Boelwerf
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The Boelwerf, initially called J. Boel & Zonen, was a shipyard on the river Scheldt in Temse, Belgium, which produced ships from 1829 until 1994.
History
The Boelwerf was founded in 1829 by Bernard Boel (1798–1872), who had worked as a carpenter at the
After
During the same period, the Boelwerf's
On 19 December 1980, J. Boel & Zonen underwent a series of demergers. Several holding and shipping companies, such as the Almabo holding and its gas carrier division
End
Due to the international crisis in ship building, the Boelwerf got into financial straits in the mid-1980s and was declared bankrupt on 28 October 1992. The court-appointed receiver, Christian Van Buggenhout, filed a complaint for fraud, which he withdrew consequently. From the mid-1980s until the beginning of the 1990s, the shipyard had been kept afloat by the government, which had offered large shipping loans to the shipyard's potential clients. After the bankruptcy, most of these loans were either remitted or lost.
After several strikes and a union occupation, the company was restarted in 1993 under the ownership of the Flemish government holding Gimvindus. The company changed its name to Boelwerf Vlaanderen. This company finished the last seven orders and was declared bankrupt on 30 November 1994. Again, the receiver, Jozef Dauwe, had a lot of trouble cleaning up the mess. On 12 October 2004, the Boelwerf Vlaanderen board members were convicted of fraud with European education funds.
Redevelopment
In recent years, the former industrial estate, measuring almost 87 ha (215 acres), has been turned into an extension of Temse's town centre. In 1998, the grounds were bought by the development association Nieuw Temse nv, consisting of construction contractor Cordeel from Temse, earthworks contractor Grondwerken Aertssen from Stabroek, and
Famous ships
- E. R. Limburgia (1974)
- Prins Philippe (1973)
- MS Isle of Innisfree (former Prins Filip)(1991)
Notes
References
- (in Dutch) De Zaat residential area.
- (in Dutch) De nieuwe trots van Temse, De Standaard, 30 mei 2009.
- Professional approach to prestigious new project – ‘De Zaat’, Autodesk Buzzsaw.
External links
History links
- Jan Cap (1987), In naam van mijn klasse (Berchem: EPO) - online edition;
- Karel Heirbaut (1984), Onkruid op een scheepswerf (Berchem: Epo);
- Boelwerf Temse 1829-1994: blog about the Boelwerf, containing pictures and details on several ships.