A wooden model of the tanker SULTAN VAN KOETEI is showed on this stamp.
The tanker was built under yard No 62 by N.V. Nederlandsche Scheepsbouw-Maatschappij, Amsterdam for the Koninklijke Nederlandsche Maatsch. Tot Expl. Van Petroleumbronnen in Nederlandsch East Indies, Pangkalan Brandan, Netherlands East India.
29 October 1904 launched as the SULTAN VAN KOETEI, named after the Sultanate of Koetei (Kutai) on the Borneo east coast, Indonesia.
Tonnage 1,865 gross, 1,061 net, 2,800 dwt,. Dim. 73.20 x 12.81 x 6.10m.
One 3-cyl. triple expansion steam engine, manufactured by N.V. Nederlandsche Fabriek van Werktuigen & Spoorwegmaterieel N.V., Amsterdam, 1,200 ihp, one shaft, speed 9 knots.
15 December 1904 trials and delivered to owners.
She was used as what we now call a shuttle tanker to transport crude oil from Borneo to refineries on Sumatra.
20 March 1905 stranded on the Admiral Stellingwerf Reef off Bintan Island, refloated with great difficulty and repaired in Singapore.
1908 Transferred to the N.V. Bataafsche Petroleum Mij, Batavia not renamed.
1922 Sold to Anglo Saxon Petroleum Co. Ltd., Singapore not renamed.
1931 Sold to Companhia Shell, Lisbon, Portugal and renamed SHELL DEZASSETE.
1941 Sold to Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Co. Ltd., London and renamed LOTTIA. What she was doing during the war I am not sure but Roger Jordan in his book The World’s Merchant Fleets in 1939 does not mentioned her, so probably used as bunkerboat during the war.
1947 Again owned by Companhia Shell, Lisbon and renamed again SHELL DEZASSETTE. First used as a coastal tanker in Portugal. Her last years was she used as a tankcleaning vessel on the Tagus River, Lisbon, so most probably during the war she never left Portugal.
January 1958 sold for scrap to Artur Cardosa Pessoa, Lisbon, who commenced scrapping in March 1958.
Netherlands 2015 first class mail sg?, scott?
Source: http://www.marhisdata.nl/main.php?to_page=schip&id=6304 http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz And various other web-sites.