Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding

The Dutch shipyard Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding was founded in 1875 and today belongs to the Women's Group. The shipbuilding company based in Vlissingen.

History

The company was founded by Arie Smit. This came from a traditional South Holland shipbuilders family. In Vlissingen he founded in 1875 on the abandoned site of the former shipyard of Koninklijke Marine Koninklijke Maatschappij " De Schelde " Scheepswerf s Maschinefabriek (KMS ).

The company performed well in the following decades. In 1906, the KMS built on his own account the first Dutch submarine, the Luctor et Emergo. In later years, the shipyard repeatedly ships for the Dutch Navy. During the German occupation of several contracts were awarded for the construction of destroyers of the type fleet torpedo boat in 1940 to the company. The main business was the construction of various merchant ships. Noteworthy are a number of ferries and many line passenger ships. In addition to operating machinery and boiler and cooling systems created. At times, were also completely throw someone else's products, such as bridges or even buses and airplanes to the building program of the company.

On 4 March 1966, the KMS merged with the shipyard Rotterdamsche Dry Dock Maatschappij and the Motorenfabriek Thomassen for Rijn - Schelde en Machinefabrieken Scheepswerven ( RSMS ). Under pressure from the government, which had run into financial difficulties Verolme Verenigde Scheepswerven ( VVSW ) joined the group from Rotterdam on January 1, 1971 which subsequently was renamed as Scheepswerven en Rijn - Schelde - Verolme Machinefabrieken (RSV ).

On April 6, 1983, the RSV went bankrupt and then the KMS also stood at the abyss. After the unbundling of the bankrupt company, the Dutch state took over together with the province of Zeeland, the company's shares. Not least thanks to several new orders of Koninklijke Marine persisted the shipyard. Since 1991, the company Koninklijke Schelde Groep BV ( KSG ) and changed its name in 2000 took over the women's holding of Gorinchem the operation to which it belongs today.