Höegh Autoliners
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Norwegian Shipowners in the underground resistance

In addition to leading his company into a prominent position, Leif Høegh also took an active part in international shipping politics during and after World War II. As Norway entered the war in 1940, the Norwegian Government acquired the whole Norwegian fleet of merchant ships and organised it under Notraship, led from London. Meanwhile, Leif Høegh and his friends in the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association, met for underground meetings in Oslo, resisting the occupants.

In his memoirs, Leif Høegh writes that during some of this time, he hid from a potential German arrest by spending "the nights in the main building with a knitted woolen cap and mittens in minus degrees or with the "woods-people". “I always had skis standing outside the dining room window", he writes. Always ready to flee into the forest should the Germans acquire to speak with him in his home.

Working for the Norwegian Government

In 1944 Leif Høegh was asked by the Norwegian Government, then sitting in London, to come to London and run the United Maritime Authority (UMA), which would be the international shipping organisation after the war, while Notraship was being dissolved. Leif Høegh stayed in London until one year after the war ended but continued to take part in shipping community meetings across the world for many years after this.

From entrepreneurial start-ups to professional management

Back in Norway in 1946, it was challenging to start up the shipping company again, Leif Høegh writes in his memoirs. To begin with, he arranged his private home into a preliminary office for the business. After a few years, the company moved into new offices in Parkveien 55 in Oslo where it had offices until 1982.

Leif Høegh continued to take an active interest in politics and macroeconomics throughout his life. He lived to see the transformation of his company from an entrepreneurial enterprise into an organisation headed by a professional management team under the leadership of his sons. Upon his death in 1974, Leif Höegh & Co. ranked as one of the largest privately owned shipping companies in Europe.

Our Fleet

At Höegh Autoliners, we take pride in our fleet of 40 vessels, which boast the largest average size in the industry. Browse through our fleet to discover the impressive capabilities of each vessel, as they navigate the world's oceans and transport cargo to destinations far and wide.