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

Dutch Houseflags of Shipping Companies [v]

Veerhaven
Verenigde Tankkustvaart
Verol Chartering
Vertom - old flag
Vooruit, IJlst
VOS
VOS-Smit
Vos Brothers
De Vries en Van de Wiel
Vroon

See also:

Veerhaven

image by Jorge Candeias, 16 March 1999

Houseflag of Veerhaven, B.V., Brielle (Zuid-Holland).
Green with a wide white horizontal stripe shifted to the bottom, charged with the word "VEERHAVEN" in black.
Jorge Candeias, 16 March 1999

Source: Company's website.
Dov Gutterman, 25 February 1999

Veerhaven B.V. changed name 2002 to ThyssenKrupp Veerhaven B.V. (company website).
Neale Rosanoski, 25 Sep 2003

In Jansen & Van Heck’s book, Veerhaven BV is presented on pp. 99-105.
Founded in 1966 as ‘Scheepvaart en Agentuur Mij. Veerhaven BV’ (Shipping and Agency Co. Veerhaven Ltd) at Rotterdam as a subsidiary of Thyssen AG,
Duisburg. Also called Ertslijn (Ore Line; Veerhaven literally means Ferry Harbour, located in Rotterdam), established in Brielle since 1984.
Originally a company of Raab Karcher & Co. GmgH (SEAM), taken over by Thyssen in 1967.
Active in ore transportation from Rotterdam to the Thyssen works in the Ruhr area, Germany, in collaboration with Franz Haniel and EWT.

So far Jansen & Van Heck (1988), who show the above Veerhaven flag in b/w (mentioning green and white but not black) plus basically the same flag for Ertslijn. Of course here the white stripe had a differten name ‘ERTS-LIJN.’ in it (with a dash and a dot in the picture! colour of letters not given.)

The link provided above is certainly useful – we learn that the company is known as ThyssenKrupp Veerhaven since 2002. English section at this webpage.

Relevant quote concerning Rhine shipping:
“ThyssenKrupp Veerhaven's fleet consists of 7 push boats, 1 harbour push boat and 68 pushed barges and 2 inspection boats.
With this fleet ThyssenKrupp Veerhaven covered about 75% of the total transport volume of circa 22 million tons of ore and coal bulk cargo. The remaining tons are transported through contracts with the partner shipping companies.
At present the total deployed fleet consists of 10 push boats and around 100 pushed barges, which takes care of this transport 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

I had thought the Veerhaven flag had disappeared (I could not open every photo at above site Gallery) but this photo by Rob Smit seems recent enough.
Jan Mertens, 23 Mar 2006

There is a curious variant on a German eBay offer (ended 22 May 2006, item no. 6630113089). There the company name is rendered in an italic font – not so important, perhaps, see also Gevelco – but the black “holding line” or border around the entire flag is certainly unusual.

Less bizarre is the version which appeared on Heinrich Fischbach’site, now off the air, adding ‘B.V.’ (“besloten vennootschap” i.e. private co.) in front of the firm’s name.

A last point, difficult to resolve out of hand, is the exact colour shade: both the eBay flag and the one linked to on FOTW-ws (last sentence) certainly not have the bright green colour shown by our site or by Fischbach.
Jan Mertens, 2 Sep 2006

Verenigde Tankkustvaart

image by Jarig Bakker, 30 January 2001

Houseflag of N.V. Verenigde Tankkustvaart, Rotterdam.
Image from Flagchart of houseflags of Dutch shipping companies, attached to the magazine "De Blauwe Wimpel", April 1956.
Jarig Bakker, 1 Feb 2001

Verol Chartering

image by Jarig Bakker, 19 May 2006

Verol Chartering, a Dutch company based at Dordrecht, is a subsidiary of the Belgian inland shipping firm Plouvier, active as a charterer in the tank shipping business.

As said in the history section of above site (in Dutch ‘onze geschiedenis’), Verol was acquired by the Belgian firm after 1995 – the site is vague on this point - in order to strengthen its position on the European tanker market.

The flag is made chiefly in the Dutch national colours and having a ‘Guyana’ pattern: a white wedge between a flat black triangle (having its base on the hoist edge) nd red (upper) and blue (lower) triangles bears the company name in black. The wedge reaches the fly end.
The flag can be dimly seen on a photo of the ‘Cynthia’, see this page, second photo of second row. Direct link.
Better visible is the one on the ‘RP Dordrecht’, whereas the ‘Vera’ has a similar flag with the word ‘VEROL’ on the wedge.

So the flagoid is a real flag after all (it even comes in two versions).
And by the way… how black those ‘P’s are! 8-)
Jan Mertens, 25 Mar 2006

Vertom

image by Jarig Bakker, 3 Mar 2005

Jan Mertens reported this link with mainly Dutch houseflags. Vertom - green flag, white disk, charged with the firm's logo. (there may be more than two shades of green...)
Jarig Bakker, 3 Mar 2005

Vertom old flag

[Vertom Scheepvaart en Handelsmaatschappij]

image by Jarig Bakker, 6 Jan 2006

Image after Brown's Flags and Funnels Shipping Companies of the World, compiled by J.L. Loughran, Glasgow, 1995 [lgr95] Vertom Scheepvaart en Handelsmaatschappij B.V., Rotterdam - green flag, white disk, green "V".
(= shipping and trade company; flag possibly a predecessor of the one above).
Jarig Bakker, 6 Jan 2006

Vooruit, IJlst

image by Jarig Bakker, 8 Mar 2005

Jan Mertens reported this link. Vooruit, IJlst (Fryslân) - blue flag. Sailing Company "Vooruit" is the oldest Dutch Charter company specialized in beautiful traditional sailing ships. Since 1968 many of their ships sail upon the Waddensea, the IJsselmeer and the canals and lakes of the province of Friesland.
Jarig Bakker, 8 Mar 2005

VOS

image by Jarig Bakker, 8 Mar 2005

Jan Mertens reported this link. N.V. Vereniging De Onafhankelijke Sleepdienst - 1951 - 1967 (Society The Independent Tugging Service) - orange flag, black "V.O.S".
Jarig Bakker, 8 Mar 2005

V.O.S. or Vereniging De Onafhankelijke Sleepdienst is also mentioned on p. 89 of "Duwvaart" by Jansen & Van Heck. The firm was taken over by Smit International. (One sometimes sees "Vereeniging" in old spelling.)
The flag, as shown in above book, has the black initials very large on the orange field, filling up 3/5 of flag heigth and the entire horizontal plane.
I think that such letters would dissolve, blobwise, when seen from afar... The last photo on this page is hardly conclusive.
Jan Mertens, 26 Feb 2006

VOS-Smit

image by Jarig Bakker, 24 Mar 2006

The firms V.O.S. (Verenigde Onafhankelijke Sleepdienst) and Piet Smit Sleepdienst have been presented recently – but Jansen & Van Heck point to a joint flag in “Duwvaart”, p. 89.
They state that a blue flag with ‘SV’ in yellow was flown. Their b/w picture does not do justice to what can be seen on the web. As I have only found funnels with the flag logo, this will have to do for the moment.
See sixth photo from top of this webpage, and here (fourth and especially sixth photo from top).
The dates mentioned in this and comparable sources suggest that Vos-Smit BV, based at Rotterdam, was active around 1975-1988 (before being merged into Smit International).
Jan Mertens, 17 Mar 2006

Vos Brothers

image by Jarig Bakker, 23 Mar 2006

Transportbedrijf Gebr. Vos is presented in "Duwvaart" by Jansen & Van Heck on pp. 106-108. The name means 'Transport Company Vos Brothers', the firm was founded in 1925 and situated at Nederhemert on the River Maas.
Above authors state that Gebroeders Vos started inland navigation about 1960 having bought some tugs. 1967 saw the acquisition of the first motor ship and push boats were to follow but all vessels received the name 'Maasstroom' and a number.
A very simple house flag is shown and described on p. 106: a horizontal tricolour of green – orange – green.
Company website ("Vos Nederhemert"): stating 1924 as the foundation year and 1962 as the year in which Gebr. Vos started operating ships in order to transport various grain products and fodder. Furthermore, the firm is a founding member of Octo Logistics (1999), a consortium of eight Dutch and Belgian logistics providers.
Their shipping activities have evolved from simple storage to push navigation, a process in which the big inland shipping strike in Belgium (1975) played a role. Although Gebr. Vos ship various goods, waste transport has become important.
I have not found an image of the house flag but the black funnels of the various 'Maasstroom' vessels recall it in the green – orange – green band. See this page, and this one.
Jan Mertens, 12 Mar 2006

De Vries en Van de Wiel

image by Eugene Ipavec, 13 Jun 2006

I first encountered this Dutch firm – and house flag – on a Binnenvaart page, where we learn that Hilversum, once the company seat, was succeeded by Schagen (bottom of page). There is a drawing of the flag and it can be seen flying on the ‘Grinza VIII’, too. The choice of colours is rather more striking than the logo, we might say.

However… the company site shows what we ought to call the correct version of the house flag, where we find the De Vries en Van de Wiel logo. Extract of clickable photo from website (‘Grond- en reststoffenbank’ – ‘Werkgebied’ i.e. earth and leftover matter bank – area of operations). See also the logo itself.

A black and wide (seemingly squashed) initial ‘W’ is placed before a red and high, narrow initial ‘V’. This logo appears on a white disk placed on a flag, horizontally divided grey (upper stripe) and bright red (lower stripe).

Briefly, this firm is active in various ways in the dredging and earth reclamation sector: it is specialized in cleaning up, and the re-use where possible, of the material brought to the surface. One example is asbestos removal from roads or waterways, another one the construction of Texel airfield, or cleaning up the Amsterdam Petroleumhaven i.e. petroleum (mineral oil) port.

De Vries and Van de Wiel are a national player, a dredging firm specialized in operations of which the environmental aspect is very important.

In addition, this firm is a traditional supplier of sand and other construction materials, and operates a large fleet of specialized vessels. Then, dyke building is only one example of De Vries and Van de Wiel’s construction activities. An impressive number of participations in related firms indicates the firm’s place in a wide network (itself being, in fact, part of the well-known Deme dredging holding).
Jan Mertens, 7 Jun 2006

Vroon

image by Jarig Bakker, 3 Mar 2005

Jan Mertens reported this link with mainly Dutch houseflags. Vroon - white flag, Black "V" over three blue waves.
Jarig Bakker, 3 Mar 2005

Image after Brown's Flags and Funnels Shipping Companies of the World, compiled by J.L. Loughran, Glasgow, 1995 [lgr95] Vroon B.V., Breskens - blue "V" over three brightblue waves.
(the internet-image looked like a black "V", but wasn't...)
Jarig Bakker, 15 Sep 2005