15 Oct. 2014; Philadelphia, USA.

Philadelphia has a long standing connection with Holland America. It goes back for well over a 100 years. Once the company had established itself on the Trans-Atlantic service to New York it started to look around for expansion possibilities. The East coast of the USA was the most logical choice as it was nearby the New York head office. In 1891 the first tentative steps were made with having the P.C Caland and Zaandam (I) call at Baltimore. This being successful this port became a regular call in the intermediate service for the next two years. Intermediate is the name for a Trans-Atlantic route that is a bit more elaborate, calls at more ports than the express route which goes straight from Rotterdam to New York.

The P Caland, named after the man who designed the sea way entrance to Rotterdam, was the 4th ship of the company

By 1894 it stopped again mainly due to the fact that all our ships were a combination of passenger and cargo and there was not enough business to make both components viable. The next step was to try a cargo service. Holland America did not have its own cargo – only ships yet but were in the process of building them. Thus in 1899 a number of cargo ships were chartered to run a service from Newport News to Rotterdam.

The Soestdijk of 1901 was the first cargo – only ship of the company

This was considered quite successful and in 1901 the company’s first cargo – only ship the Soestdijk (I) was scheduled on the route Newport News – Amsterdam – Rotterdam – Newport News. In 1902 a second ship joined in, the Amsteldijk (I) and a regular schedule could be maintained by using additional charter ships. In 1903 the Sloterdijk (I) followed and those three ships must have been deemed sufficient as the number of charter ships then dwindled considerably. On the 9th. of march 1907 the Sloterdijk (I) made the first call for the company at Philadelphia. The city became a regular port of call in the schedule for the three ships. Things were going well, the company was doing extremely well, to such an extent that it took over a similar route from Furness & Withy.

This was a British company which ran a similar service in direct competition. As there was not enough for both of them and HAL wanted to stay, it came to a hand over agreement. Ships were taken over as well and a full-fledged branch line was now established. While this was in progress, the company started to experiment with an all-cargo route to Quebec and Montreal. Again the same pattern was followed: first charter ships and then slowly moving their own ships in.

By 1910 there was a weekly departure from Rotterdam – Newport News – Philadelphia – Baltimore – Rotterdam. A round trip took roughly 6 weeks. 15 days were spent on crossing the North Atlantic and the remaining 30 days were taken up by loading and discharging cargo in the three ports. The average time in port was about 7 days. Nowadays it is already considered a long stay if a cargo (read container) ship is in port for 24 hours but in those days the loading depended on the speed of the longshoremen and the cargo gear that was being used and thus it look time. In 1914 Boston was added to the service and then the East Coast service was more or less complete. After the war Norfolk became a port of call as well when the Poeldijk (I) made the first call.

The Atlantic Star of 1967. Yours truly was cadet on this ship in 1979

The service continued well into the 60’s but then it fell victim to containerization. Holland America recognized this and took part in a new company called the Atlantic Container Line (ACL) with two ships, the Atlantic star and the Atlantic Crown. But containerships need special docks and thus the terminals were concentrated in only a few ports. ACL opted for New York (Port Elizabeth) and the regular East Coast service ceased to exist.

Unfortunately due to this containerization many of the old docks have disappeared and I have not been able to find many traces back from the days “from before the box boats”.