page_title: Van Vlissingen en Dudok van Heel
section_title: Iron ships
hierarchical_section_title: Van Vlissingen en Dudok van Heel / Van Vlissingen en Dudok van Heel / Activities of Van Vlissingen & Dudok van Heel / Iron ships
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Beschrijving Het ijzeren raderstoomschip 'Borneo', tijdens de bouw op de werf van de Koninklijke Fabriek van Stoom- en Andere Werktuigen, firma Paul van Vlissingen en Dudok van Heel, aan de Oostenburgervaart Het schip werd gebouwd voor de dienst in Nederlands-Indië, ten behoeve van het Departement van Koloniën, overeenkomstig plannen van de heren Huygens en Turk. Documenttype foto Vervaardiger Oosterhuis, Pieter Collectie Collectie Stadsarchief Amsterdam: foto-afdrukken Datering 25 september 1866 Inventarissen http://archief.amsterdam/archief/10003 Afbeeldingsbestand ANWF00615000001 Generated with Dememorixer
context_page_description: Van Vlissingen en Dudok van Heel was a famous nineteenth-century Dutch machine factory. It built steam engines and machinery for the sugar industry and for maritime purposes, as well ships, rolling stock and large metal structures like the Moerdijk bridge and a floating dock. In 1871 it was reorganized to become the public company Koninklijke Fabriek van Stoom- en andere Werktuigen. In a second reorganization in 1890, parts of it were saved and continued under the name Koninklijke Nederlandsche Fabriek van Werktuigen en Spoorwegmaterieel, renamed to Werkspoor in 1927.
context_section_description: In Frankfurt a new company for steam transport between the Netherlands and as high upstream as the Main was founded in 1844. Van Vlissingen traveled to Frankfurt to compete for an order of iron steam vessels and lighters for steam service on the Rhine. He managed to secure an order for two tugboats and 16 lighters with a capacity of 4500  quintals for 450,000 guilders. For building these ships a shipyard was created on Oostenburg north of the factory, where the shipyard of the old Dutch East India Company had once stood. The company issued a tender for the construction of a wooden roof with walls of 130 by 20 meters.
  Van Vlissingen next competed for an order from a newly founded steam tug service in Düsseldorf. By helping to raise capital for this company in Amsterdam, he also managed to secure this second order. The Düsseldorf order was for two tugboats and 10 lighters, amounting to 400,000 guilders. In September 1847 the Frankfurt company placed a new order of one tugboat of 200 hp, one tugboat of 100 hp and eight lighters. Similar orders would follow for steam navigation on the Po and for the Dutch East Indies. In these years many iron ships were built, but not many large steamships, apart from those were Van Vlissingen was also involved in the exploitation.
  A breakthrough could have come from Belgium. In 1855 the steam ships Constitution and Belgique, 84.5 m long were launched.
caption: The steam paddle ship Borneo on the slipway at Oostenburg Sep. 1866
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