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.
Van Vlissingen en Dudok van Heel
Early years The company was founded as the 'Van Vlissingen' company in 1826. The founder was Paul van Vlissingen (1797–1876), who was also one of the founders of the Amsterdamsche Stoomboot Maatschappij (ASM). In 1828 Abraham Dudok van Heel (1802–1873) became a partner, and the name was changed to Fabriek van Stoom- en Andere Werktuigen, onder de firma Van Vlissingen & Dudok van Heel. (Factory for steam engines and other tooling, owned by Van Vlissingen & Dudok van Heel.) The onder firma was Dutch for Kommanditgesellschaft a form of Limited partnership.
The first 'mission' of the company would be to enable repair of the steam engines of the ASM. This was necessary because John Cockerill (company, 1825–1955) and the Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij of Gerhard Moritz Roentgen had established a monopoly on the delivery of steam engines in the Netherlands. In 1826 the ASM, therefore, asked permission from the Amsterdam community council to found a small smithy at the shipyard Vredenburg on the Kadijk. In 1827 a former smoking house of the Dutch East India Company was hired to expand the company. This building, consisting of a house and a large storehouse was situated on the southern tip of the island Oostenburg, that was dominated by buildings previously owned by the Dutch East India Company. The date of the rental contract, 9 February 1827 should be considered as the founding date of the company.
One of the first employees was William Jackson, who had worked at Henry Maudslay and Company. There were thirty other Englishman employed. The building contained two smithies. In the yard there was an oven below a shed without a chimney. Six men operated a double bellows to blaze the fire. The flames escaping through an opening in the roof. The management declared that the oven was fired with Coke (fuel) and would not spark. The 'smelt en gietoven' ('gieten' means Casting (metalworking)) could not be covered, because that would be very bad for the Cast iron. By the end of 1827 the company had 60 employees.
As regards organization the company was a limited partnership, in contemporary Dutch a Commanditaire Societeit. It started with a capital of 100,000 guilders, with 70,000 brought in by the limited partners. Van Vlissingen would only be around part-time, mainly because he also had other affairs like the ASM. Dudok van Heel would be permanently present, primarily to manage the administration and cash of the factory. General Partners Van Vlissingen and Dudok van Heel would receive a compensation of 2,000 guilders for their work. If there was a profit, the partners would first receive 4% on their capital, further profits would be divided somewhat equally over the general partners and the limited partners.
1830s During the first years Van Vlissingen en Dudok van Heel experienced slow growth. It was troubled by the high import duty on sheet metal. A duty that in practice benefited Cockerill, which produced sheet metal, and foreign machine factories which did not have to pay the duty. The independence of Belgium would change the government preference for Cockerill. In time Van Vlissingen en Dudok van Heel got a serious chance to get government orders.
1840s: Royal factory On 4 December 1840 the factory of Van Vlissingen & Dudok van Heel got the label 'royal', officially making it the: Koninklijke Fabriek van Stoom- en andere Werktuigen onder firma Van Vlissingen & Dudok van Heel. In reality the company did not use the name 'Koninklijke Fabriek van Stoom- en andere Werktuigen' that often, and if it did, the name was almost always accompanied by: of Van Vlissingen & Dudok van Heel. A logical explanation would be that the 'firma Van Vlissingen & Dudok van Heel' was a Juridical person, a quality that the 'Koninklijke Fabriek' lacked. The succeeding 'Koninklijke Fabriek van Stoom- en andere Werktuigen' (below, without the 'firma' part) was a juridical person because it was the name of a public company.
By 1847 there were 1000–1200 employees with the company.
1850s In the 1856 Van Vlissingen & Dudok van Heel was the biggest machine factory of the Netherlands, with about 1,600 employees. In 1856 a magazine made a rather extensive report of a visit to the company. It had a description of the iron Foundry. It had three cupola Furnaces, which processed imported cast iron with coke and chalk. Up to 20,000 kilograms of liquid iron was then poured into a crucible and cast again. A big Fan (machine) that made 600 rpm produced the air blast required for the foundry.
Activities of Van Vlissingen & Dudok van Heel
Machines for the Sugar industry In the Dutch colony Suriname Amsterdam citizens had a lot of plantations producing sugar. William Jackson then moved to Suriname to support the installation of sugar mills and steam engines. Jackson also became the representative for the company in Suriname.
Steam locomotives From 1843–1846 it produced some steam locomotives. These were called the Etna, Hecla, Vesuvius, Atlas and Bromo. Some of these served till 1866.
Ship engines Steam ship engines would become a core activity of the company. In the beginning, the company somewhat depended on or was helped by government purchases. This was especially the case with regard to the first order for a ship engine that Van Vlissingen received. Even though Van Vlissingen had never produced a ship engine, the navy ordered a more powerful (and costly) engine than had yet been produced in the Netherlands. The interest of the navy was that it depended on Van Vlissingen & Dudok van Heel as one of the few producers of steam engines. The state had shipyards, but no capacity to build engines. The close proximity of the Rijkswerf Amsterdam to the factory was also important.
The first order of a ship engine for a warship was that for the 130 hp engines of HNLMS Phoenix (1836). It was also the first-ever order for a ship engine by Van Vlissingen and was awarded for more than 100,000 guilders on 2 December 1834. While these were almost finished a fire broke out at the factory on 24 April 1836 and caused significant damage to the machines and the factory. While the insurance covered a lot, it did not cover a delay in delivery. The government then indeed further supported the company by accepting the delay and giving some additional orders to keep the factory going. In 1837 and 1839 boilers were delivered for the Cerberus and Leeuw. In 1839 the navy ordered the machines for the Hecla costing 109,495 guilders at Van Vlissingen. Later Vlissingen & Dudok van Heel made the 300 hp steam engines for HNLMS steam paddle vessel Gedeh. It also made the 150 hp engine of the Sindoro.
Steam engines for screw-driven ships required a higher rotational speed. The company first made the engine of the Montrado (ex-Vuurpijl). The 150 hp engines of the corvette Amelia ex-Borneo (1855) came next. Those of HNLMS Adolf van Nassau (1861), and of at least two ships of the Djambi-class corvettes, launched 1860–1863 followed. The engines of the Watergeus-class sloops (1864–1867) and those of the Zilveren Kruis (1869) were engines that had an output that gave sailing ships something more than just auxiliary power.
Van Vlissingen & Dudok van Heel also produced ship engines for civilian use. The second pair of ship engines that the company built were the 160 hp engines of the Willem I built by shipyard Boelen for the ASM line to Hamburg. The company also made the 60 hp engine for the Friso (1839) built by shipyard Vredenhof on the Kadijk. It also built the engine for the Amicitia built by Fop Smit Nieuw Lekkerland in 1846. It also built those of the steam yacht Rotterdam (1853), built by F. Smit in Kinderdijk for the service Rotterdam to 's-Hertogenbosch.
Iron ships
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.