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122-554: In 1822 a number of businessmen and women and the engineer Gerhard Mauritz Roentgen. founded Van Vollenhoven, Dutilh en Co. In June 1823 De Nederlander , the first Dutch steamboat (with English engines) started its service, which would become a line between Rotterdam and Antwerp. In 1824 the Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij (NSM, but also NSBM) was founded and succeeded to Van Vollenhoven, Dutilh en Co. Roentgen became one of its two executives. NSM

244-455: A compound steam engine that could be used in ships. The invention could not be used for sea-going vessels, because it required fresh water to be injected in the condensers. In 1829 Herkules served on the Rhine. The Hercules was required for the 1832 Siege of Antwerp and served there using only the low pressure cylinders. Afterwards her engine was finished as a compound engine. The invention of

366-429: A gyn , which has three legs and is thus stable without support, stability in sheers (derricks, and single-legged gin poles) is provided by a guy . The heels of the spars are secured by splay and heel tackles. The point at the top of the sheers where the spars cross and are lashed together is the "crutch", to which a block and tackle is attached. Unlike derricks, sheers need no lateral support, and only require either

488-446: A share capital of 336,500 guilders. By 1827 this was 750,000 guilders, over which a dividend of 9.5% was paid. Meanwhile NSM borrowed a lot of money. In 1828 divided was 8%, but NSM failed to repay on certain loans. In 1829 NSM had to borrow another 150,000 guilders, and decided on separate accounting for NSM and its shipyard at Fijenoord . In 1832 the failure to acquire a loan of 40,000 guilders to finish Agrippina showed how serious

610-445: A 'pleasure cruise' to Gorcum. The last trip of the season was planned on 21 November 1823. The plan was to restart the line to Antwerpen in 1823 with three boats. The location of the boat and the office would be moved to the street De Boompjes Number 140. The pleasure cruise was obviously successful, because it was followed by a cruise to Zaltbommel on 23 November, and one to Gouda and one to Brielle on 30 November. The final trip of

732-610: A 24-pdr carronade, and had compound engines with one large and one small cylinder. They were disassembled after construction, and then re-assembled in the Dutch East Indies, where they were meant to fight piracy. Immediately after re-assembly the Hekla had troubles. After only a few years of service they were abandoned and finally broken up. On 2 September 1837 the NSM launched an entirely iron steam vessel of 69 m and 400 hp. It

854-554: A Dutch-Prussian trade agreement gave their subjects' vessels equal rights. In September 1838 DGNM started a line from Rotterdam to Mainz. This had 5 steamboats in 1838, while the PRDG went up to Strasbourg with 11 boats. This led to very strong competition. The worst consequence was that all parties now began to try to service a stretch from Rotterdam to high up the Rhine. NSM opened a line to Mainz with 3 boats in July 1840. NSM started with

976-414: A big sheerleg . It was claimed that one of these had lifted 72,000 kg. Steam ships could move below these sheerlegs in order to conveniently (and cheaply) lift machinery in and out. One of the harbors had a big roof covering it against rain. Below it big ships could be finished and painted. At the moment the sea steamship Pylades of 190 feet and 200 hp was in the covered harbor. In another part of

1098-559: A capacity of 380 last. At that time, relations with the PRDG were very good. The companies had agreed about their interests in shipping on the Rhine, and representatives of PRDG were regularly present at NSM shareholder meetings. In 1836 the Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft für den Nieder- und Mittelrhein (DGNM) was founded in Düsseldorf . The General Steam Navigation Company was its main shareholder. In 1837

1220-574: A cargo worth 500,000 guilders. It consisted of two tugboats as well as machinery and 20 men (with their wives and children) required to build a new shipyard on the Wolga for building iron tugboats and wooden barges. On 1 February 1845 a steam tug ship of 54 m by 10 m for service on the Rhine was launched. It was the biggest tugboat yet built for the Middle- and Upper Rhine, and had engines of 300 hp. These were intended to burn coal of low quality The idea

1342-483: A complete repair shop for steam engines, which was also designed to form the nucleus of a factory that could build complete steam engines. In October 1825 NSM then started negotiations to rent the terrain at Fijenoord from the municipality of Rotterdam. This repair shop became known as Etablissement Fijenoord In September 1827 shipyard Fijenoord repaired Concordia of the Prussian Rhine steam ship company. She

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1464-457: A flat bottom, and shifting keel. Construction problems led to the state ordering the demolishment of the ships in August 1831. Both ships were then sold to NSM without the engines. Orestes was broken up by NSM. In November 1832 NSM offered to equip Pylades as a warship, using the engines of Atlas . When the government accepted the offer, a lot of problems surfaced. Pylades had been left in

1586-403: A foreguy and an aftguy or a martingale and a topping lift . Being made of two spars rather than one, sheers are stronger than a derrick of the same size and made of equivalent materials. Unlike the apex of a gyn, which is fixed, the crutch of a sheers can be topped up or lowered, via the topping lift, through a limited angle. In the era of sailing vessels, it was common for dockyards to employ

1708-546: A large plant near Seraing . John Cockerill & Cie would build the engines for the next NSM boats based on those of De Nederlander . On 10 May 1824 the shipyard of W. & J. Hoogendijk in Capelle aan de IJssel launched De Zeeuw of 50 hp. At that moment this shipyard had three more boats under construction for NSM, which all had to be finished in 1824. With these, regular lines from Rotterdam to Antwerp, Zeeland (i.e. Veere), and Nijmegen were to be established. The plan

1830-897: A lifting device related to the gin pole , derrick and tripod (lifting device). Shears are an A-frame of any kind of material such as timbers or metal, the feet resting on or in the ground or on a solid surface which will not let them move and the top held in place with guy-wires or guy ropes simply called "guys". Shear legs only need two guys whereas a gin pole needs at least three. The U. S. Army Field Manual FM 5-125 gives detailed instruction on how to rig shears. Fixed shear legs are most commonly found on floating cranes known as floating sheerlegs . These have heavy A-frame booms and vary in lifting capacity between 50 and 4,000 tons, and are used principally in shipbuilding, other large scale fabrication, cargo management, and salvage operations. Temporary sheers comprise two upright spars, lashed together at their heads and their feet splayed apart. Unlike in

1952-511: A line to Venlo of 80 hp and a ship for service to Mannheim of 120 hp, the longest iron ship yet built in Europe. It also cast a cylinder for the 540 hp engine of the Vauban. It was the biggest cylinder yet cast in Europe and required 18,500 kg of iron. The melting had been done in cupola furnaces and reverberatory furnaces , the use of the latter a necessity for quality. After

2074-485: A lot of delays, Atlas made her first unsatisfactory trials on fresh water in August 1828. At the time she was the biggest steamship of the world. In August 1829 dry rot was found in her hull, and it was 18 July 1830 when she finally left for sea. However, the machines consumed so much coal, that it was deemed unwise to send her to the Dutch East Indies. The probably cause was that the ship was not rigid enough, making that propulsion axis could not turn freely. In May 1825

2196-400: A match for rail transport, especially for bulk cargo. The average speed of the Rhine is about 3 knots, but that in narrow places it can be double that amount. At the time a steam vessel that attained 8 knots was considered to be fast. Early steam vessels on the Rhine were successful if they could cost-effectively steam upstream by themselves while carrying enough passengers and freight to cover

2318-513: A previous ship was launched, another ship was laid down, which would be made entirely out of iron, and would serve on the same line. In October 1838 the iron steam tug ship De Rijn arrived in Cologne. She was over 62 m long, 9.41 m wide and had a draught of only 1.57 m. The diameter of the paddle wheels was 7.48 m at a width of 3.76. Each paddle wheel was driven by its own 250 hp engine. In 1838 Fijenoord constructed two ships that would create

2440-544: A profit on the Rhine. He furthermore noted that the troubles of the company were very much due to constantly repairing old vessels that could not sail profitably. If NSM's activity on the Rhine was to survive, it had to build two new boats of the type of No. 22 , but with 6 inch less draft. This would cost 220,000 guilders. In 1851 a new Agrippina was laid down. She was to receive the machines of Ludwig . De Rhijn would be demolished and two tugs: Rotterdam I and Rotterdam II would be constructed from its material. In 1852

2562-455: A program to economize. While NSM's debt totaled 1,973,000 guilders in 1844, this had been brought down to 1,146,000 on 31 December 1847. In 1832 the government tug service for the Waal was founded. It stretched from Rotterdam to Lobith. The tug service was executed by NSM. In 1833 the service was only profitable for NSM because Hercules had a fuel-efficient compound engine. Tugboats used in

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2684-644: A screw instead of paddle wheels. By May 1847 the Onrust was getting re-assembled in Surabaya, and in 1848 she made her first voyage. The steam vessel Borneo (100 hp) arrived in Surabaya in a disassembled state on 20 April 1847. She was launched on 30 July 1848, and was expected to be ready in October 1848. The third steam vessel, the Samarang was interesting because she was driven by a screw. In January 1846 she

2806-413: A thorough examination of the accounts of NSM. It was found that Van Vollenhoven had been at least 'very careless'. An October 1841 valuation of the assets of the company found that these appeared in the books for a much higher value than was realistic. The former King William I agreed to help NSM with a loan of 600,000 guilders at 5%, and was allowed to appoint a commissioner. The new management started

2928-533: A very long strike in 1921, and the 1921-1923 German hyperinflation that put pressure on prices. After that results became better. In 1923 Fijenoord acquired a license for building MAN diesel engines. In 1925 a new overhead crane was installed, and in 1926 a new foundry was put in use. From 1926 onward the company became increasingly successful in engines for merchant ships. Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij The Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij ((Netherlands Steamboat Co)), abbreviated as NSM or NSBM,

3050-630: A visit in November 1839 two iron ships for the Rhine were almost complete. The Batavia (cf below) was under construction. The construction of the Mosel had just begun, and a new iron ship for a line to Antwerp had been laid down in October and was expected to be launched in February. The iron foundry was busy with parts of a bridge that would be built in Rotterdam according to a design by Rose. On average

3172-478: A warship, using the engines of Atlas . Pylades now became a Fijenoord product, but soon a lot of problems surfaced. Pylades made her trials on 17 December 1834. She was reported to be 56 m long, to have 200 hp, and three masts with a schooner sail plan. On 2 January 1835 Pylades sunk after being at sea for only a few hours. The Department of the Colonies was lucky that it had paid only 100,000 guilders of

3294-407: Is something else then building steam engines. It is generally assumed that the foundation of NSM's own machine factory and shipyard Fijenoord came about by a conflict with NSM's partner John Cockerill. While the machines of NSM's second and later boats were built by John Cockerill & Cie based on those of De Nederlander , they were also built according to designs and specifications by Roentgen. With

3416-615: The Badhuis at the Boompjes in Rotterdam was bought to establish a smithy. In May 1825 the shipyard of H. Blanken in Oost IJsselmonde was bought. Here NSM erected a shear leg , crucial for lifting boilers. In Oost-IJsselmonde NSM built Stad Frankfort and probably Stad Arnhem . In October 1825 NSM then started negotiations to rent the terrain at Fijenoord from the municipality of Rotterdam. Repairing ships or building ships

3538-496: The Belgian Revolution (1830-1832) many of NSM's boats were hired by the government. In 1823 the Dutch East Indies governor general Godert van der Capellen asked for two steamships to combat piracy. In 1826 NSM got the order to build Orestes and Pylades . They would each have two 80 hp engines by Cockerill, and a three mast Barque sail plan. On 5 September 1827 Orestes was launched by Cornelis Smit. She had

3660-543: The Lek and Nederrijn . This became a regular connection on 5 August 1826. It had a coach service from Rotterdam to Gouda, connecting to the boats. In 1824 the Dutch government ordered NSM to build a steamship which could reach the Dutch East Indies without having to call at any port along the way. Atlas was laid down by Hoogendijk on 8 January 1825. Length was to be 71 m, beam 5.5 m and displacement 1,200 ton. After

3782-711: The Maasstroom that made trials in June 1856 etc. etc. There were also orders for separate engines e.g. in 1855 for two tugboats built by Smit in Kinderdijk. One of the main shipping lines of the NSM was her line to London. In April 1850 the NSM put the newly built screw ship Fijenoord into service on the London line. The orders for iron warships continued in the 1850s. In this respect it is remarkable that Fijenoord continued to build many paddle-wheel driven vessels deep into

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3904-634: The Nederland . The Zaandam was laid down in early May 1881, before the trial run of the Nederland in August. She was launched in May 1882, and in October 1882 she arrived in New York. However successful these two ships were, the NSM lost money on them, because her costs were too high. The order for a third ocean liner, the Edam , came about by an accident. In August 1881 a steamship Edam had been launched for

4026-601: The Stad Keulen had been equipped with a compound engine. In 1835 Fijenoord was constructing the steam vessel Stad Dusseldorp for a line between Arnhem and Düsseldorf . The first iron ships built by Fijenoord were the Hecla and the Etna under construction in 1834. One was 34 m long and the other a bit shorter. They were finished in 1835 and 1836 and later got the names Banda and Ternate (both volcanic islands). They each had

4148-634: The Sumatra was launched first on 12 October 1866. The Timor was launched on 13 February 1867. In 1874 these would be followed by two 1,500 ton displacement ships. Another ship, the 1874 Celebes was remarkable for being bigger than these ships at the waterline, but having less than half their displacement because of her draught of only 1.8 m. There were also orders for steam engines from the navy, e.g. for HNLMS Medusa . Also for HNLMS Bali , launched in Kinderdijk in 1856, and for HNLMS Wassenaar . Furthermore for HNLMS Groningen and HNLMS Djambi . Also for

4270-411: The 13.4 m of the later monitors. As a consequence she displaced only 400t. Apart from having the very vulnerable paddle propulsion, Stoom Kanonneerboot No 1 was a simple casemate ironclad like the much bigger CSS Virginia . More sophisticated (turrets) and heavier armoring would require investments. These were only possible if the government was committed to order armored ships at Fijenoord. Indeed it

4392-525: The 1870s. At first the paddle vessels were gunboat-sized, and then the ability to sail close to shore explains the paddle-wheel propulsion. Another explanation could be that Fijenoord had only built paddle engines when the Medusa was started in 1852, but in light of the above this can only hold for big engines. The baffling aspect of these paddle-wheel driven vessels was that after the Dutch industry had proven its ability to build engines for big screw warships, and

4514-656: The Bronbeek, launched in Surabaya January 1861. The monitors Adder and Haai were some of the first armored ships built at Fijenoord. By 1866 Fijenoord had about 1,000 employees. Just then the competition from England became murderous while protective tariffs for Dutch industry were abolished. The shipyard was lucky to get some orders from the Dutch navy. These orders also helped to learn to produce very high quality work. A number of English managers and supervisors also helped in educating skilled employees. The yard itself

4636-504: The Drusus in Wesel was accompanied by some ceremony, attended by prince William of Prussia. In April 1841 the king visited Fijenoord. In order to commemorate the event the steamship Rotterdam was renamed Willem II . The king also inspected the engines that were being built for the warships Bromo and Merapie , and the steam vessel De Rijn . On 19 May 1841 Fijenoord launched a ship for

4758-675: The Drusus. Indeed the Admiraal van Kinsbergen would be the ship for the Zuiderzee, and the Drusus for the river. The iron Drusus was built for the Rijn- en IJssel Stoombootmaatschappij to use on the line from Kampen to Cologne that would be tuned to the service by the Admiraal van Kinsbergen. The Drusus was purpose-built for navigating the IJssel. She was 44 m long, 5.65 m wide, and had a draught of 2.5 feet, her an engine had 65 hp. The arrival of

4880-462: The Dutch East Indies. In return it had ordered only two of the required ships in the Netherlands. The Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij was founded in 1888, and then got the concession. The KPM became very important for the Dutch ship building industry, because it would order all of its ships in the Netherlands. The type of ships required also led to the Dutch shipping industry catching up with

5002-413: The Dutch government wanted to promote the export of colonial goods to Germany by improving transport on the middle Rhine. It advanced 260,000 guilders to construct a steam tugboat meant to serve on the Rhine between Lobith and Cologne. This tugboat was named Laurens Koster . The service started in October 1838, but was terminated by the government in early 1841. The NSM might not have had anything to do with

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5124-480: The Dutch navy in the Netherlands had switched to screw propulsion, the Dutch East Indies Navy began to order bigger paddle-wheel driven vessels. In general 'Conservatism' is a bad explanation for seemingly erratic behavior. The fact that screw ships required more dry-dock capacity could be a better explanation. On 25 September 1851 the paddle vessel Celebes was (re)launched in Surabaya. She was of

5246-412: The Dutch shipyards could not be very active because the raw materials they had to import became scarce. Nevertheless, many Dutch manufacturing companies made high profits, especially in the first years of the war. This was also true for Fijenoord, which was able to amass funds that it would use to modernize the company after the war. The post war years were generally good for Fijenoord. A dip was caused by

5368-641: The English shipping lines, with their much deeper pockets. It was also hindered by its single vessel not being available to sail in winter time. This meant that other (all English) lines blocked freight from Rotterdam from using the Batavier line, by threatening the senders with not accepting their cargo in winter time. In spite of all of this, the Batavier line exceeded expectations. At times, Batavier transported more than 100 passengers, and sleeping accommodations were soon extended for 120 persons. The reason for

5490-771: The Kölner Dampfschleppschifffahrts Gesellschaft and the company from Mainz. In 1845 the Kölner Dampfschleppschifffahrts Gesellschaft (KDG) had 4 tugboats, 28 barges and a sea going ship. Nevertheless, on the Lower Rhine barge towage was not that dominant in the beginning. By 1866 roughly 11% of the upstream goods at Lobith would arrive by steamboat. The towed barges would account for 27%, and towed sailboats for 53%. Another 10% would be carried by sailboats which went upstream under sail, or had been towed by people or horses. On 19 June 1839 NSM reopened its line to Antwerp. In June 1846

5612-638: The NASM in Dumbarton. On 1 January 1882 this ship left Rotterdam for New-York, and suffered so much damage in a storm, that she had to be saved by the Napier of captain Anderson. The Edam re-entered service, but on 21 September 1882 she was hit midships by SS Lepanto and sank in 20 minutes. In October 1882 the NASM then contracted with Fijenoord for a new Edam of comparable dimensions, but made of steel. The new Edam

5734-567: The NASM is now named Holland America Line , and continues this practice) The fact that Fijenoord got an order for the second ocean liner, the Zaandam , meant that the gamble to construct the Nederland paid off: With the Nederland still on the slipway, the Nederlandsch-Amerikaansche Stoomvaartmaatschappij ordered the comparable Zaandam without actual proof of the mechanical capabilities of

5856-726: The NSM built a big ship at Fijenoord on speculation. (The idea was that if it would not get sold, the NSM would use it for a line to the Dutch East Indies) On 27 April 1881 the Nederland of 98 m was launched. She sailed to Baltimore in September 1881, and with an efficient coal consumption of only 0.86 kg/hp/h she proved a complete success. In May 1882 the Nederland was sold to the Nederlandsch-Amerikaansche Stoomvaartmaatschappij (NASM), who renamed her Leerdam . (The NASM used to name her ships for places ending on 'Dam',

5978-400: The NSM offered extra shares to the public in order to execute further plans. These were: On 26 October 1824 De Zeeuw had steamed to Cologne in order to reconnoiter the Rhine up to that place for the iron Keulenaar of 100 hp, which was under construction. On 29 October she arrived in Cologne under huge public attention. On 11 November 1824 De Zeeuw was back in Rotterdam. In spite of

6100-767: The Rhine were 77,000 guilders, and negotiations were started to merge with the German firms. Shear legs Shear legs , also known as sheers , shears , or sheer legs , are a form of two-legged lifting device. Shear legs may be permanent, formed of a solid A-frame and supports, as commonly seen on land and the floating sheerleg , or temporary, as aboard a vessel lacking a fixed crane or derrick. When fixed, they are often used for very heavy lifting, as in tank recovery, shipbuilding, and offshore salvage operations. At dockyards they hoist masts and other substantial rigging parts on board. They are sometimes temporarily rigged on sailboats for similar tasks. Shear legs are

6222-423: The Rhine. The first idea had been that Hercules would tow the engine-less Agrippina upstream, but this proved unfeasible. Some changes were then made to Hercules, so she could carry cargo herself, and tow 4-6 sailboats upstream to Emmerich am Rhein or even Düsseldorf . From Emmerich the freighter / tugs continued alone towards Cologne, while the sailboats were pulled against the strong currents by horses. During

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6344-424: The Rotterdam - Antwerp line. It is interesting that the original design of De Stad Nijmegen called for an iron hull vlak with wooden planking. This would have made it a very early composite ship . Problems with the delivery of iron sheets prevented this plan, as well as the construction of a completely iron steamer ( De Keulenaar ?) that same year. NSM also had a weekly line from Rotterdam to Arnhem over

6466-642: The Russian government. It worked on two pairs of engines for Russian steam frigates of 300 hp each. For the Caspian Sea it built an iron steam vessel of 100 hp and an iron barge. For the Wolga Tugboat Company Fijenoord built a steam tugboat with machines of at least 250 hp. It had to be able to pull 2,500 tons of merchandise from Samara to Rybinsk in 20 days, and the empty ship train backward in 8 days. By April 1846

6588-581: The colonies, so it could establish a line from Batavia to Singapore, speeding up the land mail to Europe. On 16 September 1845 the Batavia was finally launched. On 29 Juni 1846 the Batavia returned to Hellevoetsluis from her trial run in the North Sea. The trials were satisfactory, and so the commissioning of the Batavia was determined to take place on 20 September 1846. However, already on 24 July 1846 she

6710-491: The competing Reederij Amicitia got her first steamboat. It was an iron boat called Amicitia , built by L. Smit en Zoon with engines by Van Vlissingen en Dudok van Heel . Already in December 1847, NSM agreed to end her service to Antwerp and transfer it to Amicitia. In return NSM would receive 20,000 guilders a year from Smit & Veder for 10 years. By 1849, NSM was in big trouble on the Rhine. The austerity program, and

6832-434: The compound engine was of great significance for the company because it gave the NSM a competitive advantage. Especially its steam tugboats were more powerful and yet more economical than those of the competition. On 28 October 1834 somebody sent a description of a visit to the factory to a newspaper. He wrote that the factory was situated on the island Fijenoord, where the neighborhood Feijenoord now is. The main building of

6954-416: The corporation was that Cockerill would have the monopoly on steam engines for ships in the Netherlands, and would only deliver to the NSM. A positive explanation for this monopoly was that the NSM wanted to prevent its knowledge from leaking away via Cockerill, but of course it could not hold. Within a few years the NSM and Cockerill got into conflict about this. Already in August 1825 NSM reserved money for

7076-553: The cost. In this respect the higher power-to-weight ratio of a high pressure engine, or even better, a compound engine contributes to economic feasibility. The same applies even more when pulling other ships against the current on long stretches. In 1830 the Hercules and Stad Keulen would tow ships with a load of up to 10,000 quintals up the Rhine as far as Emmerich , where the faster current begins, and would then continue with only their own cargo of 2,500-3,000 quintals. In 1836

7198-584: The disaster with the Pylades in 1835, the construction of a new steam ship for the East Indies deserved special mention. In October 1839 there was news that an iron sailing ship for service in the East Indies would be built at Fijenoord. In November 1839 the big iron sea steamer Batavia planned for 300 hp engines was under construction. In February 1845 the Batavia was bought by the Department of

7320-540: The end of the sailing barge on the Rhine. In 1841 NSM introduced the towage of iron barges on the Rhine. The first barge was 180 by 24 feet, with a depth of hold of 11 feet. Loaded with 4,880 hundredweight, it had a draft of 3.75 feet. In 1842 the competing PRDG founded the Kölner Dampfschleppschifffahrts Gesellschaft. In Mainz the Mainzer Schleppdampfschiffahrts-Verein was founded. NSM's barge towage came in strong competition with

7442-489: The factory was the old Pesthuis, literally 'plague house' where the city previously isolated plague victims. Around it, many buildings serving as store houses or work places had been erected. The area measured about 10 hectares and was bordered by the Meuse and a harbor that could be entered on both sides. The area itself was again cut through by another harbor, both harbors belonging to the factory. Both harbors were dominated by

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7564-522: The failure of the projected boat, NSM had a line between Rotterdam, Nijmegen, Düsseldorf and Cologne operational in July 1825. NSM and Johann Friedrich Cotta perhaps understood the possibilities and limits of what was possible on the Rhine. In cooperation NSM and two new German shipping lines made agreements to cooperate, and divide the Rhine in three sections. In 1825 the Dampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft von Rhein und Main (DGRM)

7686-476: The first connection / shipping line between Amsterdam and Cologne. On 10 May 1838 the iron steam vessel Admiraal van Kinsbergen was launched. She would by used as a liner between Amsterdam and Kampen. The message that in early May 1838 Fijenoord launched the steam vessels Admiraal de Ruyter and Graaf van Rechteren for the Rijn- en IJssel Stoombootmaatschappij. refers to the Van Kinsbergen and the other ship,

7808-844: The foreign competition. The first ships that Fijenoord built for the KPM were the Carpentier launched on 5 June 1890 and the Van Diemen, launched 16 July 1890 For the KPM Fijenoord later built e.g. the Oranje (1903), SS 's Jacob (1907) , the Melchior Treub (1912) and the Van Overstraten (1912) For some time the shipping lines of the NSM had not operated to satisfaction. In 1895 the NSM therefore finally decided to end

7930-444: The foundry delivered 20 tons of iron a week. In 1826 NSM had contracted to build the steamships Orestes and Pylades to combat piracy in the Dutch East Indies. They would have engines by Cockeril. Orestes was launched by Cornelis Smit in September 1827. in August 1831 the order was cancelled, and both ships were then sold to NSM without the engines. NSM soon broke up Orestes . In November 1832 NSM then offered to equip Pylades as

8052-404: The hand of King William. E.g. article 5 forced the company to use only vessels and engines made in the Netherlands. On 15 December 1823 M.A. Dutilh, Widow C. Balguerie, Cornelis Balguerie, and C.C. Dutilh declared that they had retired from Van Vollenhoven, Duthilh en Co. They would get their share in the association back via two short term loans. The Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij (NSM)

8174-417: The independence of Belgium there was a possibility that Belgium would eliminate the Dutch transit trade to Germany by constructing a railway from Antwerp to Cologne. Such a railway would be realized from Antwerp to Liège, Aachen and Cologne in 1843, at a time that the harbor of Antwerp had far better accessibility than that of Rotterdam. However, the heavy tugboat tugged river barges upstream and proved more than

8296-487: The iron steam paddle ship Suriname of 110 hp was under construction at Fijenoord. In April 1846 she was commissioned under Lieutenant B.H. Staring. She was still in service in 1875. In 1845 the iron steam paddle ship Onrust (70 hp) was laid down at Fijenoord. In early 1846 Fijenoord was in negotiation about another iron steam paddle ship that would become the Borneo . Another iron steam vessel would be equipped with

8418-552: The lathes and drills. It provided wind to the cupola's and smithy fires. It also drove a machine that made holes in sheet metal, and cut them to size. On the second floor of one of the buildings there were even more lathes, facilities for model makers, and carpenters, and a model room. It had models of multiple steam engines, steering machinery, cogwheels etc. On the terrain there were also three buildings where boilers were made. There were also other buildings for smithies, carpenters, painters, block makers etc. The total number of fires on

8540-628: The line, but Fijenoord probably built the Laurens Koster . The government got the 260,000 back by subtracting 200,000 guilders from the price of the Batavia (cf. below), and by accepting the steam tugboat Laurens Koster as payment for the remaining 60,000. She would serve as a training vessel for the navy. In 1829 the NSM had operated the Stad Keulen , a ship that was previously the English James Watt , and had been lengthened at Fijenoord. In 1835 Roentgen told his shareholders that

8662-555: The many towpaths along the Lek. The contract for the government steam tug service on the Waal finally ended on 1 January 1858. The fundamental problem with towing sailing barges upstream was that it was only economical for the sailing barges when they faced adverse winds. It meant that the tugboats could not operate with profit at other times. The steam lines on the Rhine then got the idea to build dumb barges from sheet iron . It would spell

8784-497: The open, and many parts had been scavenged, leading to leakage. The same applied to the engines of Atlas . After many delays and expenses Pylades steamed to Batavia on 2 January 1835. After only 30 minutes, she showed leakage, and she sank shortly after midnight. In the end NSM got 60% from the insurers. When NSM was founded in 1824 there was no steam engine manufacturing and repair infrastructure near Rotterdam. NSM therefore could not do without its own repair shop. In November 1824

8906-460: The partnership got to dominate the market for passenger traffic on the Rhine. In 1857 NSM ranked third of the Rhine shipping lines with regard to mixed passenger / cargo boats, having 11 boats. In barge towage however, NSM was far behind the competition. In 1857 KDG had 4 tugboats with 32 barges, DGNM had 4 tugboats with 12 barges, and 5 other companies had about a dozen or more towed barges. NSM had 5 tugboats and only 5 barges. In 1857 losses on

9028-403: The repayment of loans had caused that its ships had not been properly maintained, and that some boats had not been replaced in time. By 1849 NSM had De Nederlander II , Ludwig , Antwerpen , No. 22 , Willem II , Prins de Joinville , No. 23 , and as reserve No. 24 serving this line. De Nederlander , Ludwig , Antwerpen , and No. 24 were made of wood. For cargo it had Stad Dussseldorp ,

9150-430: The risk involved, NSM of course feared that once she had proven the possibilities of steam propulsion, others would start competing services based on NSM's knowledge. Cockerill and NSM had therefore agreed that NSM would only order at Cockerill, and Cockerill would only deliver to NSM. For a time, the agreement prevented a lot of competition, but in the end, the state did not like this quasi monopoly. It agreed to buy half of

9272-580: The same as the 'tugboat for rivers and estuaries' mentioned in April 1825) This led to the construction of the steam tugboat Hercules (1829-1830). By 1828 she was still not ready, and Roentgen decided to re-use the engine of the failed Agrippina . During this transfer the engine was modified to re-use steam from a high pressure cylinder for a low pressure cylinder. The re-use created a direct acting engine with two high pressure cylinders and one low-pressure cylinder. With it Roentgen (or his company) had invented

9394-697: The same dimensions as the Borneo, but did have a keel. In 1853 the paddle gunboat Admiraal van Kinsbergen, built by Fijenoord, arrived in Java on board the Maria Magdalena. On 20 July 1853 she was (re)launched in Surabaya. The next gunboat built by Fijenoord was the Madura. On 3 November 1857 the Madura was relaunched in Surabaya, with a note that she was of the same type as the Kinsbergen. The 1847/1848 Onrust

9516-502: The same passenger fares that the competition got. Furthermore, De Nederlander , Ludwig , and No. 24 had really too much draft to operate on the Manheim line. The year was definitely ruined when big repairs on Ludwig and Antwerpen forced NSM to use the very inefficient and uncomfortable No. 24 during the summer. In September 1850 the manager of NSM declared that with the boats he had at his disposal, it would not possible to make

9638-535: The screw ship Holland in 1874, and a second screw ship Fijenoord in 1879. The attempts by Fijenoord to enter the market for ocean liners were of national significance. Dutch shipping companies had insufficient confidence in the capabilities of the indigenous industry and therefore used to order their ocean going steamers in Great Britain. In turn this meant that the Dutch shipyards did not acquire any experience in building these ships. To break this deadlock

9760-464: The service were Hercules , Stad Arnhem and Stad Keulen . In 1834 NSM built Simson . In 1836 NSM made a contract with the Ministry for National Industry ( Departement voor de Nationale Nijverheid ) about towage upstream of Lobith. The provided loan for construction an iron tugboat led to the construction of the tugboat De Rhijn of 400 hp. For a time, the high price of British coal made that

9882-535: The shares of Cockerill's machine factory in Seraing, if he would end his contract with NSM. In 1827 NSM then founded the Etablissement (shipyard) Fijenoord . As stated above, NSM, PRDG and DGRM had created a comfortable quasi-monopoly for steam shipping on the Rhine. Apart from the beneficial (for NSM) limitation that any shipping line needing government permission to operate, there were other limitations. It

10004-461: The ship of the line Brabant . He did not get further than Portsmouth, where Brabant was docked, and then sent back to the Netherlands. While there, he got orders to gather information about English warship construction. In June 1818 Roentgen and the engineers C. Soetermeer and C.J. Glavimans got orders to make a more formal research trip to England. Here Roentgen became fascinated by the development of steam propulsion. Van Vollenhoven, Dutilh en Co.

10126-480: The shipping activities. The old Batavier Line from Rotterdam to London was sold to Wm. H. Müller. It meant that the official name of the company: 'Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij' became rather odd. In 1895 the name was changed to NV Maatschappij voor Scheeps- en Werktuigbouw Fijenoord , which better reflected the activities of the company. It was the name under which it would merge with NV Dok en Werf Maatschappij to become Wilton-Fijenoord . During World War I

10248-424: The shipyard, there was a parallel slipway. On it was steam ship of 220 feet. In the main building was an iron foundry. It had three cupola furnaces , a 'togtoven' (fourneau à vent), a heavy crane , an iron basement, an oven for baking shapes, and all other things required at an iron foundry for even the heaviest pieces. A new big togtoven was under construction in order to be able to melt more iron in one go. During

10370-485: The situation was. That year her shares were traded at 35% in Amsterdam. NSM herself bought these to create a fire insurance fund. In 1836 a financial plan was made. Share capital was increased by 375,000 guilders, and this was used to repay debts. Dividend would be limited till the financial situation had become more stable. In 1839 NSM's shares were traded slightly above 100% for the first time in its history, but this

10492-779: The small screw ships Riouw and Banda of 80 hp. In 1873 the Pontianak , and in 1874 the Sambas . In 1876 the Samarang , in 1877 the Bonaire , and in 1878 the Padang of the Samarang class . In November the Bali was launched, and in 1879 the Benkoelen . For the NSM line to London Fijenoord would launch the screw ship Maasstroom in 1869, the steam paddle ship Batavier II in 1872,

10614-550: The steamboat Stolzenfels was laid down. Shipping on the Rhine now became rather profitable again, and so the shallow draft steamboats Nederlander and Rijnlander were ordered for a fast line between Cologne and Mainz. In 1855 a new Batavier came into service on the Rotterdam - London line. The 1853 partnership between PRDG and DGNM, which later became the Köln-Düsseldorfer was a setback for NSM. By using ever more efficient boats, and offering ever more departures,

10736-401: The steamer Friedrich Wilhelm at NSM, which was identical to Concordia . When the draft of Concordia proved too deep to operate above Mainz, DGRM offered the PRDG to use her in a partnership. PRDG then used both boats between Cologne and Mainz. The relations between NSM and PRDG were good, because PRDG limited itself to the section between Köln and Mainz. In 1832 the D.G. von Rhein und Main

10858-425: The terrain was said to be 42, all in continuous operation. A big building was under construction. It was to house a slipway for two iron steam ships of 100 feet each. The total number of employees amounted to 500. By 1838 there were 900 persons working in the factory, while 4 ships and 13 steam engines were being made. 1838 also saw the construction of a factory for making machinery for the textile industry. During

10980-428: The third and fourth boat of the plan were finished. In March 1825 De stad Antwerpen was mentioned. In May 1825 De stad Nijmegen was in action near Hellevoetsluis. The line to Antwerp was the busiest, by July 1825 it had become a daily service. The boats from Rotterdam to Veere held a biweekly or even sparser schedule. A line from Veere over Vlissingen, Terneuzen and Hansweert ended at Bath , where it connected to

11102-667: The time, the plan was to establish a line between Rotterdam and Antwerp. Antwerp was the best harbor of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815-1830). On 3 June 1823 De Nederlander was to make her first trip from Rotterdam to Antwerpen via Dordrecht, Willemstad , Ooltgensplaat , Zijpe ( Bruinisse ), Wemeldinge , Gorishoek ( Tholen ) and Bath . This trip was cancelled, but on 18 June King William went from Vlissingen to Antwerpen on board De Nederlander . In September 1823 De Nederlander also started to frequent Veere and Nijmegen . On 16 November 1823 De Nederlander made

11224-506: The total price of 350,000 guilders. The total sum was dependent on some conditions, one of them the arrival of Pylades in Batavia. In the end NSM got 60% from the insurers. The Batavier , first ship of the Batavier Line, had been built by Fop Smit . On 10 May 1838 Fijenoord laid down a ship of the same size as the first Batavier . The significance of Fijenoord for the Netherlands was in its construction of heavy tugboats. After

11346-404: The tug Rijn I , and the iron Rhine-barges Rijn III en Rijn IV . After making many repairs to its boats, NSM was able to offer a daily service to Mannheim in 1850. However, only De Nederlander , Prins de Joinville , No. 22 and No. 23 were able to more or less regularly sail according to schedule, the others were often hours off. This drove passengers away, and meant that NSM could not ask

11468-510: The tugboat Wolga had been re-assembled in Rybinsk. On 2 May the Wolga then left Rybinsk, pulling two barges of 400 feet long with a draught of 5 feet. In 16.5 days she arrived in Samara. By January 1847 Fijenoord was working on a tugboat of 460 hp, and in April another tugboat of the same power had been ordered. In July 1847 the Dutch barque Nederlandsche Nijverheid sailed to Russia with

11590-415: The tugs were fired with peat . The tug service on the Rhine provided a very long term steady income to NSM. the government often subsidizing it by over 100,000 guilders a year. In 1841 the service upstream of Lobith was cancelled. The contract between the state and NSM was to end in 1848. It was nevertheless renewed in June 1849. The reasoning behind this was that the tug service led to less maintenance on

11712-442: The unexpected success of the Batavier line was that a single company offered transport from places up the Rhine to London and back. This offer was expanded by cooperation with the first German steam shipping lines on the Rhine. In 1830 most shipping on the Rhine was still done by sailboats. Apart from loading cargo on a steam vessel, there was another steam powered alternative for the unreliable upstream voyage of these sailboats. This

11834-464: The visit a heavy cogwheel of 2,000 kg was being cast. Next to the iron foundry there was a 'metal foundry'. Which referred to bronze at the time, and probably to other metals. The big smithy had 14 fires, and cranes etc. The two big biggest were for making heavy pieces. At the time a very heavy axle of 13" thickness was in progress. (In April 1836 the company would indeed advertise that several iron axles for wind mills had been made by her. The axle

11956-517: The widespread introduction of screw propulsion. In May 1851 Fijenoord launched the iron screw ship Padang for the shipping line of Cores de Vries in the East Indies. In October 1854 it launched an iron screw schooner for service in the West Indies. In January 1855 it launched the Stad Goes for service between Rotterdam and Goes. In June 1855 it laid down a screw schooner for a line to Hamburg,

12078-425: The year went to 's-Hertogenbosch on 9 December. On 10 November 1823 Van Vollenhoven, Dutilh & Comp. got royal permission to found a Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij. The founders would take 290 shares for 145,000 guilders. Together, the founders ( Jean Chrétien Baud , C. van Vollenhoven, and G.M. Roentgen) would have to remain in possession of at least a quarter of the shares. The corporation charter shows

12200-469: Was a Dutch shipping line focused on inland navigation . In the 1820s it was important for the quick introduction of steam power on the Dutch rivers and on the Rhine. NSM owned the major shipbuilding company Fijenoord . Gerhard Moritz Roentgen (1795-1852) was a Dutch navy officer born in Esens, Lower Saxony . He was trained at the naval academy of Enkhuizen. In 1816 he left for the Dutch East Indies on board

12322-567: Was a company established to create a shipping line between Moerdijk and the Dordtsche Kil. The permit for the firm's activity was obtained by the widow Balguerie, born Dutilh. On 20 January 1823 the steamboat De Nederlander was laid down by W. & J. Hoogendijk in Capelle aan den IJssel . She was launched on 12 April 1823. De Nederlander was the first Dutch steam vessel, even though her 40 hp engines were made by Maudslay , At

12444-523: Was commissioned under Lieutenant 1st class L.C.H. Anemaet. On 11 September 1846 she left Hellevoetsluis for the Indies. In February 1847 the Batavia arrived in Batavia. She indeed served some years between Batavia and Singapore, but was also used in many other services. In 1855 she was still in active service, but after that she was turned into a guard ship at Surabaya . In 1860 she was declared unfit and sold. In 1844 Fijenoord worked on some major orders for

12566-496: Was dissolved at the same time. The presence of John Cockerill in the supervisory board was no coincidence. One of King William's many projects to re-establish the economy of the Netherlands, was the establishment of a solid coal and iron industry near Liège . He achieved this by successfully investigating why British iron was so much better than continental iron, and by taking part in John Cockerill & Cie , which built

12688-484: Was e.g. not allowed to ship cargo to Cologne in Dutch barges. Each vessel needed a permit, and on the Prussian section of the Rhine 60 guilders had to be paid in taxes for every trip. All this changed on 17 July 1831, when all limitations on shipping on the Rhine were cancelled. By 1834 shipping on the Rhine had become the most important activity of the NSM. At the time NSM had 11 vessels with totalling 1,000 hp and

12810-616: Was founded in Mainz. It was headed by merchants from Mainz , Frankfurt , and Strasbourg . It aimed to establish shipping lines between these cities, and as far up the Main as feasible. It ordered the steamboat Concordia at NSM. On 3 October 1825 the Preußisch-Rheinische Dampfschiffahrt-Gesellschaft (PRDG) was founded by merchants from Cologne, headed by Peter Heinrich Merkens. It ordered

12932-436: Was founded on 1 March 1824. C. van Vollenhoven became the financial executive administrerende directeur . G.M. Roentgen became the executive for materiel and the engineer of the company directeur van het materieel en werktuigkundige . The supervisory board was made up of: C. De Jong van Rodenburgh; Jonkheer A.C. Twent; mr. J.K. Sontag; J.C. Baud; John Cockerill ; and J.A. van Vollenhoven. Van Vollenhove, Dutilh & Co.

13054-431: Was laid down by Fop Smit for an Amsterdam - Hamburg line. When Paul van Vlissingen's Amsterdamsche Stoomboot Maatschappij established an Amsterdam - Hamburg line before the NSM could, NSM offered De Batavier to several parties. In the end NSM used her to open a line from Antwerp to London in September 1829. In April 1830 the line was changed to one from Rotterdam to London. The Batavier line faced stiff competition from

13176-721: Was launched on 30 August 1883. In the 1890 - 1913 period Fijenoord steadily received about a third of the orders for the Dutch Navy. In general repetitive classes of ships numbered three units. One built by the Rijkswerf Amsterdam , one by the Schelde and one by Fijenoord. From 1863 onward the British Nederlandsch-Indische Stoomvaartmaatschappij had held the concession for a number of subsidized shipping lines in

13298-433: Was made with a 250 kg hammer operated by hand like a pile driver . A steam hammer was under construction. On one side of the smithy there was a copper smithy. On the other side a building with multiple big lathes and drills . The visitor was told that recently several iron guns had been bored out to 80 pounders. Another building housed more lathes. Between these buildings there was a steam engine. It powered most of

13420-561: Was merged into the PRDG. On 31 August 1825 the steamboat De Rijn was ready for service on this NSM line. The second boat for the Rhine was bought in Antwerp. It was probably James Watt , built by Woods on the Clyde in 1822. In 1826 a new steam engine was built for her, and her name was changed to De Stad Keulen . The engine was finished in August 1828, and she was then used in the service from Antwerp to Cologne. On 9 May 1825 Batavier I

13542-498: Was modernized by building a new foundry and buying equipment for armoring ships. In 1862 Fijenoord laid down the Stoom Kanonneerboot No 1 . It was the first armored ship newly built in the Netherlands. It had 120 hp engines, two 60 pounder guns, and paddle (sic) propulsion. The gunboat was a gunboat meant for sea and inland. She was as long as the later built monitors, but had a beam of only 6.10 m as opposed to

13664-601: Was no steam engine manufacturing and repair infrastructure near Rotterdam. NSM therefore could not do without its own repair shop. In November 1824 the Badhuis at the Boompjes in Rotterdam was bought to establish a smithy. In May 1825 the shipyard of H. Blanken in Oost IJsselmonde was bought. Here NSM erected a shear leg , crucial for lifting boilers. In Oost-IJsselmonde NSM built Stad Antwerpen and Stad Frankfort . The NSM had ordered its first ships locally. It ordered their engines first from England, and then from Cockerill based on designs and advice from Roentgen. The idea for

13786-535: Was noted as under construction. In May 1847 the Samarang , Cerberus and Suriname sailed to Helsingør in order to tow Dutch ship with Cereal towards the North Sea. Fijenoord was severely hit by the Revolutions of 1848 . It evaded the worst because it happened to have a lot of work in progress at the time. Nevertheless, when Roentgen retired in 1849, the company had 400 employees, which was less than it had in 1845. The years from 1850 till 1870 were dominated by

13908-544: Was prepared to do this. One of the reasons was that the government wanted to have a facility for repairing armored ships in the south in case of war. Nevertheless, the armor for the monitor Haai that Fijenoord built next was ordered per-formed in England, while that of the ships built by the Rijkswerf Amsterdam was bent locally. Later Fijenoord bought a hydraulic press to bend armor. In 1872 Fijenoord launched

14030-407: Was primarily a shipping line . Its first business activities consisted of founding a number of lines from Rotterdam to Antwerp, Veere , Nijmegen and Arnhem. The required ships and in particular their engines, were designed by Roentgen. The first hulls were built by other companies, but the steam engines were all built by Cockerill , who also participated in NSM. When NSM was founded in 1824, there

14152-410: Was probably due to fraud. In March 1841, a banker in Cologne got in trouble. It was then discovered that NSM's executive Cs. van Vollenhoven had loaned money at this banker without knowledge of NSM's supervisory board. NSM's shareholders then had to lend 300,000 guilders to prevent a crisis. An extraordinary shareholders meeting on 29 April 1841 then fired Van Vollenhoven, and reformed NSM. It also started

14274-463: Was pulled onto the slipway with machines and boilers on board and fixed in 6 days. In 1828 Fijenoord built the steam vessel Stad Frankfort for the Mainz-Cologne line. The vessel had 25-30 hp One of the many projects of Roentgen and the NSM was the construction of a steam tugboat. In 1825 the NSM got an order from the Dutch navy for a steam tugboat for inland waters and harbors. (Probably

14396-434: Was surprised and destroyed by rebels in December 1859. In November 1862 a new Onrust was launched in Surabaya. The surprising orders for big steam-paddle vessels started in the mid-1860s. In May 1866 four steam paddle ships of 200 hp and 1,000 ton displacement 'primarily meant for transport duties' were ordered for the Department of the Colonies, two at Van Vlissingen en Dudok van Heel, and two at Fijenoord. At Fijenoord

14518-530: Was that De Stad Antwerpen and De Nederlander would serve the line to Antwerp. De Stad Nijmegen would be on the Rotterdam - Nijmegen line. De Zeeuw would be on the line to Zeeland, and constitute the reserve. In 1824 De Nederlander continued to alternate between Antwerp, Veere and Nijmegen. In August 1824 De Zeeuw started an almost daily schedule to Antwerp, while De Nederlander continued to serve all three cities. It seems that De stad Antwerpen and De stad Nijmegen were not finished in 1824. In 1825

14640-482: Was that she could pull barges loaded with coal up these stretches of the Rhine more economically than horses could. In spite of all these activities, 1844 and the first part of 1845 were rather weak years for the company. It received new orders later in 1845, especially from the government. In the winter of 1845-1846 it had 1,200 employees. While the Dutch navy was building wooden warships at her own shipyards, Fijenoord got orders for some more iron warships. In August 1845

14762-424: Was the third iron ship built by Fijenoord. On 14 December 1837 another mainly iron ship was launched for the NSM. It would be used for a line between Rotterdam and Cologne. This was probably the steam vessel De Nederlanden mentioned as built in 1838, having a wooden hull over an iron frame, and being meant for a line to Mannheim. She was active in July 1839 and still sailed in 1858. On the same 14 December 1837 that

14884-450: Was to tow the sailboats upstream, and then let them find their own way back downstream. Already in 1825, NSM started to tug sailboats up the Rhine. That same year, the government offered a loan of 200,000 guilders to NSM to build a tugboat. This became Hercules , she was the world's first vessel with a compound steam engine , made from the re-used the machines of Agrippina . In 1829 NSM started to operate Hercules and Stad Keulen on

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