Leading Norwegian shipbroker Gerhard Dahl has died at the age of 80.
Dahl had been president of PF Bassoe, where he worked for 30 years until retiring in 2007.
After joining from what was then RS Platou, Dahl started the tanker-chartering department at PF Bassoe, which until then had been focused on sale and purchase.
The tanker-chartering division came to be a linchpin of the broking house's financial success.
Despite a gloomy market, the company managed to develop strong links with a number of key charterers and shipowners.
When Dahl retired, former PF Bassoe chief executive Ole-Rikard Hammer said at the time that he “led our company through some of the worst and some of the best times in the tanker industry”.
Dahl was known for his a sense of humour that some called wild.
He also subscribed to a rather tough point of view on shipping that is often found in tanker broking departments.
“This business is nothing for pussycats,” Dahl told TradeWinds in 1997.
The same year, Bassoe founder Peter M Bassoe said he did not have a computer and, while Dahl did, the broker did not know how to switch it on.
Dahl had been an active sportsman and, in the 1960s, played handball on the same team as Alan Marsh, the former chief executive of Braemar Shipping Services.
"Farewell to a legend, always offering great hospitality, above all a great personality," said shipbroker Denis Petropoulos, formerly of Braemar Seascope.
"I enjoyed quality time with Gerhard over the years learning many of the subtle, and not so subtle, skills of shipbroking."
