This brought some defensive canals inside the city walls and made room for a large harbor.

It was also called 'herberghe' a big harbor that was not perfect, but was a safe place from storm and moving ice in winter.

It seems these problems brought about the ideas for a bigger and better wet dock for the fleet of the Dutch Republic.

[2] In 1687 Stadtholder William III sent a letter to the States General requesting approval for the Zeeland Admiralty to create a suitable dock for the ships of the republic, that would otherwise completely decay.

The city government had some reservations, especially about the removal of some private shipyards that had been founded around the existing dock.

[3] A big fleet could stay inside this dock, safe from enemies, storm, tides, and always with enough water below the keel.

[8] The first dry-dock of the Netherlands was built adjacent to the dock from 1704 to 1705, at a cost of 37,000 guilders [9] It was nicknamed 'Perry's dokje' after Captain John Perry who designed it in 1697.

The dry dock has a ship shaped form in order to lessen the amount of remaining water that had to be pumped out.

The naval shipworm also played its part, and from 1737 to 1745 the dry dock gradually fell into disrepair.

The Adolf van Nassau with a length of 72.86 m p.p., launched in 1861, was probably the first Dutch warship that did not fit in the Vlissingen dry dock.

It always took a lot of effort to keep this harbor at the required depth for ships to reach the sea lock.

Part of it was done by flushing out water from the dock at high speed, so all kinds of sand and sediment was pushed to sea.

Later a Time ball was attached to the top of the building, enabling sailors to set their Marine chronometers.

Inside the building there were three levels with 6 large rooms each and housed everything needed for equipping a ship, including a sail workplace.

In mid July 1814 Rear Admiral Otto Wilem Gobius (1758-1848) was appointed as 'directeur' of the Maritime etablissement Vlissingen and 'commander' of the Ships and Vessels of War in the Zeeland waters.

The equipment yard (Werf van Uitrusting) was situated close to the sea, and included the terrain of the old shipyard.

An early 19th century map shows that most of the terrain of the previous yard remained rather empty.

In 1814 it was called 'Magazijn Generaal der levensmiddelen van oorlog', indicating that in 1814 it was used as a general warehouse for foodstuff.

[19] A small section of buttressed wall remains in the Onderstraat, and may be the only building that's left of the Rijkswerf.

In September 1817 a tender was announced for paving the terrain in front of the recently built takelmagazijn.

After passing through the gate, on the right hand, there was an extensive timber warehouse built of wood on a stone foundation.

In Antwerp the Dutch ships of the line Hollandais and Tromp and the frigates Minerva and Van der Werf and a schooner were found.

The intrinsic problem of these ships was that they had been constructed too quickly, out of the wrong wood, and with bad workmanship.

On 13 October 1814 the ex-French ship of the line Caesar of 74 guns arrived from Antwerp, and on the 14th the Charlemagne of 84.

The ship was noted to have 80 guns and a draught of 21 feet 8 inch[38] On 14 September 1815 the Frigate Minerva under Pietersen arrived from Antwerp.

On 21 November 1815 a squadron under VA van Braam left Vlissingen for the Dutch West Indies.

[40] After repairs the Prins van Oranje, destined for the Mediterranean left the dock for the harbor on 24 Augustus.

While the yard was busy trying to put old ships to sea, it probably did not have a slipway required to build a serious new warship.

After the last of these, the Citadel van Antwerpen was finished and towed out in August 1868 the evacuation of the shipyard started.

After the Rijkswerf left Vlissingen, the grounds of the construction yard were bought by shipyard De Schelde.