The Wilhelm H. Müller Group

Wilhelm Heinrich Müller was of German nationality and formed a trading company in Dusseldorf on 18th April 1876 with his brother in law Willem Neese to supply iron ore to German blast furnaces. Müller knew the iron and steel business well, having earlier worked in a blast furnace. On 3rd June 1878 he opened a subsidiary in Rotterdam, and he forged close ties with the shipping company of Ruys & Company, and he met Willem Kroller there. In 1881, Kroller won 100,000 guilders in the Belgian lottery and decided to invest in Müller’s company, and became its manager. Willem Kroller fell ill in 1885 and was succeeded by his brother Anton. The two families were then related by marriage in 1888 with Helene Müller, daughter of Wilhelm, marrying Anton Kroller. Anton Kroller then took over the management of the Rotterdam branch in 1889 at the age of 27 years on the death of the founder, Wilhelm Heinrich Müller.

In that same year of 1889, the Algemeene Scheepvaart Maats was founded in Rotterdam to enter the American coal and grain trades, and to participate in the shipment of iron ore from the Müller group mines in Normandy, North Africa, Liberia, Latin America, Sweden and Spain to Rotterdam or Hamburg. Iron ore and granite from the Dielette mines near Cherbourg and the Larchamp mines near Caen were shipped from these two ports to Rotterdam, and also from the small port of Flamanville on the west coast of the Cotentin peninsula.

Five Doxford ‘Turret’ ships were ordered from the famous Wearside shipbuilder for these trades. Maud Cassel was launched at Pallion on 26th December 1896, Skandia on 16th November 1899, Grangesberg on 14th March 1903, Blotberg on 15th February 1907, and Admiraal de Ruyter was launched at Pallion on 16th March 1907 and named after the Dutch Admiral de Ruyter. Maud Cassel stranded on the Arkobadan reef at Hapinge in Sweden on 22nd February 1906 while on a voyage from Rotterdam to Oxelosund in ballast, she later broke in two and was lost. Skandia was sold to Rederi A/B Lulea Ofoten without change of name in 1905, and was lost by collision near Haugesund on 9th November 1915 while on a voyage from Narvik to Rotterdam with iron ore.

Grangesberg of 10,700 dwt and Blotberg of 7,700 dwt were much bigger engines aft ‘Turrets’, equipped with two dozen derricks on seven twin masts linked by cross stays for the self discharge of iron ore in German or Dutch ports in thirty hours. Grangesberg was of length 440.2 feet, some eighty feet longer than the usual size of ‘Turret’, and fourteen feet wider in the beam, with twelve hatches and 24 holds, and she was the largest single deck ship then built. Grangesberg and Blotberg were sold to Holland America Line in 1916, with Blotberg renamed as Blommersdijk and Grangesberg renamed as Beukelsdijk. Blommersdijk was sunk later that year on 8th October while en route from New York to Rotterdam with coal when shelled and sunk by U53 off the Nantucket Light vessel. Beukelsdijk was wrecked on the coast of Norway near Bodo on 23rd January 1923 while on a voyage from Narvik to Rotterdam with iron ore. Admiraal de Ruyter was sold in 1927 to ‘Atlas’ Rederei of Germany and renamed Africa and broken up at Finkenwarder in 1933.

A trunk decked steamer of 6,500 dwt was also completed by the Ropner yard at Stockton for Müller as Teutonia in 1892, and was sold to Italian owners in 1911 and renamed Matelot. She was also lost during the First World War to a German submarine on 4th February 1917 under the name of Eridania. Smaller steamers with names ending in ‘ia’ e.g. Caledonia, Hispania, Iberia and Rhenania were also employed in the bulk trades, with Caledonia stranded near Katwijk on 14th December 1894 and she broke into two and was lost.

Batavier Line

Wilhelm H. Müller & Company took over the Dutch flag shipping company of the Netherlands Steamship Company (NSM) on 1st November 1895. The screw steamer Batavier of 731grt, built as a paddle wheeler at Rotterdam in 1873 and rebuilt as a screw steamer in 1882/83, was taken over together with two other ships with the proviso that all subsequent ships would keep the ‘Batavier’ nomenclature. The first Batavier of 427 grt had been built at Kinderdijk for the company as a paddle wheeler in 1829 and sold in 1855, the second Batavier of 567 grt had been built in 1855 at Rotterdam as a paddle wheeler but was lost in the Thames in 1872 after collision with the Turkish warship Charkee at Barking reach with the loss of two lives, one a baby and the other a seaman. The third Batavier was taken over by Müller and renamed as Batavier I in 1897.

Batavier Line passenger steamers berthed at Rotterdam close to the city at St. Johnskade, also known as the Müller pier. Passengers disembarked on the Thames at Tilbury and later Gravesend, with the steamers then going up the Thames to Custom House Quay just above the Tower of London to unload their cargoes. The overnight voyage was around thirteen to fourteen hours with fares kept low to attract the maximum of travellers. The NSM funnel colours were white or yellow with a black top until 1903, when the black funnel of Müller began to be used with a central red band bearing a white ‘M’ between two narrow white lines.

Advertising posters proudly displayed these funnel colours, but the best Batavier Lijn advertisement was a lithograph produced in 1916 by the Dutch painter Bart van der Lek (1876-1958). This featured a profile of a Batavier Lijn steamer with above it ‘Rotterdam-London’ and above that a central text of ‘Cheapest and most comfortable route, regular service for cargo and passengers’. To the left and right of this text were two panels featuring cargo being transported on a wagon, and a family and their luggage being welcomed onboard.

Batavier II and Batavier III were built by the Gourlay yard at Dundee in 1897 with accommodation for 61 passengers in cabins and up to 250 passengers in steerage. They were of 1,136 grt on a length of 244 feet and beam of 33.5 feet, and powered by four cylinder triple expansion steam engines to give a service speed of 14.5 knots. They were fitted with wireless in 1907 and lengthened by sixteen feet two years later and reboilered by the Wilton yard at Schiedam. Two very similar passenger steamers were completed in 1903 as Batavier IV and Batavier V, with a relief steamer Batavier VI also completed during that year. Batavier IV and Batavier V were again built by the Gourlay yard at Dundee with accommodation for 103 passengers in cabins and up to 325 steerage passengers in alleyways and holds. They had two masts and three steam cranes for the loading and discharge of cargo. The relief steamer Batavier VI was built on the Clyde by Mackie & Thomson and carried 111 passengers after 1918 when extra accommodation was fitted. Batavier IV ran aground in the New Waterway on 8th December 1909 after a collision with a fishing boat, which sank, with the Müller steamer soon repaired.

World War I

Two Batavier Line passenger steamers were lost during the war, Batavier ii was sunk on 27th July 1917 by the British submarine E55 by gunfire one mile north of Molengat Buoy, Texel after having been captured by the German submarine UB6 ten months earlier and taken to Zeebrugge. Batavier V was captured and taken to Zeebrugge on 18th March 1915 but released only to be sunk by a mine near the Inner Gabbard Light Vessel on 16th May, 1916, with unfortunately four lives lost. Batavier VI was also captured in November 1915 and taken to Zeebrugge but released to survive the war. The deep sea Müller cargo fleet was sold off during the war, and only small coasters were owned afterwards. The sailing ship Scandinavia of 456 grt was built for Müller in 1905 by Rijkee & Company in 1905 but was sold to the Anglo – Persian oil Company six years later and converted to a paraffin carrier during the war. She was transferred to the British Tanker Co. Ltd. in 1917, and was beached after a collision on 5th august 1922 but was refloated the following day. She was wrecked on Portland breakwater on 20th December, 1922, and demolished locally.

Inter-War Years

Two Batavier Line replacements were launched during late 1920 and early 1921 to join the Rotterdam to London service as replacements for the war losses. Batavier ii and Batavier V were built in the Dutch yard of the Wilton Engineering & Slipway Company at Schiedam with accommodation for 151 First and Second class passengers. They were of 1,573 grt and repeats of the 1903 built Batavier IV and Batavier V, with a length of 260 feet and beam of 35 feet. They had service speeds of fifteen knots from two Scotch boilers burning coal or oil and feeding steam to a triple expansion steam engine by the builders. They had a long combined fo’c’stle and bridge of length 183 feet with a poop of length 57 feet. They featured a long partly enclosed Promenade Deck which was fitted during a refit in 1929, when the First Class accommodation was reduced to around seventy passengers.

The Batavier Line express route between the Thames and Rotterdam had been resumed in 1919 by Batavier III, Batavier IV and Batavier VI with three sailings per week, and was upgraded to six sailings per week with the two new steamers Batavier ii and Batavier v, no sailings taking place on Sundays. Batavier I was a cargo only steamer of 1,031 grt, which was transferred in 1921 from the associated fleet of James Smith & Company with services to Bordeaux and which had become part of the Müller group in 1908.

London Subsidiary

Holland House in Bury Street, and now in the shadow of the London gherkin, was completed in 1916 as the London headquarters of the company to a commissioned design of the renowned Dutch architect H. P. Berlage. a prow like granite sculpture of a ship by the Dutch artist J. Mendes da Costa, and vertical ‘sails’ in the façade were features of the outside, while remarkable geometric tiled mosaic floors filled the interior. Stained glass windows and glass lanterns by the Dutch artist Bart van der Lek were installed in the lobbies, public rooms and meeting rooms, which were finished in mahogany stripped from a Müller ship. The Landmark Trust have completely restored and renovated the building for use as offices, and have included a modern central atrium.

In 1923, a London subsidiary Wilhelm H. Müller & Co. (London) Ltd. was set up at Holland House for the trade into the Custom House Quay and Wool Quay in the Pool of London, together with a shipowning company, the Vianda Steamship Co. Ltd. The first coasters owned by this company were the steam coaster Catherine Ethel of 157 grt built in 1906 by Crabtree & Co. Ltd., Yarmouth as Mistley, and a pair of steam coasters, Swift and Swallow, of 160 grt and built by the J. Fullerton yard in 1905. A pair of sister motor coasters of 209 grt were completed by the Koster yard at Groningen in 1928 as Meuse and Seine, powered by four cylinder Koln-Deutz diesel engines. They were transferred to the Vianda Steamship Co. Ltd. in 1935 as Meuse and Rhone, with both trading to Rotterdam and Antwerp and up the Rhine and Seine for the next 25 years, excluding the war years.

Paris Inland Trade

During 1926/31, nine small dry cargo motor coasters joined the fleet as Batavier VII, Batavier VIII, Escaut, Express, Meuse, Oise, Rapid, Sambre and Seine. They pioneered a service in 1926 from Rotterdam to Paris with low height wheelhouses and hinged masts, and were ‘low airdraft’ river or esturial coasters long before the term became widely used. They had been built in Holland at Alblasserdam or Groningen and were usually powered by six cylinder M.A.N. four stroke single acting diesel engines. The larger coasters of the Müller fleet operated on an extensive network of coastal routes from Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Antwerp to Guernsey, Jersey, Boston (Lincs), King’s Lynn, Middlesbrough, Aberdeen, Le Havre, Rouen, Paris, Bordeaux, La Pallice, Casablanca, Port Lyautey, Hamburg, Bremen, Stockholm, Norrkoping, Oskarshamn, Karlshamn, Koping, Vasteras, and other Swedish ports. There was also a service from Paris and Le Havre to Liverpool and Manchester, with whisky also loaded at Glasgow for the return voyage which sometimes called in at Guernsey and Jersey.

World War II

A new express Batavier Line motor passenger ship was launched by the De Noord yard at Alblasserdam on 2nd March 1939, and completed in June as Batavier iii of 2,687 grt with accommodation for 183 passengers in three classes. She had barely completed three months service on the Rotterdam to London route when she was laid up at Rotterdam due to the outbreak of war. She was taken over by the German occupation forces on 27th May, 1940 at the Hook of Holland, and used as a convoy rescue ship and troop transport ship by the German Navy. She was mined and sunk in a British minefield to the south of Aalborg on 15th October 1942 with no survivors.

Batavier Line lost its Rotterdam headquarters building in May, 1940, completely destroyed by German bombing. The company had a fleet of twenty coasters on the outbreak of war on 3rd September 1939 including four under the British subsidiary. As in World War I, the Batavier Line passenger steamers had to curtail their services in May, 1940. In view of the deteriorating political situation, Batavier III had been sold earlier in 1939 to a Greek owner and later became a war loss on 17th February 1940 to the east of the Shetland Islands under the name of El Sonador. Batavier V was seized by German forces at Rotterdam in May, 1940 and used as an accommodation ship there and as a supply ship for the Channel Islands. She was torpedoed and sunk by a British motor torpedo boat off Cape Gris Nez on 3rd November 1941.

Batavier IV, built back in 1902, was requisitioned in London on 13th May 1940 and disembarked 564 French naval personnel from Boulogne at Folkestone eight days later. She made seven voyages to Weymouth in June during the evacuations from France with British and French troops, and then evacuated schoolchildren from Guernsey on 20th June. She arrived in the Clyde in early September 1940, and served as the anti submarine training ship HMS Eastern Isles in the Gareloch, and as headquarters ship of ASW Escort Training group based at Tobermory as HMS Western Isles from 22nd April 1941. She continued in this role until returning to the Netherlands in February 1946.

Batavier ii served during the Dunkirk evacuations of the British Expeditionary Force, evacuating 350 troops from Boulogne to Falmouth, and later from Cherbourg and Brest to Milford Haven and Falmouth. At the end of July 1940 she began a period of six months as an accommodation ship for Dutch naval crews at Falmouth and Portsmouth. She arrived in the Clyde in February 1941 and served as an accommodation ship for RAF Coastal Command at Lough Foyle and at Invergordon. She was then converted into a hospital carrier for the Normandy landings, and embarked 198 casualties including 104 stretcher cases in mid June 1944. She continued this work with casualties from Utah beach until 14th august but was then out of service until January 1945 after being in collision in the Solent. She continued crossing the Channel with casualties until 27th April 1945, and then operated between Tilbury and Rotterdam.

Batavier ii was released shortly after the end of the war for a well earned refit. She was, in fact, the only survivor of the Batavier Line passenger steamers when she returned to a Rotterdam to Harwich service in January 1946. She resumed her regular Rotterdam to Thames service in June 1947, and was partnered in the summer months by Dutch ferries of the associated Zeeland Line until 1951. She then maintained the historic Batavier Line link alone with accommodation for only fifty passengers until her final departure from London on 12th April 1958. She had suffered boiler trouble on this last voyage and was laid up at Rotterdam until demolished at Utrecht in January 1960.

Müller cargo coasters were also lost or damaged during the war, with Wickenburgh, the former Batavier viii, used in West Africa, where she stranded on a beach at Lagos on 14th January 1944 and was lost. Escaut was damaged and beached after a German air attack off the North Cornish coast on 25th March 1941. Her coal cargo caught fire and burned for four weeks, but she was refloated and rebuilt and renamed as Empire Leech. She was repurchased by Müller in 1948 and returned to service as Seine for the Vianda Steamship Co. Ltd. Marne, built in 1926 at Groningen, was an auxiliary motor coaster that was sunk by a mine just off the Tyne North Pier on 31st august 1940 with the loss of three of her crew. Swallow, the former Meuse of 1928, was damaged in Paris on 12th June 1940 and seized by the Germans, repaired and put back into service as Schwalbe. She returned to allied service in the Channel Islands in May 1945 and was renamed Empire Swallow, and was registered under the Vianda Steamship Co. Ltd. as Swallow in 1946.

Post-War Years

The Müller network of cargo services from Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Antwerp was resumed in post-war years by a fleet of twenty new or second hand Dutch built coasters in the range of 500 dwt to 1,100 dwt, usually with names ending in the suffix ‘burgh’ e.g. Aardenburgh, Brittenburgh, Domburgh, Elsenburgh, Nijenburgh, Oosterburgh, Rozenburgh, Sandenburgh, Trompenburgh, Veenenburgh, Vrijburgh, Walenburgh, Wickenburgh and Zeeburgh. Wickenburgh was the most interesting and largest at 1,620 dwt in that she had been built in 1939 as the engines ‘midships steam coaster Adler in 1939 for the Argo Reederei Richard Adler & Company of Bremen. She was ceded to Britain at the end of World War II and renamed Empire Conningsby and laid up at Hull. She was purchased by Müller in 1947 and renamed Wickenburgh and converted into a motor ship in 1953 of 1,420 grt with accommodation for a dozen passengers for the Casablanca route. She gave 17 years of service to Müller and was sold to Greek owners in 1963 and scrapped at Eleusis in 1984 after a long career of 45 years. All of these coasters with ‘burgh’ suffixes had white hulls with green or red boot topping. Vriburgh and Domburgh of 1,100 dwt were built in 1949 by the De Noord yard at Alblasserdam and were of bridge ‘midships engines aft design equipped with six derricks on three masts, two being of goalpost type.

The Batavier Line passenger service from Rotterdam to the Thames ended in April 1958, but Müller cargo services to the Thames and throughout Europe continued with this new fleet of coasters until 1972. They berthed in the Thames near the Surrey Commercial Docks on the south bank and near the old London Docks on the north bank. A few new coasters had traditional Müller names e.g. the low airdraft coaster Somme of 585 dwt built in 1950 by the Henry Scarr Ltd. yard at Hessle near Hull, and she was sold after 17 years of Müller service to Greek owners and continued in service until 1989. The similar Scheldt of 397 grt was completed at Vierverlaten in Holland in 1959 and after eleven years service was sold to Metcalf Motor Coasters of London and renamed Thomas M. She continued in the ownership of British and Isle of Man owners until her cargo shifted on 2nd March 1987 and she capsized and sank.

The Batavier Line names were reused for three motor coasters of 750 dwt built in Holland up to 1959 as Batavier I, Batavier iii and Batavier v. Batavier I and Batavier iii were sold off in 1967, and Batavier V kept her name until sold in 1976 and traded for foreign owners until scrapped in 2004. There were only six Müller coasters in service in 1970, including the coaster Domburgh, which had been lengthened and converted into a small container ship of 77 TEU in 1962. She was unrecognisable with her bridge now positioned aft, and she was chartered to Zeeland Line in 1968 for a joint container service with a British Sealink cargo ship for a Rotterdam to Harwich charter. The charter was for four sailings per week, two by each ship, and after four years it ended in 1972 and Domburgh was sold off.

At the end of 1970, Wilhelm H. Müller & Company was taken over by KNSM of Holland, and all six of its remaining coasters were transferred to the ownership of Scheepvaartbedrijf Kroonburgh N.V. in 1971 to finally end Müller coaster and shipping ownership. Aardenburgh of 1966 and Walenburgh of 1967 continued trading under KNSM Kroonburgh N.V. until KNSM was merged into the Nedlloyd group fleet in 1981. Walemburgh is still trading today under the name of Cassiopea, and although Müller, KNSM and Nedlloyd Lines no longer exist, the Dutch merchant fleet is still one of the leading shipping fleets of the world at 1,332 vessels of seven million gross registered tonnes.

In 1967, Wilhelm H. Müller & Company was one of the founders of Rotterdam based transhipment company ECT, which also benefitted from the growth of container transport. In 1970, Wilhelm H. Müller & Company had merged with Internatio N.V. to become Internatio – Müller N.V., and the ‘I’ of Internatio and the ‘M’ of Müller live on in the present day company Imtech N.V. of Rotterdam, a technical services provider. KLM, the Dutch national airline, was founded in 1919 as the royal airline of Netherlands and its colonies, with Wilhelm H. Müller & Company as one of the original nine investors.

Associated and Managed Shipping

Zeeland Line ferry services between Flushing and the Thames began in 1875 and lasted over one hundred years. In 1919, Wilhelm H. Müller & Company took a minority share interest in the company, and the British terminal was moved to Harwich at Parkeston Quay eight years later. The grey hulled motor ferries, Koningin Emma and Prinses Beatrix, with accommodation for 1,800 passengers were delivered just before the outbreak of World War II by the famous De Schelde yard at Flushing. The pair were fast, elegant ferries with a service speed of 23 knots and buff funnels with narrow red, white and blue bands beneath a black top. The Flushing passenger terminal was destroyed by the Germans in May 1940, and the new motor ferries escaped to England and served with the allied forces with distinction in several theatres of war including the surrender of Japanese forces in Penang onboard Koningin Emma.

Koningin Emma and Prinses Beatrix were chartered in the summer months of 1948 by Müller to assist with the Batavier Line service from Rotterdam to Tilbury. Wilhelm H. Müller & Company were now the managers and agents for Zeeland Line, and a new very streamlined motor ferry was completed in 1960 by the De Merwede yard at Hardinxveld as Koningin Wilhelmina. She had accommodation for 1,600 passengers with 700 in First Class and could load thirty to forty cars through side doors. Koningin Wilhelmina made her last North Sea crossing from Parkeston Quay on 28th June 1978 and was laid up at Flushing. She was sold a year later to Ventouris Line of Piraeus for service in the Aegean as Panagia Tinou, which means Holy Mother of the island of Tinos. I travelled in her to Tinos and Mykonos in the summer of 1988 along with many students, local people and tourists, who mostly disembarked at Tinos to visit the beautiful Greek orthodox cathedral on the island.

Royal Holland Lloyd was another Dutch company that was managed by two Müller directors delegated from the main Müller Board of Directors. This passenger liner company had been formed in 1899 to carry passengers, cattle and cargo between Amsterdam and South America. After the turn of the century, the British government prohibited the import of live cattle due to the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Argentina. In 1906, the emigrant passenger trade began to call at Boulogne, Plymouth, Corunna, Lisbon, Las Palmas, Pernambuco, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Montevideo and Buenos Aires. The most famous and largest of the royal Holland Lloyd passenger liners were the three funnelled sisters Brabantia and Limburgia of 19,572 grt with accommodation for 1,945 passengers in four classes when completed in 1920 by the A.G. Weser yard for the South American trade. However, they were sold two years later to become the white American cruise liners resolute and reliance. They continued cruising from New York during the Depression years with 497 privileged American tourists to the Caribbean and Mediterranean.

The Royal Holland Lloyd passenger service ended in 1935, but continued as a cargo only service in post-war years with a trio of new cargo-liners of 6,876 grt completed in 1956/57 by the Blohm & Voss yard at Hamburg as Montferland, Waterland and Zaanland. The Müller directors of the company in post-war years were H.F. Mulder and R.J.H. Fortune, with the latter continuing as a director of the company after 1970/71 when the Müller group withdrew from shipowning. The last cargo ships built for the company were two SD14s, Westland and Waterland, and Royal Holland Lloyd became part of the Nedlloyd group in 1981.

A return to deep sea shipowning was made in 1955 with the Wilhelm H. Müller & Company Transport Maats N.V. Two ‘Empire Scandinavian’ type timber carriers were purchased and renamed Hispania and Iberia. The former was completed as Empire Beaconsfield by the William gray yard at Hartlepool in 1943 and served in the Constants (South Wales) Ltd. and Dundee, Perth & London Shipping Co. Ltd. as Hawkinge and Angusbrae. The latter was completed as Empire Harcourt at Hartlepool and served as Baron Ailsa in the Hogarth of Glasgow fleet. Two larger vessels were purchased in 1956 and had been completed as the tankers Skotaas and Skaraas for Skibs A/S Nanset of Iver Bugge in Larvik, Norway in inter-war years. They had been converted to dry cargo and served as Louis Lantz and Joseph Frering for Müller until the former was scrapped at Ghent in 1960 and the latter sold for further trading in 1963.

Five new tankers were completed for the Müller Transport Maats subsidiaries of N.V. Tanker Handel Maats and N.V. Nationale Tankvaart Maats in 1958/59 by the Verolme yards in the Netherlands as Tahama, Vamara, Forest Hill, Forest Lake and Forest Town, all of 19,900 dwt, and on fifteen year charters to the oil majors. They were sold off at the end of their charters in 1973/74 to Stolt Tankers and other independent tanker owners for further trading.

One further deep sea ship had been owned by the London based company Vianda Steamship Co. Ltd. as Vianda. She was the former cargo ship Indralema built in 1904 by the Charles Connell yard in Glasgow for Indra Line of Liverpool. She became part of Port Line as Port Alma in 1916 when four British cargo-liner companies merged to form the Commonwealth & Dominion Line, and she served as Vianda for Müller for three years from 1923 to 1926 before her sale to Italian owners as Fidelitas, and she was broken up at Savona in 1932.

Wilhelm H. Müller Shipping Corporation

In 1947, the Müller group branched out into international freight forwarding in New York, forming the subsidiary Wilhelm H. Müller Shipping Corporation. The shipment of humanitarian food relief packages to war torn Europe was one of their main lines of business. The shipment of humanitarian relief packages around the globe continues today to be a main focus. Activities have also included freight forwarding of all types of cargo, import clearance, order assembly, consolidation, export licences, consultancy, and other import and export services with branch offices in Atlanta and Los Angeles. By the 1990s, the Müller holding companies in Rotterdam had become vast conglomerates in manufacturing and trading companies, mechanical engineering and other business interests. The freight forwarding arm in New York was spun off and divested in 1993 when the Wilhelm H. Müller Shipping Corporation became a privately held company.

Postscript

Although the Batavier Line passenger service had ended in 1958 and the Müller group had withdrawn from shipowning in 1970/71, that was not the end of their business interests in the Netherlands and America. The New York freight forwarding company mentioned above remains in business today using the famous Müller name. The great Wilhelm H. Müller & Company had owned ships trading in Europe, North Africa and across the North Atlantic for well over eighty years, and their legacy lives on today in several other areas of business. The Westerlaan headquarters office of Batavier Line and Müller was eventually demolished to make way for new developments.

The owning family of Kroller-Müller had moved in the spring of 1916 from Rotterdam initially to Wassenaar near The Hague, and later to a large castle and hunting lodge named St. Hubert in the Veluwe region of Holland. The castle was designed by the renowned Dutch architect H. P. Berlage and completed in 1920 at a cost of millions of guilders. Anton Kroller was a passionate hunter and acquired some farms and six thousand acres of land. The Rijksmuseum Kroller-Müller was opened there in 1938 with his wife Helene Kroller- Müller dying there a year later. Anton Kroller died in 1944 and both were buried in the nearby hills.

The Kroller-Müller Museum is open to the public today to enjoy the natural scenery of the Hoge Velume Park near Apeldoorn, with many international visitors arriving to view its large collection of van Gogh paintings and its interesting sculpture park.