The Fleets

Hollandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij, Amsterdam, 1885-1974

The Hollandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij or HSM was founded by the Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij assisted by the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg Maatschappij (a Dutch railway company) and the Nederlandsche Handel Maatschappij together with the firm of Wed. W. Borski (a security company) in 1885. The new shipping company aimed to run a regular service from Amsterdam to British ports. Their first vessel was the IJSTROOM taken over from Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij.

HSM had during its entire existence much competition and opposition from Dutch and English shipping companies.
The first years of the HSM did not give any profit, but later the business slowly improved. Until World War I the HSM had opened new routes to England’s south coast and Bristol and a service to Leith, Scotland, also services to Southampton, Plymouth, Fowey and Swansea were opened.

When World War I broke out the HSM had eleven ships in commission of which five were lost during the hostility. The service to Great Britain had become increasingly difficult with the danger at sea, the long travelling time and the high insurance premium. On March 25 1918 three ships were requisitioned on the strength of the so called Right of Angary and sailed under British flag until returned to the HSM in April 1919.

In 1919 after World War I, HSM began a service to Western Africa which resulted in the Holland West Afrika Lijn (HWAL), with the collaboration of two other Dutch shipping companies, also new services were started from Amsterdam to Le Treport and Dunkirk in the north of France. After 1921 due to monetary problems, a cargo market with too many ships built after the war and deflation, later followed by the Great Depression the operating results were in the deficit and this lasted for many years. After 1936 the situation improved and gave better results.

When World War II broke out the HSM had eleven ships of which six were lost during the conflict. After the German surrender in May 1945 much of the company belongings were destroyed and had to rebuilt again. In 1946 a new service to Iceland was started.

The Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland (SMN) which already had financial interests and participation in the HWAL took over the HSM in December 1958 and so the HSM became a subsidiary of the SMN. In the sixties several new Lines were opened, but the sailings to London were stopped due to constant strikes by the dockworkers. In 1964 the SMN took over the rest of the HWAL shares and the four ships which sailed in that service were taken over by the SMN.

In 1964 the HSM participated for 20% in a ferry service on the North Sea to England called Noordzee Veerdiensten N.V. ( North Sea Ferries Ltd.), in 1972 the shares of the HSM were transferred to the NSU. The advent of containerisation and ships specially designed for roll on roll off transport saw the disappeance of the conventional ships and the appearance of new Ro Ro and container ships. In 1969 the mother company SMN merged with other Dutch shipping companies into the Nederlandsche Scheepvaart Unie or NSU, later Nedlloyd in 1970, which gave a lot of changes in the structure of the HSM and the ships were transferred to the NSU in 1970 and the HSM came under the supervision of Holland Bulk Transport N.V. (HBT).

To meet the increasing costs due to strikes, operating costs, stevedoring, fuel, port dues and so on the HSM started to stop some services in 1972 and was left with only two liner services. This old company came to an end in 1974 and the company possessions were sold while the remaining ships were transferred to Gebr. De Haas at Rotterdam another Nedlloyd subsidiary.

Many thanks to Henk Jungerius and Ted Finch for their assistance in collecting this data. The following list was extracted from various sources. This is not an all inclusive list but should only be used as a guide. If you would like to know more about a vessel, visit the Ship Descriptions (onsite) or Immigrant Ship web site.

• Routes:     HSM
  • Amsterdam-London
  • Amsterdam-Hull
  • Amsterdam-England’s south coast
  • Amsterdam-Leith
  • Amsterdam-Le Treport-Dunkirk
  • Amsterdam-Iceland
  • Amsterdam-Rouen-Liverpool-Manchester
  • Amsterdam-Shoreham

• Routes:     HWAL
  • Amsterdam- ports of Western Africa

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Last updated: April 07, 2007 and maintained by and M. Kohli