[1] Droogdok Maatschappij Soerabaja (DMS) was founded on 22 September 1910 by a joint initiative of Dutch companies that included the Royal Rotterdam Lloyd, Java-China-Japan-Lijn and Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij.

[2] The company had a starting capital of 1 million Dutch guilders and the first director was A.C. Zeeman, a former chief inspector of the Dienst van Scheepvaart.

For example, in 1914 it successfully docked the Norwegian steamship Solveig, which had a weight of 4400 tons, as a test to see if the drydock could carry a ship of that tonnage.

[6][7] That same year DMS also started negotiations with the Dutch authorities about renting the 14.000 ton drydock, which was at the time in reserve at the Marine Etablissement in Soerabaja.

It started to provide repairs for kettles that were used to produce sugar and used its foundry to build work items that were used by the factories.

[22] Eventually DMS managed to reach an agreement with the shipyard Gusto to build the tin dredger together.

[21] Gusto would build the superstructure in the Netherlands and, after disassembling, ship it to the Dutch East Indies where everything would be put together and completed at DMS.

[23] On 20 and 21 August 1938 the dredger, in the meanwhile named Soengei Liat, successfully passed trials in the harbor of Soerabaja.

[24] The decade ended with DMS being in a good financial position and having favorable prospects regarding work and orders.

[1] The terrain of the shipyard was part of the Nieuwe Handelshaven and was rented from the Dutch East Indies government.