In naval service the vessel had a fully loaded displacement of 2,977 tonnes (2,930 long tons).

[1][a] The ship is powered by a diesel-electric system composed of three Stork-Werkspoor 8-FCHD-240 diesel engines and one motor turning one shaft creating 2,040 kilowatts (2,730 hp).

[1][2] The vessel had six laboratories[1] and mounted a flight deck and hangar large enough to operate small helicopters.

The vessel was equipped with Atlas DESO-10 echo sounders, EDO-Western type 515 deep sea echo sounder, ELAC-Mittellodar wreckage sonar, Geometrics G-801 magnetometer, bottom diggers, radiosondes, barometers and Kelvin Hughes, hull-mounted side-scan sonar.

[1] The vessel was named after Vice Admiral Gustaaf Frederik Tydeman, a hydrographer of the Siboga Expedition (1899–1900) in the Dutch East Indies.

[4] Used for civilian and military research, the vessel became the namesake of the Tydeman fracture zone (36°N 23°W), between Madeira and the Azores which was part of the project investigating the area in 1977.