History

The founder of the company, Mr. J. Th. Daanen has always been a bargeman. Until the year 1958, when he and his family decided to stay ashore.

In order to make a living a ‘bargeman pub’ was acquired. At the same time he started to be a broker for so called tow-agreements which means that the owner of a craft without an engine (in those days there were not many barges under own power) wanted to have his barge towed from A to B.

He reported this to the ‘broker’ who the started to look for a tug to do this job. The pub was the place where the parties usually gathered so this made an ideal combination. During many years he built up an entire network in which he played a role as an intermediary. Also the chartering (to see to it that ships are getting cargoes) was done in the same way and another network was being built up.

In 1968 his eldest son joined the company. The activities became more and more varied like for instance taking care of special transports, towing of dredging materials etc. etc. Unfortunately, due to a severe illness he passed away in the year 1978 but his son continued the business. The pub was sold.

In 1980 a flat-bottomed boat called ‘Jopie’ with 220 bhp was built mainly for the discharging of coal barges at the power plant at Nijmegen. Two years later this boat already appeared to be too small and after weighing the pros and cons carefully it was decided to built a new push boat with 2 x 250 bhp which was also capable of towing and could therefore be used for may purposes.

During the next couple of years the demand for ”logistic transport” was growing and action was taken. In 1994 it was decided to built an own pontoon in order to cope with this new demand for transporting special constructions, bridge parts etc. For the transport of new building hulls, which were built in one of the East block countries a special ‘Headbarge’ of 350 bhp equipped with bow thruster was built for the transports from Regensburg to Mainz. With a view to the future developments a new, identical ‘headbarge’ was built.

In spring 2000, with a view to expanding activities, a tug- pushboat of 325 bhp was acquired. This to replace an old little tug boat of just 120 bhp. In spring 2004 one RoRo-Pontoon and 3 corvered barges , which can be used for various purposes and for which there was and is quite some demand, were bought.

The activities were all coordinated from an office very close to the locks of Nijmegen (This was the former pub) Later from the Handelsweg – Nijmegen, then from an ark moored in the Maas-Waal canal, thereafter from a larger ark moored at the same berth and since 1999 we operate from an office at the Oostkanaaldijk Nijmegen with a beautiful sight across the water of the canal. At this moment we employ 7 people .