Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij
 |
|
| Industry | Maintaining maritime routes in and from the Dutch East Indies |
|---|---|
| Successor | Nedlloyd Group |
| Founded | 1888 |
| Founder | Rotterdamsche Lloyd (RL) en de Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland (SMN) |
| Defunct | 1966 |
| Headquarters | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Website | http://kunstbezitnedlloyd.org/nl/ |
Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij (Dutch for Royal Packet Navigation Company), better known as KPM, was a Dutch shipping company (1888–1966) in the Netherlands East Indies, now Indonesia. It was the dominant inter-island shipping line in Indonesia during the last half century of the colonial era. KPM maintained connections between the islands of Indonesia, and supported the unification of the Dutch colony economy as the Netherlands expanded its territory across the Indonesian archipelago. The company brought inter-island commerce through the capital, Batavia (now Jakarta) rather than to Singapore, which shifted economic activity to Java.
The line's routes, beyond the home islands, included services to the ports of Singapore and Hong Kong, Shanghai, Manila, Saigon; the Australian ports of Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide; African ports such as Durban, East London, Port Elizabeth, Mossel Bay, Cape Town, Zanzibar, Mombasa, and the Indian Ocean ports of Réunion and Mauritius and Mahé.
During the second world war with Japan, the ships of KPM assisted the Dutch, British and Australian war ships with the protection of Singapore. During the Battle of the Java Sea, KPM ships also assisted the supply of ammunition. In the Netherlands East Indies, several of KPM ships were rented by the Royal Netherlands Navy to participate in the defense of the Netherlands East Indies and Singapore too against the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy.
...
Wikipedia