KNSM of Holland

This long established Dutch shipping company was one of the really great Caribbean, Central American and South American traders with a very big fleet. it was in business for 125 years before becoming part of the giant Nedlloyd combine in 1981. Koninklijke Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maats (KNSM) was founded on 1st October 1856 by a group of Dutch entrepreneurs led by the initiative of the German coffee merchant W. Rahmann. it started with a Baltic service on its day of founding and confined itself to Baltic and Mediterranean trading for most of the first thirty years. Ondine of 518 grt was the first ship in the fleet, with a service speed of eleven knots and accommodation for thirty passengers on services to France and limited summer services to Russia. Small steamers of between 1,000 dwt and 2,500 dwt formed the backbone of the fleet, but during this time were prone to loss by maritime causes of collision, fire, shipwreck and foundering due to severe storms. No fewer than two dozen of this big fleet were lost to these causes during the first forty years of the company e.g. Jason of 1,653 grt built in 1866 stranded and was abandoned at Chios in Greece in 1892.

Early Services

An intermittent service was provided to New York from Amsterdam from 1869, which became a regular service between 1881 and 1883. Holland America Line (HAL) were striving to become the biggest Dutch Transatlantic fleet at this time, and by mutual agreement KNSM cancelled its service to allow HAL to take the important North Atlantic route. Two larger clipper bowed passenger liners with accommodation for 35 first class passengers and six hundred emigrants were delivered to the company in 1875 but did not serve the company. Stad Haarlem and Stad Amsterdam were completed on the Clyde by a. & J. Inglis, but were immediately chartered for the Dutch East indies trade to the Dutch East India Company mail service. Stad Haarlem then obtained a further voyage charter with the recently founded New Zealand Shipping Company in February 1879 for their first steamer sailing from London to Wellington. although fully supported by all parties to the new trade, the voyage made a financial loss, and both steamers were then sold by KNSM to French Line and entered the St. Nazaire and Santander to Colon (Panama) route as Ferdinand de Lesseps and Ville de Marseille. The pair were also used as troopships during French colonial wars and both had long careers, Ferdinand de Lesseps serving for 32 years until broken up at Dunkirk in 1911.

In 1874, KNSM was closely involved in the creation of the new ferry company Zeeland Stoomvaart Maats for the route between Vlissingen and England. KNSM finances fell seriously into debt during 1875 to 1879 after the delivery of Stad Haarlem and Stad Amsterdam, but under the forward thinking policies of Managing Director Ernst Heldring, the debts were soon wiped out. KNSM had a big fleet of 25 steamers at the turn of the new millennium, including the former barque Pegasus of 410 grt, which was purchased in 1864 from Rahder & Company of Amsterdam and converted to a steamer and renamed Ondine (2). She served KNSM well for forty years until broken up in 1902. Larger steamers with accommodation for up to a dozen passengers were then added to the fleet in the first decade of the new century for the Mediterranean services including Hector and Sirius of 4,930 dwt built during 1897/99 by the Nederland yard at Amsterdam for N.V. Stoom Mij Nederland of Amsterdam.

Caribbean Services

KNSM was famed for its Caribbean passenger and cargo services and these began in 1912 with the takeover of the passenger fleet of the Royal West Indian Mail Line (KWIM) of Amsterdam. This company had begun services from Amsterdam to Dutch Guiana and the West indies in 1883, and five years later the service was extended to New York. The late 19th century and the early 20th century saw the beginning of tourism to the Caribbean, and New York and the gulf ports were departure ports for Americans escaping the long, cold northern winters.

The passenger and mail steamer Oranje Nassau of 3,721 grt was one of the KWIM liners taken over by KNSM, she was completed in June 1911 by the famous De Schelde yard at Flushing with accommodation for 62 passengers in two classes, and also carried 4,160 tonnes of cargo such as Demerara sugar in her well deck holds. She had dimensions of length 337.6 feet, beam of 44.2 and loaded draft of 23.3 feet, and a bridge deck of length 218 feet. She had a service speed of eleven knots from a triple expansion steam engine, and was merged into the KNSM fleet in 1927 with ten other liners when KWIM was liquidated. Oranje Nassau was sold in early 1939 to Hellenic Med Line of Greece and renamed Corinthia and given a yellow funnel with a black top and a central blue band. She gave twenty years service in Greece and was broken up in 1959, and had been originally named after the House of Oranje Nassau, a Dutch dynasty founded in 1515.

Several big passenger liners joined KWIM in 1915 including the new sisters Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela of 5,640 grt with accommodation for 186 cabin class passengers and 144 in steerage. Ecuador was built in 1915 by the famous De Schelde yard at Flushing, but the trio of sisters were sold in the following year for the Transpacific service of the Pacific Mail Line. The trio had a length of 380 feet with a beam of 48 feet, and they were single screw steamers with a service speed of 14 knots. Ecuador became the troopship David W. Branch during World War ii and survived the war to become Negbah for Zim Line services in the Mediterranean.

World War I

On the outbreak of war on 3rd august 1914, KNSM had a big fleet of sixty steamers engaged on Baltic, North European and Mediterranean services, with a further ten steamers engaged on the Caribbean and South American services of KWIM. Fifteen of this big fleet became war or marine losses:-

Lodewijk van Nassau, passenger liner – mined and sunk in 1916 off the galloper Lightship in the North Sea while on a voyage from Valparaiso to Rotterdam with the loss of five lives.

Prins Maurits, passenger liner – sunk in a hurricane off Cape Hatteras in 1915 with the loss of 49 lives.

Apollo – mined and sunk off the galloper Lightship in the North Sea on 21.1.1916.

Atlas – captured off the Canary islands, sunk by explosives on 10.1.1918.

Ceres – mined and sunk on 25.1.1915 in the Aland Sea.

Flora – wrecked near Hartland Point on 6.4.1915.

Fortuna – mined and sunk off Beachy Head on 22.10.1916.

Leda – torpedoed and sunk in the North Sea by U49 in 1917.

Luna – mined and sunk off the East Goodwin Lightship on 21.8.1919.

Medea – captured, shelled and sunk by U28 in the English Channel on 25.3.1915.

Niobe – captured by German submarine UB12 in the North Sea and scuttled in 1918 at Bruges, later raised and sold.

Pomona – captured by the German submarine UC79 in the Baltic and seized by Lithuania in 1919.

Rhea – mined and sunk off Etaples in the English Channel on 22.6.1918 while on a voyage from the Tyne to Rouen with coke, mines laid by UC49.

Thalia – torpedoed and sunk by UC17 four miles off Filey Brigg on 8.10.1918 while on a voyage from Rouen to the Tyne in ballast, three lost.

Themis – mined and sunk after sailing from Amsterdam on 21.12.1916.

Many of the fleet were requisitioned by the British and American governments for the remainder of the war after fleeing Holland in 1914, or having arrived at Caribbean or American ports they then found that they were unable to return to Holland. rhea was managed for The Shipping Controller in London by Lougher Lewis & Company of Cardiff, while Thalia was managed for The Shipping Controller by Richards, Turpin (Shipping) Ltd. of Swansea.

Inter-War Years Services

The directors and staff of both the KNSM and KWIM were based from 1920 in the new and richly decorated ‘Ship House’ building in Prins Hendrikkade in Amsterdam, completed in 1916, along with several other Dutch shipping companies e.g. Nederland Stoomvaart Maats. The inter-war routes of the two financially linked companies KNSM and KWIM were as follows:-

SURINAM LINE

Monthly passenger and cargo service from Amsterdam to Madeira, Paramaribo (Dutch Guiana), Georgetown (Demerara), Barbados, Port of Spain, Carapano, La Guaira, Puerto Cabello, Curacao, and return to Holland via Le Havre. The KNSM terminal at Paramaribo was a single quay able to berth two cargo-liners at the same time, with a small coaster berth nearby to bring in produce from outlying areas to the mouth of the Suriname river.

COLON LINE

Fortnightly passenger and cargo service from Amsterdam, Dover and Boulogne to Trinidad, La Guaira, Curacao, Puerto Columbia, Cartagena, Puerto Limon, Colon (Panama) and return via the same ports to Plymouth, Le Havre and Amsterdam.

VENEZUELA-COLOMBIA LINE

Monthly cargo sailings from Hamburg and Amsterdam to La Guaira, Puerto Cabello, Curacao, Santa Marta, Puerto Columbia on the Magdalena river, Cartagena, Puerto Limon, Santo Domingo and San Pedro de Macoris.

GUATEMALA LINE

Monthly passenger and cargo service from Amsterdam to Saint Thomas, San Juan (Puerto Rico), Sanchez, Puerto Planta, Monte Christi, Cap Haitien, Port-au-Prince, Santiago de Cuba, Manzanillo, Cienfuegos, Puerto Barrios and return via Kingston (Jamaica), Port-au-Prince, North Haitian and North Dominican ports, San Juan (Puerto Rico) to Le Havre and Amsterdam.

SOUTH PACIFIC LINE

Fortnightly cargo and limited passenger service from Hamburg and Amsterdam to Pacific ports of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile via the Panama Canal, and returned via Kingston (Jamaica) every four weeks.

HOLLAND-BALTIC LINE

Dutch ports, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Stettin, Danzig, Gothenburg, Koningsberg, Petrograd, Reval and Riga.

HOLLAND-IBERIA and MEDITERRANEAN

Dutch ports to Portuguese and Spanish ports, Italy and Sicily, Malta, Greece, North Africa, Morocco, Turkey, Smyrna, Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea ports.

HOLLAND-FRANCE

Dutch ports to Le Havre, St. Nazaire, La Pallice, Rochelle and Bordeaux.

The KNSM fleet was quickly rebuilt by 1920 to a large fleet of 78 steamers with an additional 26 Rhine steamers of 800 dwt with names ending in ‘wijk’ e.g. akswijk for the inland service to all Rhine ports. KNSM acquired seventeen German prize cargo ships in 1919 from the Shipping Controller in London and placed them in the ownership of the newly formed David Steamship Co. Ltd. of London. in 1921, when the export of ships was allowed by the British government, fourteen ships went to the newly formed United Netherlands Navigation Company (VNS of which KNSM was a founder member) and three ships came to KNSM and KWIM, becoming the passenger liner Venezuela of KWIM, the ‘a’ class cargo ship Ardover of 11,500 dwt and the ‘B’ class Bennekom of 9,315 dwt. Venezuela was the former Adolph Woermann of 6,335 grt completed in 1906 and had accommodation for 301 passengers in three classes on four decks, and was purchased for the Hamburg and Amsterdam to Central America route, on which she ran until broken up in 1938.

Two ‘a’ class cargo ships of 11,400 dwt were then completed by the De Schelde and Rotterdam Dry Docks yards as Almelo and Alkmaar, and seven ‘B’ class of between 9,000 dwt and 9,850 dwt were completed as Baarn (1), Breda, Brielle, Baarn (2), Boskoop, Barneveld and Bodegraven. The later members of the ‘B’ class also had accommodation for up to forty passengers, with Baarn (1) sold in 1922 to the Cairn Line of Steamships Ltd. of Newcastle and renamed Cairnavon. She was wrecked three years later on 1st November 1925 near the Buchan Ness Lighthouse while on a voyage from Leith to Montreal with coke and general cargo.

The KWIM passenger fleet was rebuilt with a trio of sisters of 4,321 grt during 1918/20 by the Fijenoord and Nederland shipyards. Crijnssen, Stuyvesant and van Rensselaer had good passenger accommodation for 120 passengers on four decks, and carried 3,800 tonnes of cargo in four holds served by eight derricks on two tall masts through four hatches of dimensions 22.6 feet by 14 feet. They had service speeds of eleven knots from triple expansion steam engines constructed by the shipbuilders. a fourth slightly smaller sister was completed in September 1927 as Cottica of 3,989 grt with accommodation for 77 passengers by the P. Smit Junior yard at Rotterdam. She had a service speed of twelve knots from a triple expansion steam engine constructed by the shipbuilder with oil firing, but was thirty feet less in length than her earlier sisters but with the same beam. the entire quartet carried many full cargoes of Demerara sugar and Caribbean tropical goods home to Amsterdam, with all passengers having comfortable outside staterooms and ample Promenade Deck space for games. The Dining rooms and Lounges featured dark wooden tables and carver chairs, with flowers on every table and on bars and window ledges.

KWIM was kept as a separate subsidiary from KNSM until in 1927 its fleet of nine passenger liners was amalgamated into its own fleet. The graceful, veteran liner Prins der Nederlanden of 2,287 grt built in 1902 by the Blohm & Voss yard in Hamburg with passenger accommodation for 42 passengers was now too old and small, and was sold to the breakers after the amalgamation, while her sister Prins Frederik Hendrik was sold to French owners four years later.

a flagship passenger liner was then ordered from the Rotterdam yard of van Smit for completion in November, 1930. Colombia was of 10,782 grt, the largest liner ever built for KNSM, with accommodation for 320 passengers in three classes and with a crew of 148. She had a Maierform type of hull and bow construction, and was a near sister of Bloemfontein and Jagersfontein of the United Netherlands Company. She had five decks for passengers with the public rooms on Promenade Deck and plenty of open deck space on Boat Deck. She was a twin screw motorship powered by twin eight cylinder four stroke single acting Werkspoor diesel engines of 8,000 bhp to give a service speed of 15 knots. She had dimensions of overall length 457 feet by beam of 61.7 feet and a depth of 36 feet, with a draft of 26.9 feet and a Bridge Deck of length 169 feet. She could carry 6,648 tonnes of cargo with three ‘tweendecks in her forward holds and two ‘tweendecks in her aft holds. The new flagship Colombia sailed on her maiden voyage from Amsterdam on 28th November 1940 bound for Central American ports.

The smaller cargo-liners Delft of 7,500 dwt and Helder of 6,343 dwt were built in 1919/20 by the New Waterway (Schiedam) and Rotterdam Dry Docks yards, and many smaller steam and motor vessels were built during the inter-war years for the Baltic, Northern Europe and Mediterranean routes. Typical of this large number of around fifty vessels were the sister steamers Odysseus and Orpheus of 1,500 dwt completed in 1921/22 with four holds served by eight derricks on two tall masts. a large deep-sea and coastal fleet such as that of KNSM naturally suffered several vessels lost to maritime causes. Mercurius of 2,863 grt built in 1909 was wrecked in the Strait of Gibraltar on 7th January 1925, Delft of 4,368 grt built in 1919 was wrecked on Santa Clara island in the gulf of Guayaquil on 14th June 1926, Ardover of 7,680 grt was wrecked at Barbuda on 20th September 1927, Ares of 3,981 grt built in 1921 caught fire and was beached and scuttled in the Tagus river on 28th April 1931, Carna of 1,399 grt built in 1921 was wrecked near Puerto Plata in the Dominican republic on 5th March 1927, and Brion of 780 grt built in 1921 capsized and sank in the Panama Canal in Lake Gatun on 21st January 1934.

World War II

A large KNSM fleet of eight passenger vessels and 71 cargo ships included the flagship Colombia of 10,782 grt, and the passenger liners Costa Rica of 8,672 grt, purchased in 1930 as Prinses Juliana from the Netherlands Steamship Company, and the liner Simon Bolivar of 8,309 grt completed for the company in March 1927 by the Rotterdam Dry Docks yard. The twin funnelled Prinses Juliana had been completed in March 1910 by the Nederland yard at Amsterdam on dimensions of length 455.3 feet, beam of 55.3 feet draft of 25.0 feet and depth of 34.2, with a Promenade Deck of length 273 feet. She was a twin screw steamer powered by twin quadruple expansion steam engines to give a service speed of 15.5 knots. as Costa Rica she had accommodation for 262 passengers in three classes, and could lift 6,510 tonnes of sugar and Caribbean cargo homewards in her holds and shelter decks. The twin funnelled Simon Bolivar had a length of 420 feet, beam of 59.1 feet, depth of 27.7 feet, and a combined Bridge Deck and Poop Deck of length 329 feet. She was powered by a quadruple expansion steam engine constructed by the builders with a service speed of 12 knots. She had accommodation for 215 passengers in three classes and could carry 8,228 tonnes of Caribbean cargo homewards.

This very fine Dutch passenger and cargo ship fleet would be decimated by the actions of German U boats, E boats, surface raiders and aircraft. The company lost 48 ships, two thirds of its fleet, together with the loss of 230 crew members. This list of ships lost is long and included:-

Achilles – torpedoed and sunk on 1.10.1942 while on a voyage from Demerara to Trinidad with sugar and general cargo, she sank in 40 fathoms with the loss of 1 gunner.

Agamemnon – bombed and sunk on 8.11.1940 seven cables from the S.W. Swin Lightvessel while on a voyage from Ridham Dock to the Tyne in ballast, 2 lost.

Ajax – bombed and sunk on 8.8.1940 ten miles west of St. Catherine’s Point while on a voyage from Southampton to Falmouth in ballast for orders, 4 lost.

Alkmaar – ran aground on Cima Island in Cape Verde islands on 16.2.1940, total loss.

Amazone – torpedoed and sunk on 6.5.1942 off West Palm Beach, Florida while on a voyage from Curacao and Key West to New York with general cargo, 14 lost.

Astrea – torpedoed and sunk on 6.3.1942 about 800 miles east of Jacksonville, Florida while on a voyage from Para and Trinidad to New York with general cargo, all saved.

Aurora – bombed and sunk in Philippeville harbour while on British requisition on 24.11.1942, all saved, wreck later raised but sank off Cape de Fer on 10.11.1953 while under tow to Italy.

Baarn – bombed and sunk off Avola, Sicily while on British requisition on 11.7.1943, crew of 72 all saved.

Barneveld – captured by German pocket battleship admiral Scheer in South Atlantic on 20.1.1941, sunk next day with explosives while on a voyage from London to Table Bay, Port Said and Malta via Freetown with government stores, she sank about 1,200 miles from Freetown, all saved.

Berenice – torpedoed and sunk off St. Nazaire on 21.6.1940 while evacuating refugees, 18 crew and 21 passengers lost.

Bodegraven – and sunk on 2.7.1944 off Monrovia while on a voyage from Beira and Table Bay for Freetown and the U.K. with copper, food, general and government stores, 3 crew and 6 passengers lost, Master taken prisoner.

Breda – bombed and sunk on 23.12.1940 in Oban roads while on a voyage from London to Bombay with cement and general, sank in 12 fathoms all crew and passengers saved, wreck raised in 1951 and broken up.

Calypso – seized by the Germans at Amsterdam in May 1940, renamed Norma in 1941, and heavily damaged by royal Navy gunfire on 27.12.1941, beached, wreck refloated in 1952 and broken up.

Ceres – torpedoed and sunk on 13.3.1943 to north of Curacao while on a voyage from New York and Guantanamo Bay to Curacao and Paramaribo with general cargo, 2 lost.

Colombia – while serving as a British submarine depot ship torpedoed and sunk on 27.2.1943 by U516 off South Africa.

Costa Rica – while serving as a troopship with 2,600 troops onboard, bombed and sunk on 27.4.1941 off Western Crete, all crew and troops saved.

Crijnssen – torpedoed and sunk on 10.6.1942 off the Yucatan peninsula while on a voyage from Demerara and Curacao for New Orleans, 1 lost.

Deucalion – bombed and sunk 20 miles SSW of Portland on 4.7.1940 while on a voyage from London to St. John’s (NFL) in ballast, 27 survivors.

Draco – bombed and sunk on 5.8.1942 to East of Tobago while on a voyage from Santos and Rio de Janeiro to Barbados with general cargo, crew of 16 saved.

Fauna – torpedoed and sunk on 18.5.1942 in the Turks and Caicos islands while on a voyage from New York to Turks island with general cargo, 2 lost.

Flora – shelled and sunk by U129 off the coast of Colombia seven miles NNW of Point Manare on 17.6.1942 while on a voyage from New Orleans and Cristobal to Curacao with general, 1 lost.

Hebe – sunk in collision with H.M. trawler St. Cathan near Cape Hatteras on 11.4.1942.

Hector – torpedoed and sunk on 24.5.1942 off south coast of Cuba while on a voyage from New York to Curacao with cement, pipe machinery, dynamite and general cargo, 2 lost.

Irene – seized by the Germans in May 1940 at Amsterdam, and stranded 15.6.1944 in St. Malo roads during allied air attack, refloated and broken up in 1946.

Mars – sunk in an allied minefield on 29.5.1945 near Patras, Greece.

Medea – torpedoed and sunk on 13.8.1942 off Santiago de Cuba while on a voyage from New York and Key West for Curacao with dynamite and general, 5 lost.

Merope – torpedoed and sunk off Cape Bengut while on a voyage from Bougie to Oran under British requisition, 10 lost.

Nereus – torpedoed and sunk by E boat two miles south of no. 5 buoy off great Yarmouth while on a voyage from Dundee to London on 17.4.1941 with potatoes and general cargo, crew saved.

Orion – seized by the Germans in May 1940 at Rotterdam, torpedoed and sunk by Russian aircraft in the Baltic on 18.3.1945.

Poseidon – sailed from Trinidad on 26.5.1942 and went missing, probably torpedoed.

Rhea – captured by Vichy French authorities at Algiers in November 1941, handed over to Germany and sunk by allied air attack at Naples on 1.3.1943.

Saturnus – torpedoed and sunk off Anticosti island, gulf of St. Lawrence on 15.9.1942 while on a voyage from Hull and Sydney (NS) to Montreal in ballast, 1 lost.

Simon Bolivar – mined and sunk in the north Thames estuary near Harwich on 18.11.1939 while on a voyage from Amsterdam and London to Paramaribo with whisky, silk and general cargo, 102 crew and passengers lost from 397 persons on board.

Stella – bombed and sunk in Flushing roads on 11.5.1940 while on a voyage from Amsterdam and Antwerp to Tunis, Alexandria and Levant ports with mail, potash and general cargo, crew of 27 saved.

Strabo – shelled and sunk by U155 off the Colombian coast while on a voyage from Maranham to Barranquilla on 10.8.1942, crew of 13 saved.

Telamon – torpedoed and sunk to south east of Trinidad on 24.7.1942 while on a voyage from Demerara to Trinidad with sugar, bauxite and greenheart wood, 23 lost.

Triton – torpedoed and sunk off Miami on 28.5.1942 while on a voyage from Demerara and Trinidad to New York with sugar, bauxite and timber, 6 lost.

Ulysses – torpedoed and sunk on 12.4.1943 in North Atlantic while on a voyage from Halifax (NS) to Avonmouth with government stores and general cargo, all saved.

Van Rensselaer – mined and sunk inside the South pier at Ijmuiden on 12.5.1940 while on a voyage from Amsterdam to the Caribbean, she had 150 passengers on board of which 42 survivors were landed at Ramsgate. Hulk subsequently destroyed by the German aircraft.

Vesta – seized by the Germans in May 1940 at Rotterdam and sunk by allied air attack in 1944.

German and Italian submarines were very active in the Caribbean and Florida areas between March and October 1942, with thirteen KNSM vessels torpedoed and sunk in Astrea (6th March), Amazone (6th May), Fauna (18th May), Hector (24th May), Triton (28th May), Poseidon (28th May), Crijnssen (11th June), Flora (18th June), Telamon (24th July), Draco (5th august), Strabo (10th august), Medea (13th august) and Achilles (1st October).

The pocket battleship admiral Scheer captured the cargo-liner Barneveld in the South Atlantic on 20th January 1941 and she was sunk the next day by explosives. The raider was half way through a five month 161 day sortie in the North and South Atlantic, sinking 17 allied ships in the most successful pocket battleship operation of the war. She had broken out of blockaded Germany on 2nd November 1940 into the North Atlantic and destroyed part of the HX84 convoy defended by the brave armed Merchant Cruiser Jervis Bay three days later. She was refuelled by German tankers for the next five months until March 1941, operating mostly off Brazil and in the South Atlantic, arriving back at Kiel on 1st April 1941 to great jubilation. Graf Spee, her sister, had been badly damaged by a force of three royal Navy cruisers off the Plate on 13th December 1939 and scuttled herself three days later, but somehow admiral Scheer escaped being hunted down by all of the royal Navy cruisers for five months.

Post-WWII Rebuilding

The KNSM passenger fleet had been decimated during the war, and only Cottica built in 1927 had survived to be refitted and made ready for the reactivation of the Caribbean services in 1946. She carried 120 passengers and was partnered by the cargo-liner Boskoop of 1927, now with increased passenger accommodation for 57 passengers, as well as two rebuilt cargo ships dating from 1938. The accommodation of cargo ships Pericles and Socrates was extended over numbers three and five holds to give more cabins, and the third mast was moved aft to between numbers four and five holds. Thus, they now had accommodation for 94 passengers, and they were renamed Oranjestad and Willemstad of 5,091 grt respectively. Their dimensions remained the same at length 359 feet and beam of fifty feet, and their seven cylinder Stork diesels of 3,400 bhp gave service speeds of 13.5 knots. Their hulls were painted black instead of grey, and they carried passengers to Trinidad, Paramaribo and Georgetown, and often platoons of soldiers sent to quell riots in Paramaribo in Dutch Guiana. They were sold in 1967 to Saudi Lines of Jeddah and refitted as the pilgrim ships Miriam B and Noor B until broken up at Kaohsiung in 1973/74.

This quartet of medium sized passenger ships sailed on until two new passenger ships of some quality were completed in 1957 in Holland. Oranje Nassau and Prins der Nederlanden of 7,220 grt had very good cabin accommodation for 116 First Class passengers as well as 68 troops or West Indian migrant workers in four and six berth cabins. Oranje Nassau was completed by the Gebroeders Pot yard at Bolnes, and Prins der Nederlanden, the second of the pair, was launched by Queen Juliana on 14th March 1957 at the Rotterdam yard of P. Smit Junior. a handsome pair of liners with domed funnels and very good facilities and public rooms for the First Class passengers, as well as good service speeds of 16 knots from B. & W. two stroke diesel engines. They had dimensions of length 431.9 feet, beam of 56.8 feet, and draft of 22.8 feet, and carried 5,690 tonnes of Caribbean cargo homeward in four holds. The Hapag cargo-liner Patricia had been seized at Curacao in 1940 by the Dutch authorities and renamed Aruba, and was transferred to KNSM in 1947 and renamed Haarlem. She gave good service to KNSM until sold to Greek owners in 1961 and renamed Aghios Nicolaos II. The Horn Line motor vessel Henry Horn was also seized in 1940 at Curacao and became the KNSM passenger and cargo vessel Bonaire. She had been launched at Hamburg on 14th January 1926 and was delivered three months later. after seventeen years service with KNSM, she was badly damaged on 30th June 1957 against the Eastern breakwater when leaving Dover while on a voyage from Amsterdam to Paramaribo. She was declared a constructive total loss and arrived on 27th November 1957 at Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht for breaking up.

The KNSM cargo-liner fleet was rebuilt with three ‘victory’ turbine powered ships of 16 knots speed renamed Baarn, Bennekom and Breda. a C1-a type completed in 1943 as Cape Sable but immediately bareboat chartered to the Dutch government as Fort Nassau was transferred to KNSM in 1947 and refitted with a new heavy lift derrick on a purpose built mast and renamed Delft. She carried all manner of petroleum and chemical industry plant plus rotors and stators for the oil industry at Curacao. Six engines aft C1-M-av1 ships were found to be ideal for KNSM Caribbean operations and were renamed Hecuba, Helena, Hera, Hersilia, Hestia and Hydra, with Hecuba given an extended quarterdeck to carry more cargo.

The KNSM cargo fleet was rebuilt starting with a German war prize built in 1930 as Lipari for R. M. Sloman, and after surrender she became Empire Garston and then Orion of 3,110 dwt in the KNSM fleet. Six new engines ‘midships vessels of 3,500 dwt were delivered during 1946/48, with two from the Montreal yard of Canadian Vickers as Telamon and Triton, and four from the Port Glasgow yard of William Hamilton as Agamemnon, Helicon, Oberon, and Poseidon. Dutch yards built a further ten cargo ships of this type during the decade from 1948 to 1958 of between 2,750 dwt and 4,500 dwt of engines ‘midships design e.g. Jason, Solon, Maron, Memnon and Medon. Ten engines aft vessels named Adonis, aegis, Artemis, Attis, Charis, Daphis, Doris, Isis, Osiris and Themis, were built between 1954 and 1956 with three holds forward of the bridge and one of their three masts aft of the bridge. Doris sank in a severe storm near Naples on 14th October 1964, but the rest of the class served KNSM well until the last was sold off in 1972.

The larger Chiron, Ladon, Parthenon and Theron were a quartet of 4,800 dwt built in 1960 by the van der Giessen and Gebroeders Pot yards as engines aft three hold ships with accommodation for a dozen passengers and heavy lift derricks and ten smaller derricks on two masts and a pair of kingposts. This quartet was lengthened in late 1967 by the Boel yard, and had Stork diesels to give service speeds of 16 knots. They gave fourteen years of service, with two sold to Vroon of Holland and two to Lebanese owners.

The most memorable of all the KNSM post-war cargo-liners, however, was a class of fourteen of 7,780 dwt built between 1959 and 1963 and named after Greek writers, thinkers and philosophers. Achilles, Archimedes, Ares, Aristoteles, Ceres, Diogenes, Ganymedes, Hercules, Hermes, Palamedes, Pericles, Socrates, Sophocles and Ulysses had four holds, three in front of the bridge and one aft. They were completed with a length of 427 feet and of 7,130 dwt, but were lengthened by 33 feet in 1967 to increase their carrying capacity to 7,780 dwt. a draft of 24.5 feet, two heavy lift derricks and twelve smaller derricks, and a service speed of 16.25 knots from Stork diesels manufactured at Hengelo in Holland made the class ideal for the smaller Caribbean ports. Sophocles sank in the North Atlantic on 19th February 1965 after explosions in her cargo, and Hermes suffered severe bow damage in April 1965 in a collision in the St. Lawrence river, but the remainder of the class served KNSM well until the last of the class, Ulysses, was sold off in 1979.

The last pair of new KNSM cargo-liners delivered in 1967 by the Gebroeders Pot yard at Bolnes featured the use of eight electric cranes. Mercurius and Neptunus of 6,940 dwt had five holds of which four were in front of the bridge and one aft, and as well as electric cranes had four derricks on their only mast between numbers one and two holds. They had accommodation for a dozen passengers, and also carried 7,972 cubic feet of refrigerated cargo homeward from the Dutch Guiana and the Caribbean. They were popular ships with KNSM crews until Neptunus was sold in 1978 to Venezuelan owners in Maracaibo and renamed Elena Altomare, and Mercurius was sold to Manta Line in Piraeus and renamed Coffee Trader in 1980.

KNSM Finale

The Surinam and Caribbean services of KNSM were combined in 1970, and then two years later the company withdrew altogether from the Caribbean passenger market and sold Oranje Nassau and Prins der Nederlanden to the Cuban government as the military training and troopships XX Aniversario and Vietnam Heroico. They were part of a Cuban force sent to Luanda in Angola backed by Soviet arms during the war of independence from Portugal, resulting in the Angolan People’s republic. This left the KNSM network of Transatlantic Caribbean cargo routes as joint services with Flota Mercante Gran Colombiana (Colombia), Compania Anonima Venezolana de Navigation (CAVN of Venezuela), Surinam Shipping Company, French Line, Hapag and Horn Line of Germany, Holland America Line of Holland, royal Mail Line and Harrison Line of the U.K., and Saguenay Shipping of Canada. Services from New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Savannah, Houston, Mobile and New Orleans to Central American, Caribbean and Surinam ports were maintained at weekly or fortnightly services with optional calls at some ports.

royal Holland Lloyd (KHL) was taken over in 1970 together with the cargo-liners Amstelland, Eemland, Gaasterland, Gooiland, Graveland, Kennemerland followed by Flevoland of 1973, Salland of 1974, and the two SD14s Waterland and Westerland of 1974/75. The KNSM cargo fleet was updated with some larger cargo ships in 1972 with Trident Amsterdam and Trident Rotterdam of 9,165 dwt, with four holds in front of the bridge and one aft. They had two sisters in the CavN fleet of Venezuela in Caracas and Venezuela, and the quartet had four electric cranes and Stulcken heavy lift derricks for cargo handling as well as side doors for easier unloading, and high service speeds of 21 knots. another quartet of German built cargo ships of 11,500 dwt were purchased in 1972 from the Vlasov group and renamed as Alkmaar (ex Pearlstone) and Amersfoort (ex Lodestone) for KNSM, and La Guaira (ex Coralstone) and Maracaibo (ex Rubystone) for the CAVN fleet of Venezuela. Finally, two German built engines aft ‘36L’ class of 16,610 dwt were purchased in 1976 from Hilmar Reksten of Norway with five holds served by many derricks on three masts and were renamed Baarn and Breda.

The first sailing of the CAROL (Caribbean Overseas Line) container service from Europe to Caribbean ports took place in December 1976. This trade and most other worldwide trades had, by this time, seen the grouping of like minded shipowners in order to raise enough capital to place orders for new container ships. KNSM, Harrison Line, Hapag Lloyd, and French Line ordered eight identical ‘B463’ container ships of 1,412 TEU capacity from the Polish yard of Stocznia Gdanska. Hollandia was completed for KNSM, Alemannia Express, Caribia Express, America Express and Cordillera Express were completed for Hapag Lloyd, Caraibe for French Line, and Astronomer and Adviser for Harrison Line. They were fitted with a forty tonne Liebherr crane for container handling, and had high service speeds of 22 knots from ten cylinder Sulzer diesel engines. A weekly service was operated from North West Europe to Caribbean port of Kingston (Jamaica) and the Central American port of Puerto Cortes (Honduras), with several other ports served when new container terminals were completed.

The KNSM fleet position in October 1978 showed a very much reduced fleet compared to most of its long history, this was as follows:-

Alkmaar – on passage from Barcelona to Kingston and Puerto Cortes

Amersfoort – on passage from Punta Arenas to Genoa

Amstelland – on passage Hamburg and Amsterdam to Buenos Aires

Baarn – on passage Antwerp and Grangemouth to Chicago

Breda – on passage Paramaribo and Demerara to Europe

Flevoland – anchored off Cotonou on a voyage from Tees to Apapa

Ganymedes – on passage Valparaiso to Amsterdam

Gooiland – on passage Hamburg and Bremen to Porto Alegre

Hercules – on passage Hamburg to San Antonio and Iquique

Hollandia – on passage Kingston (Jamaica) to Liverpool and London

Kennermerland – on passage Buenos Aires to Santos

Mercurius – on passage Amsterdam and Rotterdam to Paramaribo

Palamedes – on passage from Barbados to Trinidad

Pericles – on passage Antwerp to Guayaquil and Antofagasta

Salland – arrived Grenada on a voyage from Hamburg to Paramaribo

Trident Amsterdam – on passage Amsterdam and Antwerp to La Guaira

Trident Rotterdam – on passage La Guaira to Hamburg

Ulysses – on passage Amsterdam to Kingston (Jamaica)

Waterland – on passage Amsterdam to Curacao

Westland – on passage Santa Marta to Cristobal

A second container ship of 1,460 TEU capacity was launched for KNSM in June 1980 as Zeelandia at the Van der Giessen de Noord yard at Krimpen. However, she was not destined for the CAROL service to the Caribbean but for the open charter market. She was completed in September 1980 as Benattow on charter to Ben Line until July 1981 during installation of new engines for the three large Ben Line container ships operating on the ‘Trio’ service to the Far East. The KNSM fleet had by early February 1981 been further reduced to two container ships, Hollandia on CAROL service and Zeelandia on charter, and four cargo ships, Amersfoort, Alkmaar on charter to Lloyd Brasileiro as Lloyd Auckland, Baarn and Breda.

On 23rd February 1981, KNSM agreed and formalised its acquisition into the Nedlloyd Group of Holland. The KNSM trading position had deteriorated further during that month on its Caribbean and South American trading routes due to a fall in freight rates. The earlier acquisition in 1970 of Royal Holland Lloyd, founded in 1908 with passenger services from Amsterdam to South America, and the acquisition of land transportation services e.g. Mammoet in the 1970s could also not save KNSM. The long established KNSM fleet with its distinctive funnel colours and nomenclature now disappeared into the giant Nedlloyd Group. The last KNSM vessels were given a ‘Nedlloyd’ prefix to their names, later Nedlloyd merged with P. & O. to form P. & O. Nedlloyd, which today is part of the giant Maersk Line of Denmark.

Postscript

The monthly KNSM house magazine was the ‘Crown Flag’, so named because of the crown emblem on a white diamond on the beautiful blue houseflag. Issue 1 of the magazine was published in May 1946 and it continued to be published for 35 years until the last issue in February 1981. Such was the esteem held by the company that former KNSM seafarers and office staff still continue to meet once a year for a boat trip on the Ijsselmeer from Amsterdam. Maersk Line and its European affiliate of Seago ran a ‘KNSM’ service from Scandinavia and Northern Europe to Morocco until October 2013 in honour of this great Dutch shipping company.

The high quality and richly decorated ‘Ship House’ of KNSM Head Office and the former Head Office of several other big Dutch shipping companies in Prins Hendrikkade in Amsterdam with a spectacular ‘turret’ on its roof at one end is currently in use as the five star luxury Grand Hotel Amrath Amsterdam. The name of KNSM also lives on in Amsterdam in the dockland area known as ‘KNSM Island’, where wharves such as the Levantkade, Panamakade and Surinamkade handled cargo for over a century. KNSM left this area in 1977, and it is now a residential area with modern architecture.