The Dutch shipping company “Royal Netherlands Steamship Company”, founded in Amsterdam in 1856, initially served routes in the Baltic Sea and in the Mediterranean Sea. From 1869 on, after the vessels “Pollux” and “Vesuvius” had come to the company’s fleet, there were occasional trips to New York. Collectors of historical postcards find it interesting to collect illustrations of these ships.
From 1881 to 1883, there was a regular line to New York. This line was cancelled due to competition by the “Holland-America Line” operating on the same route. The company’s net of lines was broadened with the take-over of the “Royal West Indian Mail Service” (KWIM) in 1912. The company gave this line free rein until its dissolution in 1927.
Later on, the ships of KNSM served on routes from Northwestern Europe to the Caribbean, to Central America and to South America’s north and west coast. Despite increasing air traffic and container shipping, KNSM remained autonomous for many years. In 1981, the company became part of the “Koninklijke Nedlloyd Groep”, headquartered in Rotterdam, and hence stopped existing.