They were found to be especially useful for inspecting and maintaining purpose built warships, the design of which had recently began to deviate from merchant sailing ships.

[1] In 1687 Stadtholder William III sent a letter to the States General requesting approval for the Zeeland Admiralty to raise a loan to create a large wet dock.

The proposal was approved, and LA Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest and two engineers visited Vlissingen and Veere to determine where, and how the wet dock should be built.

In turn the city moat was connected to the shallow harbor Pottekaai by means of a lock called Leeuwensluis, which was later replaced by a stone sluice.

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

[12] In 1763 the whole, but especially the sluice 'Steenen Beer' or Leeuwensluis, was in such a bad condition, that the Pottekaai harbor could no longer be kept up to depth by draining through the lock.

These orders included the brickwork of the ship lock, the drainage sewer, and the pit for placing the steam engines.

On 10 March 1838 there was a tender for making the upper camp shedding, a fence to close the terrain and for the removal of the dams.

An old model ship caisson then had two edges that fit these rabbets, allowing to vary the size of the part of the dock which had to be pumped dry.

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.

[35] On 16 January 1839 the frigate HNLMS Diana was in the dry dock when she caught fire and most of the ex-English ship was lost.

On 27 November 1848 repairs on the Sea Lock had progressed so far that the steam vessel Cerberus could enter the wet dock.

The lighter frigate of 44 guns old model had to be emptied and cleared of rigging and topmasts, in order to enter the harbor of Vlissingen (probably meaning Hellevoetsluis) at spring tide.

[57] On 31 December 1856 the ocean liner La Belgique of 84 m was brought into the dry dock, the mysterious message was that the ship caisson had to remain outside.

On 4 March 1858 the leaky steamer Gouverneur van Ewijk was tugged to Vlissingen, and was brought into the dry dock.

[59] The length of La Belgique showed that propeller driven ships were generally longer than their sail only counterparts.

On 2 July 1857 HNLMS Groningen, the first purpose-designed screw corvette of the Dutch navy visited the dry dock.

In October 1858 the ship of the line Koning der Nederlanden (84) was brought in the dock to be converted into the floating battery Neptunus.

[71] It's probably that the completed rebuilt of Willemsoord Dry Dock I opened the opportunity for repairs at Vlissingen Navy Drydock.

[73] On 23 September 1862 the corvette Prins Maurits was the first ship to enter the repaired dry dock, which was then emptied by the steam engine in the new building.

On 7 October 1862 the HNLMS De Ruyter was brought into the dry dock in order to be converted to a casemate ironclad.

[79] On 5 May 1864 the North American warship USS Kearsarge (1861) Captain Winslow came before Vlissingen after hitting the ground near Oostende.

[82] In October 1865 Vice Admiraal Koopman was serviced, as was the screw corvette Leeuwarden, and again Curaçao, and again Prins Maurits.

For Vlissingen Navy Drydock the year started as a continuation of the previous, with Vice Admiraal Koopman docking for a few weeks in January.

In September 1866, the budget for 1867 had the plan to move the armoring facilities to Amsterdam, and to subsequently stop building warships in Vlissingen.

On 1 February 1875 the leaky Belgian ship Victorine Hortence Captain Defraye entered the dry dock.

[89] In September 1875 Koninklijke Maatschappij De Schelde NV (KMS) was founded by taking over the former navy shipyard in Vlissingen, including the dry dock.

In March 1895 the 86.2 m long armored cruiser Evertsen, built by De Schelde, was put in that dry dock.

[101] In April 1936 De Schelde bought some land at the Steenen Beer in order to expand the dry dock.

In January 1938 De Schelde ordered a new dry dock of reinforced concrete 'on the island' (Op het Eiland).