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"Oostzee" (The Netherlands)

N.V. Stoomvaart-Maatschappij "Oostzee" (= Baltic sea), Amsterdam

Last modified: 2011-06-04 by andrew weeks
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Oostzee  image by Jarig Bakker, 29 January 2001 See also:

N.V. Stoomvaart-Maatschappij "Oostzee" (= Baltic sea), Amsterdam

Image from Flag chart of house flags of Dutch shipping companies, attached to the magazine "De Blauwe Wimpel", April 1956.
Jarig Bakker, 1 Feb 2001

From: "Een maritiem document bij uitstek". (De Blauwe Wimpel [2000:3/119]).
Based on the sketch-book of the late captain Eldert Dobbenga, it pictures the house-flag of the N.V. Stoomvaart Maatschappij Oostzee. It's white, the top-hoist quarter three horizontal stripes red, black and red, being the colours of Amsterdam, and in the lower fly a black O, for the company name.
The funnel is pictured as well, and is yellow with the same triband.
The flag is indicated as - De Maatschappij vlag (the house flag), De "Oostzee" vlag  (the "Baltic sea" flag), or De Vinke vlag.
The company is called "Oostzee" (Baltic Sea) as, when it was established, most of its ships were in the Baltic wood trade.
The company already existed in 1937 when apprentice Dobbenga started his career. Some of its ships apparently functioned as trampers, though others operated in regular service. One such service was the "Independent Gulf Line", which connected ports from Hamburg to Le Havre with Brownsville to Savannah. In 1975 captain Dobbenga still worked for this company.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 4 Jul 2003

The Vinke company started as a grocer's shop in Amsterdam in 1804, directed at provisioning. In 1860 Albertus Vinke founded Vinke & Co. to expand into ship-brokery. As such the company did manage the N.V. Stoomvaart Maatschappij "Oostzee" (Baltic), 1897 - 1985, the N.V. Stoomvaart Maatschappij "Hillegersberg", 1905 - 1968, the N.V. "Houtvaart" (Wood trade), 1910 - 1972, and the renowned N.V. "Nederlandse Maatschappij voor de Walvisvaart" (Dutch Company for the Whaling trade), 1946 - 1966. Apart from these it was also involved in other shipping-related activities. In the years after the war, Vinke & Co. became one of the leading tramper companies. After 1980 it changed its focus and in 1985 it ceased all
shipping-activities and sold all ships.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 1 Jan 1978