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Open data · every figure carries its source

World Shipping DirectoryCompanies · Ships · Fleets

A public reference property of Baalvion

Open data · every figure carries its source

World Shipping DirectoryCompanies · Ships · Fleets

Bergen Steamship Company

Dissolved 1988

Headquarters: Norway
Founded: 1851
Employees: —

Ships in this registry

Counted from individual vessel records · Wikidata

Reported fleet size

—

No published figure available

Container capacity

—

Not a ranked container line

Gross tonnage on record

10,202

Summed over 5 ships reporting tonnage

In brief

What Bergen Steamship Company is

Full article ↗

The Bergen Steamship Company (Norwegian: Bergenske Dampskibsselskab) (BDS), was founded in 1851 by Michael Krohn to operate a shipping service between the Norwegian ports of Bergen, Stavanger, and Kristiansand and the German port of Hamburg with the paddle steamer Bergen. The company funnel was black with three widely spaced narrow white bands.
BDS progressively expanded its routes to provide worldwide services. The company operated a regular passenger service from West Norway to the UK with Norwegian Government support from 1890, and took part in the Norwegian coastal service, the Hurtigruten, from 1894 until 1979. Cruise liners were run from 1921 until 1971 when BDS partnered Nordenfjeldske Dampskibsselskab in setting up the Royal Viking Line. At its height, between about 1920 and 1970, the company had up to 2500 employees.

During World War II several BDS ships were sunk by Allied action on the Norwegian coast, including MS Rigel in which over 2500 people died. According to the newspaper Bergens Tidende the Company profited highly from shipping contracts entered into with the German occupiers of Norway. At the end of the war the Company's records were no longer in existence. The Company's management was investigated by Bergen police for 18 months, but no charges were brought.

Corporate profile

Identity and registration

Legal name: —
Industry: —
Legal form: —
Country of registration: Norway
Headquarters: —
Formed in: —
Founded: 1851
Dissolved: 1988
Employees: —
Head office coordinates: —

Ships on record here: 5
Vessel types operated: 1
Flag states used: 1
Average vessel age: 92.0 years
Oldest vessel on record: 1921
Newest vessel on record: 1946
Largest vessel by tonnage: 5,231
Average tonnage: 2,040
Market share: —
Parent company: —
Alliance: —
Record source: wikidata

Fleet on record

What this company sails

Composition of the 5 vessels this registry attributes to Bergen Steamship Company. Bars are true proportions of that set, not of the company's full fleet.

By vessel type

Unclassified5

By flag state

Norway5

By shipbuilder

Bergen Mekaniske Verksted2

Elsinore Shipyard and Machine Construction1

Eriksbergs Mekaniska Verkstad1

Delivery history

10-year fleet record

Ships delivered in each of the last 10 years, counted from the recorded build year of vessels attributed to this company, with the running total of its fleet on record. No deliveries fall inside this window — this company’s vessels on record were all built earlier.

Year	Gross tonnage added	Fleet on record
2017	—	5
2018	—	5
2019	—	5
2020	—	5
2021	—	5
2022	—	5
2023	—	5
2024	—	5
2025	—	5
2026	—	5

Vessel records

Ships on record

5 vessels

Ship	IMO	Type	Flag	Built	Gross tonnage	Deadweight	Length	Builder
MS Crux	6344771	Unclassified	Norway	1944	5,231	—	125.7 m	—
Pollux	5376595	Unclassified	Norway	1921	1,546	—	80.2 m	Elsinore Shipyard and Machine Construction
MS Vela	5377630	Unclassified	Norway	1946	1,344	—	80.4 m	Eriksbergs Mekaniska Verkstad
Columba	5148247	Unclassified	Norway	1929	1,126	1,550	71.7 m	Bergen Mekaniske Verksted
MS Saturnus	5607243	Unclassified	Norway	1930	955	1,100	58.6 m	Bergen Mekaniske Verksted

Ships in registry counts individual vessel records attributed to the company here. Reported fleet is the company’s published total. They measure different things and are shown separately on purpose.

In context

How Bergen Steamship Company compares

Counts over companies and vessels actually held in this directory — not over the world fleet, which is larger. Nothing here is estimated.

With 5 vessels attributed to it here, Bergen Steamship Company is the 174th largest of the 965 operators in this directory that hold at least one ship on record, against a median of 2 across that group. That is a count of individually identified hulls, not the company’s published fleet size — the two are different measurements and both are shown above where available.

Norway is the country of registration for 150 commercial operators in this directory, among which Bergen Steamship Company ranks 39th by ships on record. Between them those companies hold 831 vessels here. See every operator registered in Norway.

Founded in 1851, Bergen Steamship Company is 175 years old. This directory holds 30 operators founded within five years either side of that date, whose median fleet on record is 1 ships. The median founding year across all commercial operators here is 1966, and the oldest on record dates to 1514.

Provenance

Where this page comes from

Company and vessel recordsWikidata item Q1142652, released under CC0. Counted figures on this page are counts over those records.

Written summaryQuoted from Bergen Steamship Company on English Wikipedia, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Published fleet figuresNo published fleet figure is available for this company.