Sailing vessel ‘Batavia’ arrives at Damen Shiprepair Amsterdam to prepare for her final voyage, taking her onshore

The Batavia was launched and christened by Queen Beatrix on 7 April 1995 from this same dock. The collection of Museum Batavialand includes the Batavia, built between 1985 and 1995 as a full-scale reconstruction of the 1628 VOC ship and visited by some five million people since construction began.

Dr.G.R.Balakrishnan Sep 21 2026 Indian Ports News

Sailing vessel ‘Batavia’ arrives at Damen Shiprepair Amsterdam to prepare for her final voyage, taking her onshore

The Batavia, the full-scale reconstruction of the 1628 Dutch East India Company ‘retourschip’, arrived at Damen Shiprepair Amsterdam on Saturday 19 September after a six-hour tow. The 56.6-metre wooden ship made the passage afloat on her own hull, masts standing, under tow by two tugs of Koninklijke Van der Wees. At the Damen yard she will be lowered onto a 100+ tonne steel and wood cradle in dry dock 4, the first step in moving her permanently ashore at Museum Batavialand in nearby Lelystad.

The Batavia was towed rather than carried. Placing her on a pontoon for the passage would have introduced loads the hull is not built to carry, so she stayed in the water, with her full rig in place and a 30.5-metre air draught. The timber has been afloat for 31 years. In the 17th century these vessels could last between 15 to max. 25 years. Hence, the vessel must be handled with the utmost care.

Paul van de Craats, Commercial Manager at Damen Shiprepair Amsterdam: "I followed the construction of this ship during my own training years, under Mr Vos, and what struck me was that they built her authentically and taught young people the carpentry trade while doing it. We work the same way; we train our own people on the job to master ship repair. That is why this project means something here......"

The Batavia is scheduled to return to Lelystad on the pontoon on 1 October and to be moved ashore at Museum Batavialand on 2 October. The entire operation is part of Museum Batavialand's large-scale redevelopment.

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