Happy Birthday Holland America Line!

Left to right: Holland America Line employees Martha Johnsen, Kate Rojecki, Fauzi Daud, Trina Holm, President and CEO Stein Kruse, Steve Simao, Laurie Bohn, Joe Laing, Blog Board member Simon Douwes, Paul Grigsby and Vazul Szakacs. Daud, the line’s human resources manager, has been with the company for an impressive 35 years.

Holland America Line turns 135 today! The company opened in Rotterdam, Netherlands, April 18, 1873, as the catchily named Nederlandsch-Amerikaansche Stoomvaart Maatschappij, or, translated into English, the Netherlands-America Steamship Company. Since then, the line has carried more than 10 million passengers from Europe to the New World and to vacation destinations across the globe.

Holland America Line has been headquartered in Seattle, Wash., since 1983 and last year reopened a sales and marketing office in Rotterdam.

Through the years, Holland America Line was a cargo line shipping goods from Europe, transported thousands of immigrants to the U.S. and Canada in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and supported the Allied cause during two world wars.

Purchased by Carnival Corp. in 1989, the company grew rapidly through a shipbuilding program that has seen the introduction of 13 new vessels, with Eurodam the 14th ship in the fleet.

Today, Holland America Line’s fleet offers nearly 500 cruises to 314 ports of call in 97 countries, territories or dependencies.