Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij
The traditional Dutch shipping company NV Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij (NSBM, later NSM) was also known as Batavier Lijn . The company was in Rotterdam since 1823 and was later by the shipping company Wm. H. Müller & Co. continued.
history
Early years
The roots of the shipping company go back to an inland shipping company. This was in 1823 by Gerhard Moritz Roentgen , JC Baud, C. van Vollenhoven and John Cockerill with the support of King William I founded. The company took over the inland shipping line Van Vollenhoven, Dutilh & Co. from Rotterdam to Nijmegen and Cologne together with the paddle steamer de Nederlander . The line was reinforced in 1824 with the paddle steamer De Zeeuw and later extended to Antwerp. The year after it was founded, when the first ships were built, the young company had signed a contract with the Cockerill shipyard for the exclusive delivery of steam engines to the shipping company, but this could not be fulfilled. In 1825, the shipping company founded its own shipyard, Etablissement Fijenoord . In 1824, the young company ordered the three-masted Batavier steam engine , which was to open a liner service between Rotterdam or Amsterdam to Hamburg. However, it took a full five years to complete the ship, after which a Dutch competitor established a liner service on the planned route as early as 1829. Instead, the Batavier began a passenger and freight service from Antwerp to London on April 12, 1830, the Batavier Lijn. Due to the Belgian Revolution , the line had to be interrupted that same year. It was not until 1833 that the line, renamed Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij, could be continued from Rotterdam instead of Antwerp.
Growth and setbacks
In April 1850, the shipping company's second seagoing vessel, the Fijenoord, was incorporated into the liner service to London. Five years later, the second Batavier was put into service between Rotterdam and London. By 1865 the line was heavily pressed by British shipping companies. The swine fever outbreak put the NSM in such severe financial distress that it attempted to sell its ships. This did not succeed, so that a successful attempt to survive economically was made with the new Maasstroom and Batavier buildings delivered in 1870 and 1873 . The old Batavier sank in 1872 after a collision with the Turkish warship Charkee at Barking Reach on the Thames, killing a sailor and a toddler. Also in 1872 the Nieuwe Waterweg was opened in Rotterdam, which brought the shipping companies based there great advance. After the NSM was still involved in the founding of the Hollandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij in 1885 , but shortly afterwards it moved to Amsterdam, the decision was made to sell the NSM.
Takeover by Wm. H. Müller & Co.
On November 1, 1895, the Dutch shipping company Wm. H. Müller & Co. took over the company with its entire fleet. The NSM and its liner service between Rotterdam and London continued independently and formed the main line of the shipping company. In 1920, the Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij was finally dissolved and the ships used were brought under the office flag of Müller. The Rotterdam-London service, however, was continued as a passenger line until 1958 and as a freight line under the traditional name Batavier Lijn until 1971 and then taken over by Scheepvaartbedrijf Kroonburgh NV in Rotterdam. This stopped the ship operation in the following year.