Nordenfjeldske Dampskibsselskab History and Ephemera

The Nordenfjeldske Company is one of the oldest shipping concerns of Norway, controlling a fleet of 28 steamers, all of which are employed on regular lines. They maintain an extensive passenger and freight service along the Norwegian coast, as well as freight services to foreign European ports and to South America.

History

Det Nordenfjeldske Dampskibsselskab (NFDS) was a Norwegian shipping company which was founded on 28 January 1857 in Trondheim. Behind the establishment were a number of the city's trading houses. The purpose was initially to operate scheduled traffic to Hamburg, Germany. The company's first vessel was the wheeled steamer SS Nidelven.

In 1893, the shipping company was one of the co-founders of Hurtigruten. NFDS worked closely with the Bergen Steamship Company (BDS), although they were also competitors. NFDS continued to operate other coastal and international routes.

After the turn of the century, the shipping company developed from being a shipping company for local trade interests to investing heavily in the Hurtigruten, the nascent tourist traffic, and tramp shipping. In 1925, the shipping company bought the British royal yacht Aleksandra and put it into Hurtigruten traffic under the name SS Prince Olav.

The two world wars hit NFDS hard, and the shipping company lost about half of its tonnage, in addition to many employees. However, from the mid-1950s, the fleet was rebuilt, and NFDS became a significant shipping player in the Norwegian context. The company then had interests in both bulk shipping, cruise shipping, and oil operations.

In 1984, Norcem secured the majority in the shipping company, and the company ceased operations. The shipping company was renamed Nordenfjeldske Shipping, and in 1985 was sold to Kosmos AS and formally subordinated to BDS.

Nordenfjeldske Shipping ceased to exist when BDS was sold to RoNoTro in December 1988. The Hurtigruten ships were formally transferred to Troms Fylkes Dampskibsselskap (TFDS) in August 1989.

NFDS had ships in Hurtigruten traffic from 1895 to 1989.