“United Netherlands Navigation Co.” or “Vereenigde Nederlandsche Scheepvaartmaatschapppij” or “Vereinigte Niederlande Navigation Company“ , abbreviated as VNS, is a Dutch shipping company that cashed in on many regular shipping routes in the First World War when the Netherlands remained neutral.
After the war, VNS purchased 17 German ships which had fallen to England as a war payment.
In the 1950s, when tourists were becoming less interested in travelling to foreign realms by ship, and when air travel was making travelling faster, VNS proceeded to build cargo ships.
The company had been taken over by the Nederlandse Scheepvaart Unie NSU through a merger in 1969. Later, NSU became part of “NSU Nedlloyd, Koninklijke Nedlloyd Group”, the “P & O Nedlloyd Container Line”, and finally “Maersk Lines”.
Nowadays, one can still collect a great many gorgeous historical postcards showing VNS’s historic ships, for example the “Amerskerk”, the “Bovenkerk”, the “Leiderkerk”, and many other ships. These historical, albeit somewhat old ships still do fascinate many people, inciting them to collect postcards. By the way, the “Amerskerk” was built in the shipyard of “Howaldtswerke Hamburg AG”. Other VNS ships came from Nederlandsche Scheips Maots, Amsterdam.
