Alkmaar Packet

Alkmaar Packet was a shipping company that operated scheduled passenger and freight services in the northern part of the Netherlands between 1864 and 1950.

Passengers travelling onwards to Amsterdam had to change ship in Zaandam as the Alkmaar Packet 1 was not seaworthy and the IJ was connected to the still open Zuiderzee.

In the twentieth century passenger transport grew rapidly with river cruises and day trippers, like inhabitants of Amsterdam going to the Zaandam fair.

In 1902 some locals of the Zaan area established the Zaandamsche Stoomvaart Maatschappij because they were dissatisfied with price and performance of Alkmaar Packet.

Later that year the Zaandamsche joined six other shipping companies to form Verschure & Co., which became a major competitor of AP, operating in mostly the same part of the Netherlands.

A virtually complete boycott by the locals, in favour of the TESO ship, made Alkmaar Packet withdraw from the Texel ferry service in 1909.