Dutch Houseflags of Shipping Companies [b]

Last modified: 2006-07-08 by jarig bakker
Keywords: berghuys | bestevaer | boskalis | bpm |
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• Beck's Scheepvaartkantoor
• Berghuys
• Bestevaer (blue B)
• W. de Beijer houseflag & penant
• De Boer Baggerbedrijf
• BosKalis
• BPM
• den Breejen
• Brinkman
• Broedertrouw houseflag and burgee
• Broekhoven, Zeist
• Gebr. Broere, Dordrecht
• Bijma, Zuidbroek

• The Netherlands
• The Netherlands - Index of all pages
• Houseflags of Dutch Shipping Companies
• Houseflags of Shipping Companies

Beck's Scheepvaartkantoor

Beck's Scheepvaartkantoor B.V., Groningen - blue flag, white italic "B".
(Scheepvaartkantoor = Shipping Office).
Source: Brown's Flags and Funnels of Shipping Companies of the World, compiled by J.L. Loughran, Glasgow, 1995.
Jarig Bakker, 21 Dec 2005

Berghuys

W.H. Berghuys, Amsterdam - white flag; top and bottom narrow red stripe, bordered black; on white interconnected black "WHB".
Source: Brown's Flags and Funnels of British and Foreign Steamship Companies, compiled by F.J.N. Wedge, Glasgow, 1926 [wed26].
Jarig Bakker, 17 Jan 2005

Bestevaer

Nederlandsche Stoomvaartmaatschappij "Bestevaer", C.
Goudriaan & Co., Rotterdam - a triband BWB, with in the center a yellow diamond charged with a black "B". "Bestevaer" (Best father) was the nickname of the famous 17th century Dutch admirals Tromp and de Ruyter.
Source: Brown's Flags and Funnels of British and Foreign Steamship Companies, compiled by F.J.N. Wedge, Glasgow, 1926 [wed26]
Jarig Bakker, 16 Dec 2004

The "B" is shown as blue by Handboek voor Scheepvaartbelangen in Nederland (1917).
Neale Rosanoski, 22 Jan 2005

Bestevaer (blue B)

The "B" is shown as blue by Handboek voor Scheepvaartbelangen in Nederland (1917).
Neale Rosanoski, 22 Jan 2005

W. de Beijer

‘W. de Beyer Scheepvaartbedrijf BV’ or ‘W. de Beyer Shipping Co. Ltd’ is a firm treated by Jansen & Van Heck in “Duwvaart” on pp. 19-22.   Not much is said about it – most of the space is taken up by photos – except that the firm was founded about 1960, and based at Arnhem.

All the same, two flags are mentioned and illustrated in b/w, the first one rectangular which will be treated here (the second one to follow as soon as I’ve figured out a good way to describe it).   The first flag is red with a blue triangle and white letters ‘WdB’ as our authors put it.  The blue triangle has its base on the hoist edge and extends all the way to the fly; the initials are white and have no serifs.

As luck would have it this one, at least, was encountered on the web. Jansen & Van Heck show letters which are somewhat fatter than the Binnenvaart version.  You may judge for yourselves as the above page also shows the flag on the ‘Manon’.

“Duwvaart” writes “Beyer” but the company site has “Beijer” (no difference in pronunciation), see here.
“Various companies are joined together in De Verenigde Bedrijven (united companies) De Beijer B.V., these companies operating under their own names on the Dutch and German markets. For well over 40 years the company's goal has been the complete organization of offering and delivering raw materials to different kinds of clients. (…)  A striking example is Watertransport W,. de Beijer BV that not only transports raw materials for its own trading department but also millions of tons yearly for third parties including coal, ore, etc.”

From an additional page (in Dutch) concerning water transport we learn that about 6 million metric tonnes are transported each year (not only sand, gravel, stone etc. but nowadays also ore, coal, phosphate, fodder plus containers and construction materials).

De Beijer’s fleet consists of about 40 motor vessels and 50 barges with a capacity between 360-5500 metric tonnes per unit.  The current head office is at Kekerdom which is near Nijmegen, not far from the spot where the Rhine crosses the German-Dutch border and is renamed Waal.

A company logo is prominently shown on the site and I have no information as to its use on flags.
But clicking 'Contact' on the following page leads to a photo of a nice naval-style flagpole with two flags, both of them the same?  And the same as attached, or so it seems?
In any case there is still the triangular house flag to follow, soon I hope.
Jan Mertens, 28 Mar 2006

W. de Beijer penant

The second house flag is a triangular pennant with a blue wedge leaving two red triangles at the hoist and white initials ‘WdB’ – without serifs – on the blue part.   This image shows small dots not present in Jansen & Van Heck’s - in “Duwvaart” - version.

This pennant was scanned from a German brochure entitled “Ausbau des Rheins” concerning construction works aimed at removing obstacles, improving river banks, etc. along the Rhine.  Published jointly in Oct. 1977 by official bodies and construction firms, it shows house flags and company logos on the inner side of the cover.

Jansen & Van Heck do not say which flag was used first (surely not simultaneously?) but he ‘Manon’ in the photo linked to (message of 28 March) was built in 1987 whereas the pennant appears in a 1977 brochure.  An important detail – now W. de Beijer (German seat at Bendorf near Coblenz) is not described as a transport company but rather as a partner to construction firms.

My feeling is that the two flags represent different periods not different activities but I have been wrong before…
Jan Mertens, 30 Jun 2006

De Boer Baggerbedrijf

One of many Dutch dredging companies, Baggerbedrijf (“dredging company”) De Boer is situated at Sliedrecht on the Beneden Merwede River which, if followed downstream, will lead you to Rotterdam.  Founded “some 40 years ago”, the firm was mainly active on the Dutch market for many years but kept growing leading to the adoption of the name ‘Dutch Dredging’ for use internationally.   All this and more on the company site.

De Boer operates an impressive variety of vessels and machinery the names of which are too nice not to quote: “cutter suction dredgers, bucket dredgers, spud leg pontoons with grabs, barges, ploughing and survey vessels etc.”

Projects of all kinds are carried out in a number of countries ranging from home to Austria, Morocco, and Ireland (see the ‘Projects’ section for details, descriptions, and photos).

The house flag – one more in the national colours – is red with a white diamond (really a square resting on one point) bearing a blue figure standing for ‘B’.  (I do not know what this figure is, really.  Could be part of a scoop or some other dredging utensil.)  As the diamond is square and put on a rectangular field, it fills up the centre; its upper and lower corners almost touch the flag’s horizontal edges.
Jan Mertens, 23 Jun 2006

BosKalis

The houseflag of Bos & Kalis NV, Sliedrecht (NL) is on Heinrich Fischbach's site. It is now situated in Papendrecht.
Jan Mertens, 4 Feb 2005

And here it is, as nl~bknv.gif: a diagonal bicolour of yellow in upper fly and blue in lower hoist. Simple but nice.
Jorge Candeias, 5 Feb 2005

BPM

Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij (Batavian Petrol Co), The Hague - vertical triband VWV, on white black "B".
Source: Brown's Flags and Funnels of British and Foreign Steamship Companies, compiled by F.J.N. Wedge, Glasgow, 1926 [wed26]
Jarig Bakker, 28 January 2005

den Breejen

Jan Mertens reported this link. Den Breejen, Zierikzee - red flag, white 4-pointed star, blue "B".
This company specializes in showing tourists the "Deltawerken", while you're eating eating an unlimited amount of (no, not mussels) pancakes!
Jarig Bakker, 8 Mar 2005

Brinkman

Jan Mertens reported this link with mainly Dutch houseflags. Brinkman - square blue flag; intertwined yellow "UB".
Jarig Bakker, 3 Mar 2005

Broedertrouw houseflag

To use the long name, ‘Sleepdienst Broedertrouw B.V. v/h Firma C. den Boer & Zonen’ at Zwijndrecht (Towage Service Broedertrouw Ltd formerly Co. C. den Boer & Sons) is featured in “Duwvaart” by Jansen & Van Heck on p. 24.
‘Broedertrouw’ was in fact the first vessel of about twenty, two of which were eventually transformed into push and towboats which is why the company is mentioned by these authors.
As mentioned in a recent post concerning Van der Wees, this firm has a link with Broedertrouw (not available in the English section). A few highlights gleaned from this history page:
‘Broedertrouw’, a word expressing loyalty to kin and the name of the first steam tug operated by Cornelis den Boer, expressed gratitude for money loaned by family members.  First active in towing away becalmed sailing ships, Den Boer soon specialized in intense towing work for barge operators, wharfs, scrapyards, shipping companies, etc.
Still a family business, the firm expanded after WWII, replacing steam vessels by motorized ones.  Reconstruction and the world-famous Delta Works (basically, sheltering SW Netherlands from the sea thanks to extensive construction) caused a growing demand for the services Broedertrouw could offer.  This included transport of heavy and voluminous goods, such as bridge sections, on pontoons.
Reconversion after the conclusion of the Delta Works around 1985 led to the introduction of push navigation.  In 1992 Van der Wees at Dordrecht, a company Broedertrouw had often cooperated with, took over the shares and allowed a certain autonomy lasting to the end of 2002.  In this way almost a century of towage service came to an end.
A modest pennant shown in b/w and described by Jansen & Van Heck, the houseflag was horizontally divided red above blue with a white initial ‘B’ (recalling both Den Boer and Broedertrouw) near the hoist. A simple flag in the national colours.
See it on the historical – and clickable –  b/w photos 3 and 6 on the aforementioned Van der Wees history page (at the end) and also, for instance, on the second photo here.
Jan Mertens, 3 Mar 2006

Broedertrouw burgee

Broekhoven, Zeist

Image after Brown's Flags and Funnels Shipping Companies of the World, compiled by J.L. Loughran, Glasgow, 1995 [lgr95].
Broekhoven B.V., Zeist - white flag, the firm's logo in center.
(The book has "Ziest", which I assume is a printing error. This seems to be a dredging firm working in third-world countries.)
Jarig Bakker, 3 Sep 2005

Gebr. Broere, Dordrecht

Image after Brown's Flags and Funnels Shipping Companies of the World, compiled by J.L. Loughran, Glasgow, 1995 [lgr95].
Gebr. Broere B.V., Dordrecht - horizontal RWR, blue diamond, white "GB".
Jarig Bakker, 23 Sep 2005

Bijma, Zuidbroek

Three related Bijma companies are established at Zuidbroek, a village between the town of Groningen, Netherlands, and the border with Germany.
They are: Internationale Sleepdienst v.h. F.Bijma (i.e. Internatonial Tugservice formerly F.Bijma),  Bijma BV Internationale Transporten over water (i.e. Bijma International Waterborne Transportation Co.) and Scheepsbevrachtingskantoor Bijma (Bijma Shipping and Freighting Office).

Their names describe their activities well, of course.  Here is the common webpage.

The Bijma tugs’ geographical range concerns inland as wel as coastal traffic in Dutch and German waters (specifically, the Wadden area) whereas the heavy traffic division operates, and rents, pontoons.  In all, Bijma now has four tugs and four pontoons.

Starting out with a veteran steam tug in 1938, Bijma profited from the expanding shipbuilding business beginning in the ‘fifties.  Nowadays vessels or at least the hulls are mostly made abroad – where salaries are lower – but tugging and transport are still going strong.  In addition, there is the freighting activity.

The house flag, shown as an animated gif on the website, can been seen on some photos (‘Foto Galerij’) but a clearer picture is here.

On a yellow field is placed a funnel, slanting away from the hoist; this funnel is also yellow and bears a stylized initial ‘B’ (serifed) between two blue horizontal edges.  The funnel shape is rendered visible by blue holding lines.

More Bijma tug photos on this page (top) i.e. the brand-new 'Gruno IV'.
Jan Mertens, 3 May 2006