The Royal Navy's Zr.Ms. Schiedam.
Registration: M 860.
The Zr.Ms. Schiedam is a Dutch minehunter of the Alkmaar class. The type of ship was developed in the '70s. The Zr.Ms. Schiedam was built by shipbuilder Van der Giessen de Noord in Alblasserdam and delivered to the Royal Netherlands Navy in 1986.
In the early 20th century, minesweepers were still built of steel, but with the advent of magnetic sea mines, steel was no longer useful. Until the '60s, minesweepers were mostly built of wood. As far as metals were necessary, aluminium and bronze were mainly used.
The hulls of the Alkmaar class ships are made of fibreglass-reinforced polyester, a material that is low-maintenance and stronger than steel. However, a disadvantage of polyester is that hull repairs are virtually impossible to carry out (a reason why wood is still used as a material for minesweepers) and the ships cannot be made longer.
This photo was taken on 1 July 2021 when the Zr.Ms. Schiedam arrived in the port of Den Helder.
I am Jaap van den Berg and photography has become a great passion of mine since 2010. Since then I travel all over the world to take pictures of military aircrafts. But besides aircraft I also love to photograph other subjects like landscapes, architecture, flowers, animals, .. Read more…