Trading for Profit Shipping Company
Introduction
Trading for Profit Shipping Company is a Dutch shipping company, started by two brothers, Arend and Hendrik Dijkstra. In 1762 they started their business in Groningen, from the living room of Arend's house. They had inherited from their father, and wanted to infest the money. So they bought a tjalk. And started sailing to and from the peat harvest areas in the east of the country to Groningen city. Business was good, and they soon had a fleet of three ships.
Untill that time they had used the name Arend and Hendrik Dijkstra peat transport by ship to Groningen City. But they found that they could earn some extra money by bringing back supplies and people too. Most other ships sailed empty to the peat harvest area because that way they were faster. It was Hendrik who came up with the new name, as he spoke English and not many people did, so the brothers thought it was a funny joke. But the name stuck. So the Trading for Profit Shipping Company was born.
It was Hendriks youngest daughter Grietje who took over the company after their father and uncle died, and she was the person who took the company which was now sailing everywhere around Groningen and Friesland, to sea in 1802. She invested in a bit bigger ship to sail to the Dutch isles in the Waddenzee, and by the end of her reign the first ships of the company sailed to the Baltic Sea for Wood.
Motto
The motto Profit first isn't official but given to the company by the sailors, as a joke on the Safety first text a lot of ships now show painted on their accommodation.
Today
Today TPSC is still owned completely by the Dijkstra Family and they have 245 modern high-quality ships sailing word wide, moving cargo all around the globe, from small harbours along the coast to another forgotten place, or big hauls across the oceans. Their ships differ in type and size, but all of them do dry cargo. There are no tankers or passenger ships. Some ships are equipped for heavy lifting, some for transporting big things, others for transporting floating objects.
The strong point of the company is that they can bend to the wishes of their clients, and that way they can win a lot of contracts to transport weird stuff to weird locations.
Need a load of fighter jets delivered to a secret navy base, yeah sure, just park them in the hold. Oh you want them to land on the ship? Give us a day, and we weld an extra layer of steel with some heat proof coating on deck, and we're good to go.
Crew
Dispite the humourous motto given to the company by the crew, TPSC cares the most about the well-being of their crew. And will do anything in their power to help them, on and off the job.
Profit first
The rank of commodre is currently held by captain Pieter-Jan Egberink
Seems like a nice company, I was going to ask if they did put profit first but you pre-empted me at the end :p
:P hehe