Batavier Line

The Batavier Line (Dutch: Batavier Lijn) was a packet service between Rotterdam and London from 1830 until the 1960s. The line was established by the Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij (known as NSM and in English as Netherlands Steamship Company).

Having attempted unsuccessfully to establish services between Rotterdam–Hamburg and Antwerp–London, the company turned its attention to Rotterdam–London and became the first regular foreign-owned company to set up such a service into London Port.

The original boat on the service was the wooden paddle steamer De Batavier (built 1829). She was replaced by an iron-hulled paddle steamer named Batavier in 1855, and this ship was replaced by another iron-hulled steamer Batavier in 1872.

In 1895, NSM sold the company to Wm. H. Müller and Co. and a condition of sale was that the Batavier name would be maintained as the company name and the naming scheme for its ships.

Müller ordered two new steel-hulled steamers from Gourlay Brothers of Dundee in 1897, Batavier II and Batavier III. When this pair joined the fleet, the prior Batavier was renamed Batavier I. In Rotterdam, the ships docked at the Willemsplein; in London, the ships originally docked near London Bridge, but in 1899 switched to the Customs House and Wool Quays near the Tower Bridge. Also beginning in 1899, the Batavier Line service between Rotterdam and London was offered daily except Sundays. In 1902 a further pair of ship was ordered from Gourlay, Batavier IV and Batavier V, and when Batavier VI was added in 1903, Batavier I was taken out of service. In 1909 Batavier II and Batavier III were rebuilt to a size more closely aligned with the later ships.

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