Somtrans N.V. (Shipping company, Belgium)

Last modified: 2010-09-24 by ivan sache
Keywords: somtrans | somers | lozenge (green) | letter: s (white) |
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House flag of Somtrans - Image by António Martins, 30 January 2006

• Presentation of Somtrans
• House flag of Somtrans
• Somers

See also:

• Belgium
• Belgium: House flags of shipping companies

Presentation of Somtrans

Somtrans is an inland shipping company based in Wijnegen, on the Albert Canal near Antwerp. Quoting the company website:

Shipping company and chartering agency Somtrans N.V. was founded in 1975 in Antwerp by the Somers family. This well-known Antwerp family was active since the middle of the XIXth century in the shipping business with wooden sailingships.
Somtrans engages in chartering and managing inland tankers which transport mineral oils and chemicals all over Europe using inland waters. The firm owns 21 ships (barges) but other vessels belonging to private shipowers sail for them as well.

House flag of Somtrans

On the company website, the house flag is rendered as a Spanish-type horizontally divided swallowtail, yellow edged red; in the centre is a green lozenge, somewhat reduced at the bottom, bearing a white serifed initial 'S'.
Photos of barges, such as the Somtrans XI, however, show a traditional, rectangular flag.

Somers

House flag of Somers - Image by Eugene Ipavec, 2 April 2006

Duwvaart, by Jansen & Van Heck, positions Somers as a precursor of Somtrans. Somers, then based at Kapellen to the north of Antwerp, is presented and its flag is shown in black and white, as white, with red horizontal edges and a green lozenge or diamond bearing a white S in the centre. The illustration gives the broad middle white stripe half of the flag's height. The diamond is regular, not pulled out downwards as in Somtrans house flag.