“Netherlands Steamship Company”, a Dutch shipping company, existed for exactly one hundred years, from 1870 to 1970. Its Dutch name was “Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland” (SMN).
The company’s main route led from the Netherlands to Dutch India through the Suez Canal. The company had its own repair yard in Amsterdam. In the First World War, the company established one more route from New York to Java, which led through the Panama Canal from 1917 on. In the Second World War, the shipping company had lost many ships. So they took up tramp shipping and chartering.
Eventually, cooperation with the “Koninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd”, which served even the Great Lakes, led to a new merger. The result of this merger was the new company “Nedlloyd Lijnen NV”. Both shipping companies contributed 25 vessels each to it. Container shipping had been enhancing cooperation even more until the “Nederlandse Scheepvaart Unie” came up in 1970. Some of SMN’s ships, for example the “Rembrandt”, are illustrated on historical postcards. Postcard lovers like to collect them.