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Companhia de Navegação Lloyd Brasileiro (), usually just called Lloyd Brasileiro, Lóide or Lloydbrás, was a Brazilian shipping company founded on 19 February 1894. It became the only major shipping company in South America, in particular by taking over German ships confiscated in 1917 by Brazil's entry into the First World War. In 1931, Lloyd Brasileiro was among the 50 largest shipping companies in the world, owning 73 ships of 271,000 GRT combined.
The company was dissolved in October 1997 during the government of president Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Extingue a Companhia de navegação Lloyd Brasileiro – Lloydbras e dá outras providências on Diário de Leis, 15 Nov 1997
In fact, the main business was Brazilian coastal traffic, including traffic in the Amazon basin. However, commercial success failed to materialize. In 1906, a plan emerged to order 18 new ships built in Britain and to purchase a number of used ships. The implementation of this plan and the establishment of lines to New York and, in 1910, to Portugal and then to Great Britain and Germany did not bring the economic profits and led to the complete takeover of the company by the state before World War I.
The company's largest ships in 1914 were the British-built Ceará (1907, 3324 GRT), Pará (1907, 3351 GRT), São Paulo (1907, 3583 GRT), Rio de Janeiro (1908, 3583 GRT), Bahia (1910, 3401 GRT), and Minas Gerais (1910, 3540 GRT), small passenger steamers with refrigerated holds for transporting agricultural goods on outbound voyages to Europe or the United States. The newbuildings were joined in 1911 by the freighters Purus (1900, 3822 GRT), Tocantins (1901, 3837 GRT) and Tapajós (1902, 3774 GRT), acquired from the British-Brazilian Buarque Line.
In addition to these nine ships over 3,000 GRT, there were four steamers over 2,000 GRT and 22 steamers of over 1,000 GRT. Among these were the steamers built for the Cia. de Nav. Cruzeiro do Sul, Santos. Hamburg Süd and Hapag had founded this company in 1905 for the coastal service between Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires and had five ships ( Saturno, Orion, Jupiter and Sirio of 1,800 to 1,900 GRT and for the Rio Grande do Sul–Porto Alegre service Venus of 966 GRT) built in Germany. These ships all entered the service of Lloyd Brasileiro between 1908 and 1916 after the German holdings were abandoned.
Brazil initially tacitly tolerated the use of some uninhabited islands off its coast by the belligerent powers. British warships also entered Brazilian ports relatively frequently. The Germans supplied their merchant ships, especially their and . The landing of more than 400 prisoners from Karlsruhe by a steamer of the Hamburg Süd in Belém in the fall of 1914 led to the indication to the Germans that further support of their naval war would not be tolerated. The more than 40 German merchant ships in Brazilian ports did not subsequently conduct any support operations, especially since German warships did not operate off the Brazilian coast after the loss of Karlsruhe and the East Asia Squadron until 1916. On 22 May 1917, the old steamer Lapa (former Sparta, 1,366 GRT, 1872) of Lloyd Brasileiro, with a cargo of coffee bound for Marseille, was stopped off Gibraltar by the German and became the fourth Brazilian ship to be sunk.
When Brazil joined the war on the side of the Triple Entente in 1917, the 45 ships of the Central Powers were seized in Brazilian ports and used as merchant ships by Lloyd Brasileiro. Thus, the largest ship of the Brazilian merchant navy and shipping company became the Hapag steamer Blücher of 12,334 GRT renamed as Leopoldina, which, however, was placed at the disposal of France in 1918 and from 1921 was used by the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique in service to the United States. In March 1923, the ship was sold to CGT and renamed Suffren. In the service of the shipping company as the largest ship remained Bahia Laura of Hamburg-Süd as Caxias, then Ruy Barbosa, of 9,790 GRT.
Operated by Lloyd Brasileiro, three steamers were lost to German U-boats during the First World War. They were:
In the 1920s, the majority of the formerly German ships were also gradually formally transferred to the state-owned shipping company (33 ships, 165,133 GRT). The shipping company was again in a privatization phase after the war, but this came to an end during the great shipping crisis. In 1931, the Lloyd Brasileiro was one of the 50 largest shipping companies in the world and by far the largest shipping company in South America, with 73 ships of 271,000 GRT combined. However, the company bought only a few used ships and received hardly any newbuildings. In 1939, the company's most modern ships were five small motor freighters of 2,900 GRT of the Bandeirante type, built in the Netherlands.
The German share was small, as a large number of ships attempted to reach home even after the outbreak of war, some of them only after the conquest of France. Some German ships were also sold to Brazil to enable others to make supply runs to German warships. Thus Lloyd Brasileiro received the modern 6,000 GRT Montevideo of Hamburg-Süd, whose sister ship Porto Alegre left Santos 14 days after the outbreak of war and was able to break through to Hamburg. The other sister ship Rio Grande did not leave Rio Grande do Sul until October 1940, supplying the auxiliary cruiser Thor and taking its prisoners to France, and became one of the most successful German blockade runners. Beginning in 1940, the NDL Brasileiro fleet was strengthened by over 20 purchases from the United States.
During World War II, 30 Brazilian merchant ships were sunk by German U-boats, 17 of which belonged to Lloyd Brasileiro. The first was on 15 February 1942, when sank the 5,152 GRT Buarque of Lloyd; bought from the United States in 1940; off the US coast.
When Brazil declared war on Germany on 22 August 1942, 17 ships had been sunk in the meantime and it happened after the sinking of of the LB, of Lloyd Nacional, of LB, Arará, Itagiba, and Jacyra, within four days by under corvette captain Harro Schacht without warning off the Brazilian coast. A total of 607 people were killed in the first three sinkings, including 270 on Baependy and 150 on Anníbal Benévolo.
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