The Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij (Netherlands Steamboat Co), abbreviated as NSM or NSBM, 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.
Early years
G.M. Roentgen
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 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.
Foundation of the lines from Rotterdam to Antwerp, Veere and Nijmegen Van Vollenhoven, Dutilh en Co. 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 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 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 the year went to 's-Hertogenbosch on 9 December.
Foundation of the NSM (1824)
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 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) was founded on 1 March 1824. C. van Vollenhoven became the financial executive . G.M. Roentgen became the executive for materiel and the engineer of the company . 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. 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 a large plant near Seraing. John Cockerill & Cie would build the engines for the next NSM boats based on those of De Nederlander.
Expansion of shipping lines 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 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 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 the Rotterdam–Antwerp line.
It is interesting that the original design of De Stad Nijmegen called for an iron hull 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 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.
Atlas: biggest steamship of the world 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 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.
Expanding the capital In May 1825 the NSM offered extra shares to the public in order to execute further plans. These were:
A steamboat for the Rhine A steamship () for a line between Amsterdam and Hamburg (The Batavier) A tugboat for service on the rivers and close to sea (Hercules?) A steamboat for a service between Antwerp and Boom
Rotterdam–Cologne line 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 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) 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 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 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.
The Batavier line (to London)
On 9 May 1825 Batavier I 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 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 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.
Steam tug service 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 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 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 the Belgian Revolution (1830–1832) many of NSM's boats were hired by the government.
Orestes and Pylades