The letter was written by the Danish shipowner A.P. Møller to the management of the Lindø shipyard, part of Odense Steel Shipyard, which had opened in 1959 to build very large tankers. It dates from the final years of Møller’s life, shortly before his death in 1965.

In it he applied the principle of “rettidig omhu” – often rendered in English as “constant care” – which he had first set down in a 1946 letter to his son, to the running of the new yard. He wrote that care from everyone, in matters great and small, was a condition for the business to function, and that any accident, damage or loss made possible by its absence would inevitably occur.

The letter is frequently cited alongside the 1946 text as a broader statement of the value that became closely associated with A.P. Moller-Maersk. Where the earlier note was private, this was addressed to an entire workforce.