Dutch Navy’s largest ship returns to sea after engine repairs

HNLMS Karel Doorman, the largest ship in service with the Royal Netherlands Navy, has taken to sea again after receiving a new engine during a reparation that lasted for almost a year.

The amphibious, multi-function support ship returned to the Den Helder base in April last year with a broken engine that needed to be replaced.

Due to the complexity of repairs, Dutch ministry of defense estimated that reparations would take around 8 months to be completed.

This month, a full year after the Karel Doorman returned home for the reparations, the Commander of the Royal Netherlands Navy announced on his official Twitter profile that the ship departed the Den Helder base on April 19 with her crew for propulsion tests.

Worth noting is the fact that the department of defense said it would seek to recover the reparation costs through a guarantee that was set out in the contract with the Dutch shipbuilder Damen.

HNLMS Karel Doorman was built by Damen in Galati, Romania. The 204-meter ship was launched in October 2012 and commissioned into the Royal Netherlands Navy in April 2015.