Dutch Houseflags of Shipping Companies [b]

Last modified: 2009-04-04 by
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• Beck's Scheepvaartkantoor
• Berghuys
• De Boer Baggerbedrijf
• Bolsman
• BPM
• Scheepswerf de Breedendam
• den Breejen
• Brinkman
• Broekhoven, Zeist, Broekhoven blues
• Gebr. Broere, Dordrecht
• Bijma, Zuidbroek

• Bestevaer
• W. de Beijer
• Bodewes, Millingen
• BosKalis
• Broedertrouw

• The Netherlands
• The Netherlands - Index of all pages
• Houseflags of Dutch Shipping Companies
• Houseflags of Shipping Companies

Beck's Scheepvaartkantoor

Beck's Scheepvaartkantoor B.V., Groningen - blue flag, white italic "B".
(Scheepvaartkantoor = Shipping Office).
Source: Brown's Flags and Funnels of Shipping Companies of the World, compiled by J.L. Loughran, Glasgow, 1995.
Jarig Bakker, 21 Dec 2005

Berghuys

W.H. Berghuys, Amsterdam - white flag; top and bottom narrow red stripe, bordered black; on white interconnected black "WHB".
Source: Brown's Flags and Funnels of British and Foreign Steamship Companies, compiled by F.J.N. Wedge, Glasgow, 1926 [wed26].
Jarig Bakker, 17 Jan 2005

De Boer Baggerbedrijf

One of many Dutch dredging companies, Baggerbedrijf (“dredging company”) De Boer is situated at Sliedrecht on the Beneden Merwede River which, if followed downstream, will lead you to Rotterdam.  Founded “some 40 years ago”, the firm was mainly active on the Dutch market for many years but kept growing leading to the adoption of the name ‘Dutch Dredging’ for use internationally.   All this and more on the company site.

De Boer operates an impressive variety of vessels and machinery the names of which are too nice not to quote: “cutter suction dredgers, bucket dredgers, spud leg pontoons with grabs, barges, ploughing and survey vessels etc.”

Projects of all kinds are carried out in a number of countries ranging from home to Austria, Morocco, and Ireland (see the ‘Projects’ section for details, descriptions, and photos).

The house flag – one more in the national colours – is red with a white diamond (really a square resting on one point) bearing a blue figure standing for ‘B’.  (I do not know what this figure is, really.  Could be part of a scoop or some other dredging utensil.)  As the diamond is square and put on a rectangular field, it fills up the centre; its upper and lower corners almost touch the flag’s horizontal edges.
Jan Mertens, 23 Jun 2006

Bolsman

A great source, Marktplaats (Dutch auction site) currently offers the house flag of Dutch freighting company Bolsman of Rotterdam – just type “bolsman” in the search box: This is offer no. 218972646 put up by “skipflag” of Maastricht, adding dimensions:  0.67 m x 0.97 m. Simple in design, the house flag is divided by a descending diagonal: white in the hoist and green in the fly recall the colours of Rotterdam.  Over all, in black letters without serifs, is written the company name “BOLSMAN” (large) and seat of operations “ROTTERDAM” (smaller, left aligned).
The Scheepvaartforum (i.e. Shipping Forum) site shows the flag in action (6 Dec 2008 message showing barge ‘Corma’ - half way down page).
The complete company name is ‘J.P.H. Bolsman Bevrachtingskantoor BV’ whereas a holding company also named after Bolsman is located at the same address.   From comments found here and there on the ‘net I gather that sand is a very important commodity for their business. (and *not* jenever).
Jan Mertens, 12 Jan 2009

BPM

Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij (Batavian Petrol Co), The Hague - vertical triband VWV, on white black "B".
Source: Brown's Flags and Funnels of British and Foreign Steamship Companies, compiled by F.J.N. Wedge, Glasgow, 1926 [wed26]
Jarig Bakker, 28 January 2005

Scheepswerf de Breedendam

This Dutch shipyard, situated at Loosdrecht (a lakeside village near Hilversum, to the SW of Amsterdam) is specialized in building motor boats of various kinds.  Company homepage: Check out ‘Sloepen’ (litt. “sloops”) to have an idea of what is on offer, not only boats (including custom-built ones) but also winter storage.
According to the site, Everhard van Burkom founded the firm in 1976, turning his hobby into a profession.
The ‘Ontwerper & bouwer’ (i.e. designer and builder) section shows how a hull-in-progress looks like: wooden-built or polyester-built with wooden finishing but in any case with carefully installed diesel motor.
The website prominently features a red swallowtail bearing a white diamond with a black initial ‘B’.

However the various ‘Sloepen’ fly a small rectangular flag on the bow and moreover there is a black border around the diamond.
A large flag on the first photo of ‘Evenementen’ (i.e. events: boat show in Monaco) shows a large flag with a black-bordered diamond, but the swallow-tail cutout is not visible.

Conclusion: the swallowtail is used as a logo, possibly also as a flag, and the rectangular one certainly is.  The diamond border is really used… which seems to stamp it a flagoid (too short and with a diamond rather too small).
Jan Mertens, 29 Oct 2006

den Breejen

Jan Mertens reported this link. Den Breejen, Zierikzee - red flag, white 4-pointed star, blue "B".
This company specializes in showing tourists the "Deltawerken", while you're eating an unlimited amount of (no, not mussels) pancakes!
Jarig Bakker, 8 Mar 2005

The flag belongs to the den Breejen family and was designed early 1970's by the youngest brother Leo den Breejen. The family den Breejen has 6 small ships (format Spits, 39,5 x 5.05 meters) with on every ship an member of the den Breejen family. Most of the family members stopped their activities or changed it. The oldest brother Teun started in 1981 a day passenger ship company in Zierikzee. In 1986 it expanded with an second ship Christiaan B. In 1989 the oldest (smallest) ship was sold and an new build ship Stad Zierikzee has taken over the trips in the Southwestern Netherlands. In 1995 this ship was sold due to problems with the environment in the Oosterschelde to Family Paulsen, owners of the Adler Company in Sylt (Denmark) for making trips between (Formerly easten) Germany and Poland. The name of the ship is now "Adler Prinses".

The other boat,  Christiaan B, is making trips around the Stormvloedkering in the Oosterschelde. From 2001 till 2005 the trips were combined with unlimited pancake eating. Unfortunality due to several reasons I have sold the boat to Deltapark Neeltje Jans and that should be the end of the typical den Breejen flag.  But...

From December 2007 I started a Maritime Technical company specialized in marine elektronics under my own name den Breejen and as flag I was allowed to use the family flag so it started a new life. The full name is Maritiem Technisch Bureau den Breejen (MTBB), in Zierikzee, Holland.

The flag presented on the website is not an good copy of the den Breejen flag. Enclosed is a picture of the flag theat we are using.
Ton den Breejen, 2 Mar 2008

New image based on Mr. den Breejen's picture: red flag, white star reaching all edges, blue "B".
Jarig Bakker, 2 Mar 2008

Brinkman

Jan Mertens reported this link with mainly Dutch houseflags. Brinkman - square blue flag; intertwined yellow "UB".
Jarig Bakker, 3 Mar 2005

Broekhoven, Zeist

Image after Brown's Flags and Funnels Shipping Companies of the World, compiled by J.L. Loughran, Glasgow, 1995 [lgr95].
Broekhoven B.V., Zeist - white flag, the firm's logo in center.
(The book has "Ziest", which I assume is a printing error. This seems to be a dredging firm working in third-world countries.)
Jarig Bakker, 3 Sep 2005

Broekhoven blues

Gebr. Broere, Dordrecht

Image after Brown's Flags and Funnels Shipping Companies of the World, compiled by J.L. Loughran, Glasgow, 1995 [lgr95].
Gebr. Broere B.V., Dordrecht - horizontal RWR, blue diamond, white "GB".
Jarig Bakker, 23 Sep 2005

Bijma, Zuidbroek

Three related Bijma companies are established at Zuidbroek, a village between the town of Groningen, Netherlands, and the border with Germany.
They are: Internationale Sleepdienst v.h. F.Bijma (i.e. Internatonial Tugservice formerly F.Bijma),  Bijma BV Internationale Transporten over water (i.e. Bijma International Waterborne Transportation Co.) and Scheepsbevrachtingskantoor Bijma (Bijma Shipping and Freighting Office).

Their names describe their activities well, of course.  Here is the common webpage.

The Bijma tugs’ geographical range concerns inland as wel as coastal traffic in Dutch and German waters (specifically, the Wadden area) whereas the heavy traffic division operates, and rents, pontoons.  In all, Bijma now has four tugs and four pontoons.

Starting out with a veteran steam tug in 1938, Bijma profited from the expanding shipbuilding business beginning in the ‘fifties.  Nowadays vessels or at least the hulls are mostly made abroad – where salaries are lower – but tugging and transport are still going strong.  In addition, there is the freighting activity.

The house flag, shown as an animated gif on the website, can been seen on some photos (‘Foto Galerij’) but a clearer picture is here.

On a yellow field is placed a funnel, slanting away from the hoist; this funnel is also yellow and bears a stylized initial ‘B’ (serifed) between two blue horizontal edges.  The funnel shape is rendered visible by blue holding lines.

More Bijma tug photos on this page (top) i.e. the brand-new 'Gruno IV'.
Jan Mertens, 3 May 2006