Vlissingen Naval Base (Dutch: Marine Etablissement Vlissingen) was a base for the Admiralty of Zeeland, and later the Dutch Navy. It has a number of major marine facilities of historic significance. It housed a shipyard for the Admiralty of Zeeland, and the national shipyard Rijkswerf Zeeland. Shipyard de Schelde would take over the grounds of the Rijkwerf, and still continues to build warships as Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding.
Location of Vlissingen
The location of Vlissingen on the mouth of the Schelde means that it can easily be reached by the biggest ships. Such was the case in the Middle Ages and this is still the case in the 21st century. What made Vlissingen a safe place for ships were the man-made facilities of the port. Large numbers of warships could lay in ordinary in the wet dock, and then be repaired either in the dry dock or on one of the slips of the Rijkswerf.
Facilities of the naval base at Vlissingen The Oosterhaven, the first dock The city walls of Vlissingen were expanded in the early seventeenth century. This brought some defensive canals inside the city walls and made room for a large harbor. From 1609 to 1614 an area roughly corresponding to the current dock and the now disappeared sea lock was dug out. Just north of the place of the later dry dock there was a sea lock with a bridge over it, the Sasbrugge. It explains why the city magistrates were already referring to a wet dock or 'Dokke', before the present dock was made. East of the Sasbrugge the new Oosterhaven was an open tidal harbour. It was also called 'herberghe' a big harbor that was not perfect, but was a safe place from storm and moving ice in winter.
The new harbor was not finished by simply digging out some ground. In 1622 the city decided to make a quay of 115 meter, which would become the Houtkade, with the Dishoeckhuis. In 1628 the continuation of this quay to the Sasbrug was ordered. And in 1629 the quay of the Peperdijk was ordered. The lock below the Sasbrug did not function well, and there were also problems with the dock. Ships were on the ground, and could not be put on their sides to careen them. It seems these problems brought about the ideas for a bigger and better wet dock for the fleet of the Dutch Republic.
The dock
In 1687 Stadtholder William III sent a letter to the States General requesting approval for the Zeeland Admiralty to create a suitable dock for the ships of the republic, that would otherwise completely decay. The city government had some reservations, especially about the removal of some private shipyards that had been founded around the existing dock. After threats that the dock would otherwise be made in Veere, the city agreed in April 1688. The council soon after also gave permission to demolish the old Rammekenspoort, that was obviously in the way.
The new and much larger wet dock was started in 1687 and finished in 1693, the total cost became 598,000 guilders. It consisted of a much wider and deeper stretch of water closed off by a sea lock. Near the end it was a bit shorter than the previous dock. The old Sasbrug was removed and replaced by a floating bridge in 1694. A big fleet could stay inside this dock, safe from enemies, storm, tides, and always with enough water below the keel. In times of peace this was perhaps just as important as during war, because then most ships would lay in ordinary. It meant that most of the masts, rigging and equipment were removed and only minimal maintenance was done. One can imagine that such a ship moved by the tides and hitting bottom now and then is damaged and decays much quicker than a ship lying in almost still water. The dock would regularly have to be dug out. In 1810 the French dug out the dock to 4.7 m below low tide.
The Sea Lock
The sea lock was a major technical challenge because of its proximity to the sea, and the very unstable underground. The foundations were repeatedly destroyed by movements in the ground, the naval shipworm and water rising up below the foundations. In 1744 the first sea-lock became defunct.
In order to build a new sea lock dams were made on both sides of the existing lock. A new lock was built from 1745 - 1753. It was almost 39.30 m long, 14.60 wide, and deep 2.5 m below low tide. It was a very solid construction, because it would take almost 30 years before significant repairs were necessary. Even then the repairs were probably only the doors.
In 1806 the French widened the upper part of the sea lock to 17.5 m, a creative act, but it did not lead to a properly functioning lock. In 1810 the French lengthened the lock to 46.22 m, it became 17.5 m wide overall and was made deeper by a dangerous construction. On the other hand, the costly work was already finished in 1812. In 1833 some wooden parts of the lock were found floating in the water. In 1834 the situation was investigated. It led to provisional repairs in 1834–1835. In the early 1840s repairs were made by diving bell and candle-light. From 1847 till November 1848 the lock was made dry and thorough repairs were made on the sea-side of the lock for a cost of 243,000 guilders.
The Dry Dock
The first dry-dock of the Netherlands was built adjacent to the dock from 1704 to 1705, at a cost of 37,000 guilders It was nicknamed 'Perry's dokje' after Captain John Perry who designed it in 1697. Perry (1670-1733) was an engineer later known for his book The State of Russia under the Present Czar (1716) and other works. The curious location of the dock between two bodies of water has to do with the constant water level in the dock. The traditional way to empty a dry dock was to put a ship in at high tide, and then to get rid of most of the water by letting it flow out at low tide. Of course the latter could not be done on the dock side. The dry dock has a ship shaped form in order to lessen the amount of remaining water that had to be pumped out. The pumps were driven by a horse-mill.
The main problem of the dry dock that engineers were not able to keep the water from the dock out of the dry dock. The solution for making a waterproof lock gate for a dry dock was the caisson or ship-door invented in France in 1683, but this solution was not applied. In 1737 an amount of water suddenly welled up near the doors, and in 1738 the same happened on the other side. There were some repairs, but these were not completely effective. The naval shipworm also played its part, and from 1737 to 1745 the dry dock gradually fell into disrepair. After that it would not function for decades. The need for a dry dock was generally recognized, but nothing much was done.
After almost a century of disuse, the old dry dock was fixed from 1836 to 1837 for 176,000 guilders. The traditional lock gate doors were replaced by a caisson door. The lock on the city side of the dry dock (Leeuwensluis) was replaced by a dam and the Leeuwensluis itself widened and joined to the existing dry dock. The dry dock then measured 69 m by 18.7 m. A steam engine was installed to empty it. Because of the enlargement the restored dry dock could welcome almost any Dutch warship. The Adolf van Nassau with a length of 72.86 m p.p., launched in 1861, was probably the first Dutch warship that did not fit in the Vlissingen dry dock.
Voorhaven and Buitenhaven The Voorhaven (Harbor in front) was a stretch of water between the sea lock and the sea. It always took a lot of effort to keep this harbor at the required depth for ships to reach the sea lock. Part of it was done by flushing out water from the dock at high speed, so all kinds of sand and sediment was pushed to sea. The Buitenhaven was the harbor outside of the city. The fairway from open sea through the Buitenhaven to the Voorhaven also had to be kept at depth. Ships could anchor safely in the Buitenhaven, but had to move elsewhere in winter.
The first Admiralty shipyard During the Dutch Republic naval affairs were handled by 5 local admiralties. The Admiralty of Zeeland had multiple shipyards, the most important one was situated in Vlissingen. Before the creation of the current dock the admiralty shipyard was located at the city-end of the first dock. That is about where later the large building slips of the Rijkswerf were made. Like the private shipyards at that location, the admiralty shipyard had to be moved to a new location when the current dock was made.
The second Admiralty shipyard
After the creation of the current dock the admiralty shipyard was moved. The shipyard and its slips were relocated just outside of the new dock on the east side of the Voorhaven. Some private shipyards were located on the other side of the Voorhaven. Apart from the house of the all buildings of the admiralty shipyard were consumed by the fire of 1749.
The admiralty shipyard was rebuilt. A map of the 1798 situationMap of the 1798 situation shows what buildings and slips the Admiralty yard had at the time. At that moment it had two big slips, one small slip, and a slipway that could be used to pull ships out of the water. A map from 1807 shows that it still had 4 slipways.
While the admiralty shipyard did not build that many ships, the yard build some relatively big ships. The rationale behind it was that up to a certain size, bigger ships were cheaper than smaller ships. These could easily be built in Vlissingen, because of the location on the deep Schelde. On the contrary Amsterdam had to lift bigger ships on camels in order to get them to sea.
Zeemagazijn or Arsenal The most prominent building of the yard was the Zeemagazijn, also called ArsenalArsenal (not to be confused with the 'old arsenal' or the present arsenal dating from the French time). After a fire in 1749, the admiralty asked for permission to build a new arsenal in 1767. The first stone was laid on 12 October 1767. It was destroyed by the English in 1809, who left nothing but the bare walls. In 1810 the French started to rebuild as a more massive bomb-free building with big buttresses. The walls were between 1.5 and 1.9 meter thick, and the roof was made of stone. In 1825 the roof was replaced by one made of zinc and having a small gallery at the top. It provided a good view of the harbor. Later a Time ball was attached to the top of the building, enabling sailors to set their Marine chronometers. On the inside a room was made to do meteorologic observations. Inside the building there were three levels with 6 large rooms each and housed everything needed for equipping a ship, including a sail workplace. After the navy left the building was used shipyard De Schelde from 1875. The building was demolished in 1968–1969.
The Masthouse In front of the arsenal there was a sheerleg to place masts in ships and to remove masts from ships. The masts where stored in the masthouse (). For ships that were put in reserve in the dock, it made sense to dismount the upper parts of the masts before entering the dock, and to store these in a building there, instead of moving them overland. This made even more sense because these parts were interchangeable between ships. Therefore, we know what the 1779 picture of the admiralty yard depicts: It is a view from the top of the masthouse towards the great arsenal, and depicts the slips, and a ship in the dock behind the sea lock. The mastloods was destroyed in 1809.
The French time