^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Dutch Houseflags of Shipping Companies [g]

GENCHART, Rotterdam
de Gerlien-van Tiem
Gevelco
Goedkoop houseflag, early flag
Gruno

See also:

GENCHART, Rotterdam

image by Jarig Bakker, 21 Dec 2005

General Shipping & Chartering Services (GENCHART), Rotterdam - white flag, blue "G".
Source: Brown's Flags and Funnels of Shipping Companies of the World, compiled by J.L. Loughran, Glasgow, 1995.
Jarig Bakker, 21 Dec 2005

de Gerlien-van Tiem

image by Jarig Bakker, 3 Sep 2006

The Dutch firm De Gerlien-van Tiem, a (repairing) shipyard is very much present on the Vlootschouw pages, the company logo shows an orange four-bladed screw dipping into three blue waves, see – for instance – the page about the tanker vessel ‘Alexia’ and a number of photos indeed shows the flag, but never very clear. Luckily there is eBay, as such a flag was offered on the French section in May 2005, item no. 6182516780, on which this image was based.

The flag is white, with horizontal orange edges each of which abuts on twin blue stylized waves; the logo mentioned above is in the centre of the flag, the screw as far left as possible, and accompanied by the words ‘scheepsreparatiebedrijf’ (ship repairing co.) and ‘DE GERLIEN-van TIEM v.o.f’ above the three waves, and the place name DRUTEN under them. The letters are black without serifs.

I think this is an example of a flag where a good motif is somewhat pushed aside in favour of the company name and mention of its activity. (And one of many examples, quite common in inland navigation, of customers flying their supplier’s house flag.)

The firm’s website (in Dutch) mentions 1967 as the founding year of this family business which not only supplies screws and repairs various kinds of inland vessels but - since 1995 - delivers them as well in the sense that so-called casco’s or hulls, built elsewhere, are completely outfitted. Druten, by the way, is on the river
Waal (as the Rhine is called once it has crossed the German-Dutch border), not far from Nijmegen.
Jan Mertens, 13 Jun 2006

Gevelco

image by Jarig Bakker, 3 Mar 2005

Jan Mertens reported this link with mainly Dutch houseflags. Gevelco - three horizontal stripes of green and white; on white black "GEVELCO".
Jarig Bakker, 3 Mar 2005

Some background information concerning the Gevelco house flag: Link to company website, officially ‘Gevelco Logistic Services’ based at Rotterdam:
The group consists of four firms: Gevelco DistriPort (logistics and distribution centre, warehouses, etc.), Gevelco Project Services (project cargo, heavy lift centre, industrial packaging, etc.), Gevelco Inland Shipping and the affiliated German company Gevelco-Schot Schiffahrts- und Speditionsgesellschaft mbH at Duisburg. Incidentally, the name derives from the Van der Gevel family, still at the helm.

As concerns inland navigation, “Gevelco controls an extensive fleet of approx 60 charter barges which sail all West-European rivers, with the emphasis on the German Canals”. (Some essential info is still missing: when was the company founded, for instance?)

For an example of the house flag as we know it, see this webpage, photo of ‘Rodort 7’ flying the flag; there is a drawing as well. A horizontally divided green-white-green flag (Rotterdam indeed!) bears the (shortened) company name in black upper case letters: ‘GEVELCO’.
‘Binnenvaart’ gives a longer name; ungarbled, it reads ‘Van der Gevel & Co. Scheepvaart Onderneming (i.e. shipping company) NV’.

A modern version waved from the top of the Kilamanjaro, held by a sturdy skipper, Dick Oosse. Now the name reads ‘Gevelco’ in a modern font, showing extract of photo. I suppose we should call this not a variant, but rather a touched-up or modernized version.
Jan Mertens, 26 Jun 2006

Goedkoop

image by Jarig Bakker, 9 Mar 2005

Jan Mertens reported this link. Reederij Gebroeders Goedkoop, Amsterdam - flag diagonally divided white/red; in center countercharged "G".
This company was founded early 19th century, dissolved in 1999
Jarig Bakker, 9 Mar 2005

Goedkoop early flag

image by Jarig Bakker, 9 Mar 2005

According to Loughran's "A Survey of Mercantile Houseflags & Funnels", 1979, the early flag was diagonally white over red, with two countercharged 6-pointed stars.
Jarig Bakker, 9 Mar 2005

Gruno

image by Jarig Bakker, 3 Mar 2005

Jan Mertens reported this link with mainly Dutch houseflags. Gruno, Groningen - green flag, white diamond charged with green "G". - Green and white are the colors of Groningen city.
Jarig Bakker, 3 Mar 2005