Hanna Brummenæs and Bertha Torgersen met each other as employees of a store in the copper mining community at the village Visnes in Norway.
They invested in shipping stocks, and made enough money to buy a herring steamer in 1909.
This was "Equatore" which was in very poor condition and eventually became a grain store on land.
Torgensen had the financial responsibility over the company and it was discovered that there was still money left from the war damage claims after World War I. Brummenæs and Torgensen operated in a male-dominated industry, dressed in men's clothing and presented as male in dealings with foreign businessmen.
[5] Brummenæs spent ten years in the City Council representing the liberal-conservative party Høyre.