Fijenoord () was a shipbuilding company and machine factory in Rotterdam the Netherlands from 1823 to 1929. In 1929 it merged with Wilton to become Wilton-Fijenoord.
Early years
First ships and activities of the NSM 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 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.
NSM's repair shop 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 the 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.
Fijenoord founded in 1827 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 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 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
First activities at Fijenoord In September 1827 shipyard Fijenoord repaired Concordia of the Prussian Rhine steam ship company. She 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
The compound engine 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 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 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 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.
The 1830s
Descriptions of the shipyard
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 the foundry delivered 20 tons of iron a week.
Sea worthy steam ships 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 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 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.
Steam ships on the Rhine The significance of Fijenoord for the Netherlands was in its construction of heavy tugboats. After 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 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 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 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 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 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.
Iron ships