From “Duwvaart”, the 1980 book on push navigation by Dutch authors Jansen
and Van Heck! Featuring today: ‘Vereniging van sleep- en duwbooteigenaren
“Rijn en IJssel” ‘ (“Union of tugboat and pushboat owners Rhine and IJssel”),
based at Rotterdam. Rhine and IJssel, of course, are very important
rivers to the Dutch.
From my notes based on p. 73 of above book (this page is followed by
a dozen more dedicated to small or private owners related to Rijn en IJssel):
Founded at Arnhem 1927 as an interest group reacting to diminutive
profits and adverse circumstances e.g. many shipping agents also held pubs
which did not help matters if you wanted to get shipments in an honest
way.
First mostly interested in towage and social affairs, extended to tariffs
and infrastructure in the ‘fifties. In the ‘sixties, due to a shift
of interest towards push navigation, adoption of the current name which
replaced ‘Maatschappij tot exploitatie van vaartuigen Rijn &
IJssel’ (“Company for the exploitation of vessels Rhine and IJssel).
Counselling on social and legal matters, subsidies, tariffs, procurement,
etc. At time of writing about 70 vessels represented, 40 of them
pushboats.
Not illustrated, but described, is a triangular pennant blue/red with
initials ‘R&IJ’ in white. This was the house flag of the first
union, ‘Vereniging van Sleepbooteigenaren’ (“Union of tugboat owners”).
Shown as a b/w drawing, the rectangular house flag of ‘Vereniging van
Sleep- en duwbooteigenaren’ is described as being white with a red diamond,
blue waves alongside (white within diamond) and initials ‘R&IJ’ in
white.
See this particular logo at Rijn
& IJssel’s website (animated gif but also background):
This site is not very informative as you have to be a member to access
most of it. Luckily the flag is flown on the ‘Isis’ (photo on Vlootschouw
and logo about halfway page).
Still according to the site, the office is now established at Dordrecht.
Jan Mertens, 23 May 2006
The logo again, on a webpage
of the association: White, unusually designed initials ‘R & IJ’ (above
each other) on a red square diamond, two stylized blue waves touching left
and right corner of diamond, and turning white where they invade said diamond
somewhat. As a matter of detail, the waves are cut off straight outside
the diamond but inside, along ascending diagonals!
The Dutch auction site ‘Marktplaats’ features the current flag at the
moment: offer no. 185109811 put up by “Skipvlag”, accessed 6 Aug 2008,
dimensions given as 0.50 [m] x 0.75 [m]. By the way, these are the national
colours.
Jan Mertens, 11 Aug 2008
Rijn en IJssel pennant
image sent by Jan Mertens, 13 Aug 2008
As announced on 11 Aug 2008, the current Rijn & IJssel pennant based,
of course, on the rectangular version.
In this case the diamond almost touches the edges.
Source: Dutch auction site Marktplaats, offer no. 180970127 (accessed
13 Jul 2008) put up by “Skipvlag”. Dimensions given as 0.45 [m] x
0.65 [m].
Jan Mertens, 13 Aug 2008
![[Rijn en IJssel houseflag]](../images/n/nl~rijs.gif)
image sent by Jan Mertens, 11 Aug 2008
See also:
![[Rijn en IJssel pennant]](../images/n/nl~rijsp.jpg)
image sent by Jan Mertens, 13 Aug 2008
