World of Ships – May 2018

66 I World of Ships I Paddle Steamers

CHAPTER TEN

NETHERLANDS

T

here was a significant Dutch

role in the development of

inland steam navigation

in Europe, the country’s

pioneers being responsible

for some of the epic early

river voyages, while their

shipbuilding expertise dominated the River

Rhine and even won orders from German

operators. Formed by five individuals

in 1822, the Nederlandsche Stoomboot

Maatschappij began services between

Rotterdam and Antwerp, and from 1907 had a

working relationship with Germany’s Koln-

Dusseldorfer Company. This developed to

such an extent that in 1928 one of the finest

Rhine steamers ever was built in Netherlands

as Princes der Nederlander to sail under the

Dutch flag, but with German management on

the KD’s principal service between Cologne

and Mainz. The vessel was requisitioned

by the Wehrmacht in 1944 and sunk as a

blockship near IJmuiden.

World War II was a disaster for NSM and

a post-war amalgamation with Akkermans

Stoomboot Rederi only postponed the

inevitable. An attempt to revive a Rotterdam-

Basel line using four 1930s-built Voith-

Schneider ships with cabin accommodation

lasted only into the mid-1950s, when they

joined KD, sailing on into the 1980s after

conversion to day passenger vessels.

Dutch cross-channel paddle steamers

operated by the Zeeland Steamship Company

first ran from Flushing to Sheerness in 1875,

before switching to a newly-completed Kent

ABOVE De Majesteit running a special sailing.

De Majesteit in her final Rhine days as Rudesheim,

carrying the Koln-Dusseldorfer company’s so-

called nostalgia livery (Russell Plummer)

ABOVE Although she originally offered public

sailings, De Majesteit now concentrates on charters,

special trips and static events in Rotterdam.

ABOVE De Majesteit at her Rotterdam Maasboulevard berth. (Phil Barnes)

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