Van Nievelt, Goudriaan & Co.'s Stoomvaart Maatschappij

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The Dutch shipping company Van Nievelt, Goudriaan & Co.'s Stoomvaart Maatschappij ("NiGoCo") was based in Rotterdam and existed from 1905 to 1991.

history

Founding years

NV Van Nievelt, Goudriaan & Co's Stoomvaart Maatschappij was founded on January 1st, 1905 by Messrs. Van Nievelt and Goudriaan in Rotterdam to bring wood from the Baltic Sea ports to the Netherlands during the summer months and to operate trampers for the rest of the time . The abbreviation "NiGoCo", by which the shipping company was known, was derived from its telegram address. In 1910 the company operated six steamers in this business.

The NiGoCo was one of the founding shipping companies of the Vereenigde Nederlandsche Scheepvaartmaatschappij (VNS) in 1920 , to which it brought the Alcyone and the Aldabi , cargo steamer with twelve passenger seats , in 1921 . Its sister ships Alphacca and Alpherat also came into service in 1928 with facilities for twelve passengers, but were converted in 1938 with expanded passenger facilities for 24 travelers.

Also during 1920, the shipping company, in cooperation with Holland-America Line (HAL), started a direct cargo steamer liner service from Hamburg , Rotterdam and Antwerp to Argentina , from which HAL withdrew again in 1928. NiGoCo then continued the line as Rotterdam Zuid Amerika Lijn (RZAL), internationally also Rotterdam South America Line. In the 1930s, a large part of the fleet was due to the global economic crisis .

War and post-war years

During the Second World War , the NiGoCo lost eleven ships. After the end of the war, the shipping company initially had no operational passenger ships and began again in November 1945, starting with the Aldabi , to set up its first services. From April 1947 the Alhena was put back into service and three newly acquired Victory ships with twelve passenger seats each were incorporated into the shipping company under the names Alwaki , Alphacca and Alpherat . After the Albireo with 14 passenger seats in 1948, the combined ship Alnati followed in April of the following year with 54 passenger seats . Also in 1950 , new ships were put into service with the motor freighter Altair and the combi ship Alioth , the latter with 92 passenger seats. In the years 1956 to 1960, the rebuilding of the fleet continued with eight more cargo ships with passenger facilities. Fruit ships were also operated from 1956 . In order to gain a foothold in the tanker business, Nigoco founded the Verenigde Nederlandse Tankvaart Rederij together with the Stoomvaart Maatschappij "Nederland" in the 1950s . In 1963 NiGoCo took over the shares of the Hamburg shipping company A. Kirsten & Co. in the Hamburg Chicago Line , but made steady losses in this business, whereupon the Van Nievelt and Goudriaan families transferred their entire Nicogo shares to Steenkolen Handels Vereniging (SHV) in 1968. sold.

After sale

The SHV fundamentally restructured the shipping company. Since there was hardly any demand for passenger seats on combined cargo and passenger ships against the backdrop of passenger aviation, it initially removed the two ships Alnati and Alhena from the fleet in 1968 . In 1971 it ended the loss-making Hamburg Chicago Line, sold all of its ships and dissolved this shipping branch. At the same time, nine smaller NiGoCo units were transferred in 1971 to the joint venture with the Greek shipowner Theologitus, Greek Holland Shipping, and brought under the Greek flag. Other small NiCoGo ships were transferred to the Galaxy Shipping & Trading Corporation in Monrovia , where they continued to operate under the Liberian flag. Both shipping companies were subsidiaries of NiGoCo.

The last combined cargo and passenger ships of the NiGoCo, the Algol , the Alkes and the Algorab were sold in November and December 1977. They were replaced by four pure cargo ships, each with a deadweight of 14,700 tons. At the end of 1983 Steenkolen Handels Vereniging returned to its core business and sold all the shares in NiGoCo to the Hamburg-based Poseidon Holding. Poseidon passed the company on to German / Danish investors in 1986. In 1991 NiGoCo finally became insolvent. The company was then dissolved and its last three ships, the Norrsundet , the Skutskar and the Aldabi , were sold in 1993.

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