Golten Marine, today is a multi-national corporation but it began in the New York basement shop of Sigurd Golten. Golten (June 03, 1908 - January 04, 1986) grew up and was schooled in Norway, there he became certified as a ship's engineer and then, like many of his contrymen, signed onto a freighter to see the world. It was at the start of World War II that he left the water and set up his basement shop to make a special kind of diesel valve nozzle.

[The Red Hook Waterstories team has more about Golten Marine in our archive and will endeavor to add to this entry but till then here is a 2014 rememberence by Rik van Hemmen of Martin Ottaway and a article from 1970]

Posted March 6, 2014 by Rik van Hemmen

Goodbye Goltens New York

https://martinottaway.com/rhemmen/goodbye-goltens-new-york/

Goltens New York was the last classic marine engine repair shop in the port of New York.

No longer will we be able to arrive at a ship in the cold dark night in New York harbor and see an engine that is not going to run any time soon and say to the Owner: “Call Goltens”.

Saying: “Call Goltens” would mean that in a few hours we would be able to leave the ship and know that, whatever the damage was, the engine was being repaired better and quicker than just about any place in the world. And always honestly and at the fairest price.

Goltens will still be providing repair services, and most certainly we will be calling on them, we will just not be meeting in Brooklyn.

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HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS

FRIDAY, JULY 24, 1970

Sigurd Gotten, The Shipping World’s Norwegian-American Horatio Alger

By ERIK J. FRIIS

NOZZLES MAY AT first glance seem rather modest and perhaps even insignificant parts of a ship’s engine. Actually, however, they play an important part in the transmission of energy and, what is especially relevant in this connection, they have also served as the basis for the creation and the initial

growth of one of the most thriving of Norwegian-American ship repair and supply firms, namely, the Golten Marine Company of Brooklyn.

IT SO HAPPENS that the founder and president of the company, Sigurd Golten, began his meteoric career with the production of a certain type of nozzle - and today the Golten Marine Company, with affiliates both in the U.S. and in Norway, commands a leading position in its field.

SIGURD GOLTEN’S is indeed a Norwegian-American Horatio Alger story on a grand scale, and a story that is still unfolding both in scope and significance.

SIGURD GOLTEN proudly points to that area around Bergen which is known for its hardy and industrious people as his birthplace, and we are told that he first saw the light of day about fifty years ago, give or take a few years. Not much grass seems to have grown under the feet of young Golten, for after having completed his schooling and taken his exam as a ship’s engineer, he, like so many others having the Atlantic lapping at their front door, signed on a Bergen freighter and set out to see the world.

HE ROSE TO THE RANK of chief engineer when the Second World War broke out. Being convinced, however, that he could serve his country better on shore, he set up shop in the basement of a house on 97th St., and production was started on a very special type of diesel valve nozzle for which there was a great demand.

IT WAS SO GREAT indeed that Sigurd Golten had to invite his friend Jens Bakken, then a chief officer in the Norwegian merchant marine, to join him in what was to prove an exciting venture. The production of nozzles led to the making of other parts needed for ships’ engines, and new inventions were developed by the head of the small but now rapidly growing firm.

AMONG THESE was a portable device for grinding crankshafts, and the fact that many weeks were saved on such repair jobs were to be greatly appreciated by Norwegian and American shipowners.

IN ABOUT A YEAR the firm had grown to such proportions that it had to move to bigger quarters in Cumberland St. Two other large moves were necessitated later on, the only reason being the need for more room, for more floor space to accommodate a larger staff, now numbering over 200.

THE ADDRESS at Cumberland St. was exchanged for one at Carroll St., but some years ago the firm obtained the large and modern building at 160 Van Brunt St. formerly used by the Atlantic

Basin Iron Works, actually a historic landmark along the Brooklyn waterfront, with no less than 80,000 square feet of floor space.

WHAT, THEN, DOES the Golten firm do today? For lack of space we can only list some of the tasks they perform, and perform to every one’s satisfaction. They do centrifugal babbitting of all types of and sizes of bearings; repair and service Woodward governors, repair and service pumps and fuel injection equipment as well as lubricating oil and fuel separators; manufacture engine and machinery parts,

keep stocks of parts for various types of Diesel main and auxiliary engines, and have complete pipe work and coppersmith facilities.

THE BUILDING UP of a sizeable business in Brooklyn doesn’t seem to have stilled Sigurd Golten’s restless

energy and his desire to be of service to both his adopted and his mother country. The very year that the war was over, he made a trip to Norway and, with his two brothers Konrad and Knut Golten,

founded the firm Atlantic Diesel, for which he obtained an ideal location on the island of Sjursoya in Oslo harbor.

THIS VERY SUCCESSFUL OPERATION, now an important adjunct to the Norwegian merchant marine, was

followed by the founding of the affiliated Hydraulic Hoist Company in Renton, Washington, and Noratlantic Diesel in New Bedford, Mass. Ownership or control was also obtained in firms in Portland,

Maine, and in Wilmington, California, and a reserve shop was set up in Jersey City.

SIGURD GOLTEN GOLTEN FACILITIES have also been set up in Rotterdam and Hong Kong, and

the very latest Golten enterprise is the Stenbekk Toolmaking factory in Telemark, Norway. No better comment need be made to this globe-girdling success story than to remind the reader of the aphorism of the acorn and the oak. But among humans the oaks are not produced unless there is plenty of talent

and skill, a knack for discovering and putting to use new ideas, dogged determination, no little Courage,

administrative know-how, and the ability to select first-rate co-workers.

HAVING READ THIS FAR about what actually is a growing industrial empire, we have learned a little about the man Sigurd Golten. But there is much more to be said on that topic! With the build of an athlete, a twinkle in both eyes, and a shock of hair, Sigurd Golten is the picture of drive and energy, of a man who masters his trade, and a man whose interests are not confined to his trade.

HIS INTERESTS ARE INDEED varied, and there are more than just a few organizations that have benefited from his support and his personal activity. He is a member of the board of Norwegian Seamen’s Church in Brooklyn; he is a member of the Board of Advisers of the Norwegian Club, Inc.; and there are any

number of other clubs that he has helped and supported in various ways. He is, for instance, a member and supporter of the Norwegian Singing Society, and some time ago was the well deserving recipient

of that organization’s 75th anniversary plaque.

HE IS ALSO A DEVOTEE of light and serious music, an interest that has benefited the local Brooklyn Lyric Opera, of which Norman Myrvik is the primus motor. Sigurd Golten serves at present as Vice President of that worthwhile enterprise. This is not the end of the list, but it is long enough to make one realize

why Sigurd Golten because of them and also because of his services to Norway and the Norwegian merchant marine, two years ago was awarded the Knight ’s Cross, First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav.

IN SPITE OF FREQUENT trips to Norway a businessman should also be a family man, and that is no more true of any man than Sigurd Golten. He and his wife Aagot live in Pine Lake, New Jersey, and have four children, Sylvia, Vivian, Norman, and Carol.

ABOUT SIGURD GOLTEN, a Brooklyn newspaper some time ago published an article and entitled it

“Viking Writes a Boro Saga,” Today, however, the title should be amended to read “Viking Writes a Worldwide Saga” and it is indeed saga of enterprise, of stick-to-itiveness and of what the Finns

call sisu, the spirit which makes a skier try to go even faster uphill than downhill.