launched in 1957. Going forward, the company suffered from insufficent capital and rising debts due to the high interest on loans required to build its fleet. Together with an increasingly difficult freight market and worsening financial climate, Carebeka was eventually declared bankrupt in 1983. Fleet lists are provided of ships owned by N.V. Carebeka (1957-83) and Carebeka Transport (Rotterdam) B.V., as well as ships managed for captain-owners from 1939.