Fop Smit (11 October 1777 – 25 August 1866) was a Dutch naval architect, shipbuilder, and shipowner. He founded the towage and salvage company L. Smit & Co that is now part of

Smit International Smit Internationale N.V. (or Smit International) is a Dutch company operating in the maritime sector. The company was founded in 1842 by Fop Smit as a towage company with only the 140 horsepower paddle steamer tug ''Kinderdijk''. Fop's sons, ...

. His

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

had a number of "firsts" in shipbuilding and produced a number of famous vessels.

Family life

Smit was born in

Alblasserdam Alblasserdam () is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. It covers an area of , of which is water, and has a population of as of . Alblasserdam is officially a part of the Drechtsteden region. A po ...

, the son of Jan Foppe Smit and Marrijgje Ceele. He married Jannigje Pieterse Mak on 29 June 1806 in Alblasserdam.

Business history

Partnership with his brother Jan

After the death of his father Jan (on whose yard he had worked before then as a shipwright) Fop Smit took over the management of the yard, together with his brother Jan in 1820. They built an early wooden river steamboat, ''Willem I'', in 1825. This design (by the Frisian marine architect Van Loon) was so successful that they soon had orders for another five steamships. The association between the brothers ended in 1828.

Shipyard L. Smit en Zoon

Continuing alone, Fop Smit founded the shipbuilding company that would become known as Fop Smit shipyard, Etablissement Fop Smit, and after his death: L. Smit en Zoon. It received an order for the first Dutch seagoing steamship, The ''Batavier'' from the

Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij The Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij ((Netherlands Steamboat Co)), abbreviated as NSM or NSBM, was a Dutch shipping line focused on inland navigation. In the 1820s it was important for the quick introduction of steam power on the Dutch rivers ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

. This ship was launched in 1830. It plied the Rotterdam-London route. Smit built his first ocean-going ship, intended for the trade on the

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around t ...

at his yard in

Kinderdijk Kinderdijk () is a village in the municipality of Molenlanden, in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located about east of Rotterdam. Kinderdijk is situated in the Alblasserwaard polder at the confluence of the Lek and Noord riv ...

in 1838. In 1847 Fop Smit yard built the first iron ship in the Netherlands, the

brigantine A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail (behind the mast). The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts. Older ...

''Industrie''. This was followed in 1853 by the first Dutch iron

clipper ship A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century Merchant ship, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

''. This ship on its maiden voyage reached its destination

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

with British emigrants on board in 86 days under captain Jaski. The last ship Fop Smit laid down was the clipper ''Nestor''. Smit also branched out to warship construction. His Kinderdijk yard in 1856 built two schooner-rigged screw-steam

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...

s: ''Zr. Ms. Bali'' for the Dutch navy, and

Kanrin Maru ''Kanrin Maru'' was Japan's first sail and screw-driven steam corvette (the first steam-driven Japanese warship, ''Kankō Maru'', was a side-wheeler). She was ordered in 1853 from the Netherlands, the only Western country with which Japan had ...

for the Japanese ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...

''.*H. Huygens, "Z.M. schroef-schooner Bali," in: ''Verhandelingen en berigten betrekkelijk het zeewezen en de zeevaartkunde'', vol. 17 (1857), pp. 178–183 '', the first screw-driven Japanese steam warship. Fop Smit died in

Nieuw-Lekkerland Nieuw-Lekkerland () is a town in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. It is situated on the southern shores of the Lek River, in the north-west of the Alblasserwaard. The town's name evolved slightly over time: in 1280 Leck ...

at age 89. His son Leendert Smit continued his Kinderdijk shipyard as L. Smit en Zoon. The Smit shipyard was one of the Dutch shipyards that eventually became part of the IHC Gusto Engineering and

SBM Offshore SBM Offshore N.V. (IHC Caland N.V. prior to July 2005) is a Dutch-based global group of companies selling systems and services to the offshore oil and gas industry. Its constituent companies started their offshore activities in the early 1950s an ...

marine and offshore engineering firms.

Towage service

On 6 November 1842 Smit contracted with 47 Rotterdam shipowners and maritime insurers to build a steam tug and station it in

Hellevoetsluis Hellevoetsluis () is a small city and municipality in the western Netherlands. It is located in Voorne-Putten, South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water and it includes the population centres Nieuw-Helvoet, Nieuwenhoorn ...

for towage work. The tug ''Kinderdijk'' was launched on 31 August 1843 and put in service by December of that year. By the time of his death in 1866 the company owned nine

paddle steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses wer ...

tugboats. The company would later become L. Smit & Co (L. from his son Leendert), and then became part of

Rederij Fop Smit & Co.

Fop Smit also founded the famous Rederij Fop Smit & Co. in 1878. This managed a very busy shipping line from Rotterdam via Dordrecht to Gorinchem.

References

External links

Fop Smit
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smit, Fop 1777 births 1866 deaths Dutch businesspeople People from Alblasserdam People from Nieuw-Lekkerland Dutch shipbuilders