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World Shipping DirectoryCompanies · Ships · Fleets

A public reference property of Baalvion

Open data · every figure carries its source

World Shipping DirectoryCompanies · Ships · Fleets

water transport

Royal Dutch Steamboat Company

Dissolved 1981

Headquarters: Amsterdam
Founded: 1856
Employees: —

Photo: Sodacan, TilmannR · CC BY-SA 3.0 · file

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

28,362

Summed over 1 ships reporting tonnage

In brief

What Royal Dutch Steamboat Company is

Full article ↗

The Koninklijke Nederlandse Stoomboot-Maatschappij (KNSM; Royal Netherlands Steamship Company) was an Amsterdam-based shipping company that existed from 1856 to 1981. It was once the largest company in Amsterdam and one of the top five shipping lines in the Netherlands. The company operated mid-sized cargo ships that had limited passenger accommodations. At its peak in 1939, the company had 79 vessels. Of these, 48 were lost in World War II.

Origin

Who founded it

Royal Dutch Steamboat Company was founded in 1856 by one named founder on record. Portraits are shown only where a freely licensed photograph exists and its photographer is known.

Founder

Christian Ramann

1831–1907

German-Dutch businessman (1831–1907)

Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain · file

Corporate profile

Identity and registration

Legal name: —
Industry: water transport
Legal form: —
Country of registration: Netherlands
Headquarters: Amsterdam
Formed in: —
Founded: 1856
Dissolved: 1981
Employees: —
Head office coordinates: 52.3667, 4.8833

Ships on record here: 1
Vessel types operated: 1
Flag states used: 1
Average vessel age: 46.0 years
Oldest vessel on record: 1980
Newest vessel on record: 1980
Largest vessel by tonnage: 28,362
Average tonnage: 28,362
Market share: —
Parent company: —
Alliance: —
Record source: wikidata
Last refreshed: 2026-09-05

Fleet on record

What this company sails

Composition of the 1 vessels this registry attributes to Royal Dutch Steamboat Company. Bars are true proportions of that set, not of the company's full fleet.

By vessel type

Container ship1

By flag state

Kingdom of the Netherlands1

By shipbuilder

Van der Giessen de Noord1

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	—	1
2018	—	1
2019	—	1
2020	—	1
2021	—	1
2022	—	1
2023	—	1
2024	—	1
2025	—	1
2026	—	1

Vessel records

Ships on record · Container ship

Show all types

Ship	IMO	Type	Flag	Built	Gross tonnage	Deadweight	Length	Builder
MSC Togo	7811484	Container ship	Kingdom of the Netherlands	1980	28,362	23,678	206.0 m	Van der Giessen de Noord

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 Royal Dutch Steamboat 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 1 vessels attributed to it here, Royal Dutch Steamboat Company is the 492nd 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.

Netherlands is the country of registration for 78 commercial operators in this directory, among which Royal Dutch Steamboat Company ranks 20th by ships on record. Between them those companies hold 151 vessels here. See every operator registered in Netherlands.

Founded in 1856, Royal Dutch Steamboat Company is 170 years old. This directory holds 31 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.