Last modified: 2014-10-11 by andrew weeks
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![[Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij new flag]](../images/n/nl~kpm0.gif)
image by Jarig Bakker, 13 Oct 2003
Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij N.V. I think you will find that
there is only one actual version, being that with the diamond throughout
the field, as detailed by Mulder. Practically every source from Lloyds
1904 on shows it as such and there is a photo in Talbot-Booth's 1942 Merchant
Ships which clearly shows the flag as such. Of 4 variances found two have
it nearly throughout. There is more variance on the crown's colours with
most showing it in yellow and red but some being plain yellow (or gold).
Neale Rosanoski, 9 Nov 2003
![[Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij]](../images/n/nl~kpm.gif)
image by Jarig Bakker, 11 Oct 2003
N.V. Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij, Amsterdam (Royal Mail Line)
- Red with a white diamond in the center, charged with a yellow crown.
Other sources have a white diamond over all.
Source: houseflagchart of the Magazine "De Blauwe Wimpel", April 1956
All about Ships and Shipping, E.P. Harnack (ed), 1938, 1959
Jarig Bakker, 11 Oct 2003
![[KPM-flag with star]](../images/n/nl~kpm1.gif)
image by Eugene Ipavec, 7 Jun 2006, co-credit to Jarig Bakker.
A search on ‘Maritiem
Digitaal’ (Dutch maritime databases collective search system) will
be rewarding:
type ‘rederijvlag’ (i.e. shipping company flag) in the box and have
a look at nos. 32-34 of the results (pictures are clickable).
No. 32 shows the KPM flag as presented on FOTW-ws (first version). Specimen measures 147 cm x 230 cm.
No. 33 has the same flag with an additional white five-pointed star in the hoist upper corner. (Was this a commodore flag?) Measures 131 cm x 220 cm.
No. 34 however shows the second version on FOTW-ws, in other words, the smaller diamond the points of which do not touch the flag’s edges. So it reallly existed; this one measures 98 x 158.
In all cases the crown is shown in great detail (but smaller in the
“starred” variant).
Jan Mertens, 4 Jun 2006
![[NISM flag]](../images/n/nl~nism.gif)
image by Jarig Bakker, 4 Jun 2006
The "Koninkijke Paketvaart Maatschappij" was founded in 1888, and became effective only in 1890/91.
So far I haven't found how shipping was organized in the Indonesian Archipelago between 1798 (dissolution of the VOC) and 1850, but it is safe to assume that the British had a major hand in it.
In 1850 shipping was in the hands of "Cores de Vries". No houseflag known and no knowledge about ownership.
In 1863 it was maintained by the "Nederlandsch-Indische Stoomvaart Maatschappij"
(Dutch-Indian Steamship Company), which, despite its rather Dutch sounding
name, was a British company. All Dutch East Indian products were sent to
Singapore (by-passing Batavia), before being shipped to "Patria" (fatherland
= Netherlands). The flag can be seen on a painting:
a white flag with a red saltire, with in the quadrants "NISM" in blue.
(The ship has also a long name pennant: blue, with white "SUMBAWA".)
In 1888 the navigation in the Indonesian Archipelago came firm into
the hands of the Dutch - although one may wonder how firm... The products
from the Dutch Indies were far more important than the question of how
they got into "Patria"!
Jarig Bakker, 4 Jun 2006
![[Sumbawa name-pennant]](../images/n/nl~sumbw.gif)
image by Jarig Bakker, 4 Jun 2006