Mare Liberum (ship)

In 1923 the ship was sold to P. J. de Baare from Breskens, who used it as Catholina (BR20) and in 1929 equipped the boat with a Kromhout diesel engine of 50 hp, built in 1921.

After a new engine was installed again in 1961, this time a Berliet MDO.3.M of 150 hp, a sale to C. J. Walbroek from Breskens and renaming to Klaas (BR29), which was planned in 1961, did not materialize.

Instead, the de Baare brothers sold the ship in April 1964 to J. M. van Dorpel, who registered the boat as Wilhelmina (YE138) in Yerseke.

[1] In 1973 M. Letsch from Scheveningen took over the Wilhelmina and renamed her Alida Jojanna (SCH138), and the following year the 24-year-old Douwe Amels from Makkum bought the ship and named her Albertina (WON52).

In 1976 the ship was sold again, this time to H. Bout from Colijnsplaat, who registered it in Kortgene and used it as Zeearend (KG5) until 1979, before passing it on to the Nelis brothers, who chose the name Albatros (KG12).

In 1981 the company Van Dienst & Westdorp from Goedereede took over the cutter, called it De Wil en’t Gemoed, with the fishing vessel license number GO46, and had a Mitsubishi S6 BTK diesel engine of 240 hp installed.

[6] The Mare Liberum association was able to document a total of 321 incidents between March and December 2020, in which 9,798 refugees were forcibly driven back to Turkey.

According to their statement, political pressure and the formation of a new SAR zone under Tunisian jurisdiction could create a situation were they are ordered to bring people to Tunisia, which the activists deemed an "unsafe" place.