Dienst der Hydrografie

Last updated
Royal Netherlands Navy Hydrographic Service
Dienst der Hydrografie
Founded1874;150 years ago (1874)
CountryFlag of the Netherlands.svg Netherlands
Branch Royal Netherlands Navy
Part of Ministry of Defence

The Royal Netherlands Navy Hydrographic Service (Dutch: Dienst der Hydrografie) is a department within the Royal Netherlands Navy that is responsible for surveying and charting the waters of the Netherlands, and of the waters in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. [1] It also informs mariners about shipping routes, the seabed and underwater hazards such as shipwrecks by making use of its nautical charts, measurements and detailed knowledge about the maritime borders of the Kingdom. [2]

Contents

History

The Royal Netherlands Navy Hydrographic Service was founded in 1874 as Bureau Hydrografie. [3] It was led by a Chef der Hydrografie, with the first chef being A.R. Blommendal. [3] Since its creation the Hydrographic service has been responsible for chartering the waters of the Netherlands and tasked with reporting any changes of the fairways to the maritime transport sector. [4] These reports are regularly published under the title "Bericht aan Zeevarenden" (BAZ). [4]

Ships

HNLMS Luymes during the Dutch Navy Days 2013 Zr.Ms. Luymes.JPG
HNLMS Luymes during the Dutch Navy Days 2013
HNLMS Snellius Hr.Ms. Snellius.jpg
HNLMS Snellius

The Dutch Hydrographic Service currently operates two survey vessels which entered service in 2003 and 2004: HNLMS Snellius and HNLMS Luymes.

Equipment

The vessels of the Dutch Hydrographic Service are equipped with the most modern hydrographic equipment available. Soundings are taken with a multibeam echosounder which covers a much larger area than a single-beam echo sounder. The vessels also tow high-resolution side-scan sonar (HRSS) and a magnetometer to detect wrecks and other obstacles.

Tasks and operations

The primary task of the Dutch Hydrographic Service is to provide tools for safe navigation in Dutch waters.

Highly frequented routes require more attention than less frequented parts of the North Sea and are thus being surveyed at least every two years (some areas in the Rotterdam approach even annually) Above that the southern part of the Dutch North Sea which attracts most of the traffic is covered with sandy shoals forming a great risk for deep-draught vessels. The important fairways to Rotterdam and IJmuiden are maintained and surveyed by the North Sea Service (Dienst Noordzee) of the Rijkswaterstaat.

The data of soundings and the information concerning obstacles is compiled by the Dienst der Hydrografie in The Hague together with information from other sources. Charts in the A0 format are produced mainly for merchant shipping. Additionally, there are charts of the so-called 1800 series in the A2 format for recreational shipping.

Other publications are the "Netherlands Coast Pilot" (HP1) describing the coasts and harbours of the Dutch coast and the tide tables and tidal stream atlas (HP33).

Changes important for shipping concerning buoys, wrecks etc. are published in the weekly Berichten aan Zeevarenden (Dutch Notice to Mariners) in order to provide for the update of charts and pilots.

Remarks

Notes

Citations

  1. ↑ "Area of expertise of the Hydrographic Service". Defensie.nl.
  2. ↑ "Hydrographic Service". Defensie.nl.
  3. 1 2 Woudstra (1982), p. 159.
  4. 1 2 Raven (1988), p. 72.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Netherlands Armed Forces</span> Combined military forces of the Netherlands

The Netherlands Armed Forces are the military services of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The core of the armed forces consists of the four service branches: the Royal Netherlands Navy, the Royal Netherlands Army, the Royal Netherlands Air Force and the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee. The service branches are supplemented by various joint support organisations. In addition, local conscript forces exist on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba (AruMil) and Curaçao (CurMil). These operate under the auspices of the Royal Netherlands Navy and the Netherlands Marine Corps. The armed forces are organisationally part of the Ministry of Defence.

The Royal Netherlands Navy is the naval force of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is one of the four Netherlands Armed Forces. It was founded on 8 January 1488, making it the third-oldest naval force in the world.

A hydrographic office is an organization which is devoted to acquiring and publishing hydrographic information.

HNLMS <i>Walrus</i> (1985) Submarine

HNLMS Walrus (S802) was a Walrus-class submarine of the Royal Netherlands Navy. After a long delay following a serious fire during construction, the submarine entered service in 1992. Walrus was deployed both for naval exercises and in combat operations around the world. She was decommissioned in October 2023.

HNLMS <i>Karel Doorman</i> (A833) Multi-function support ship

HNLMS Karel Doorman is a multi-function support ship for amphibious operations of the Royal Netherlands Navy, which is also used by the German Navy. The ship replaced both of the navy's replenishment oilers: HNLMS Zuiderkruis and HNLMS Amsterdam. At 204.7 m she is the largest ship in service with the Royal Netherlands Navy.

HNLMS <i>Rotterdam</i> (L800) Landing Platform Dock

HNLMS Rotterdam is the lead ship in the Rotterdam-class landing platform dock of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The ship is named after the Dutch city of Rotterdam.

<i>Alkmaar</i>-class minehunter

The Alkmaar class is a ship class of fifteen minehunters that were built in the Netherlands for the Royal Netherlands Navy. They are based on the design of the Tripartite class, which was developed by a collaborative effort between the Netherlands, Belgium and France, and replaced the minesweepers and minehunters of the Dokkum class.

HNLMS <i>Poolster</i> (A835)

HNLMS Poolster was a replenishment ship serving with the Royal Netherlands Navy. Poolster entered service on 29 June 1964. In 1994 she was decommissioned and sold to the Pakistan Navy where the ship was renamed Moawin. A later replenishment ship Zuiderkruis was based on Poolster. In the Dutch navy she was replaced by the replenishment ship Amsterdam. She was the first ship in the Dutch navy with inbuilt protection against radioactive fallout.

HNLMS <i>Mercuur</i> Submarine support ship

HNLMS Mercuur (A900) is a submarine support ship of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The ship was built and designed specially to support the Dutch submarines. She entered service on 21 August 1987, and is the only surface vessel attached to the Dutch submarine service.

Roofdier-class frigate Ship class

The Roofdier class was a class of six frigates that were built in the United States as Patrol Craft Escorts (PCE) for the Netherlands. The frigates were loaned to the Royal Netherlands Navy as part of the Mutual Defense Assistance Act (MDAP) and from 1954 to 1984 served as the Roofdier-class frigates.

HNLMS <i>Bruinvis</i> Submarine

HNLMS Bruinvis (S810) is a Walrus-class submarine of the Royal Netherlands Navy. She entered service in 1994 as the fourth and final submarine of the Walrus class, after HNLMS Walrus, Zeeleeuw and Dolfijn. Bruinvis has been deployed both for naval exercises and in combat operations around the world. As of December 2015 the submarine was in active service.

HNLMS <i>Holland</i> (P840) Offshore patrol vessel

HNLMS Holland is the first ship of the Holland-class offshore patrol vessels of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The ship was originally designed to fulfill patrol and intervention tasks against lightly armed opponents, such as pirates and smugglers. However, it also has very advanced electronic and radar surveillance capabilities which are used for military stabilization and security roles, short of outright war. Without sonar or long range weapons, it utilizes the surveillance capabilities of the Thales integrated mast, which integrates communication systems and two 4-faced phased arrays for air and surface search.

In April 2018, the Dutch Government approved a multi-year investment program for the Dutch Navy and allocated funds for the 2018–2030 period. The Dutch Defence Materiel Administration (DMO) is in charge of the procurement of these new ships.

<i>Snellius</i>-class hydrographic survey vessel

The Snellius class are two hydrographic survey vessel (HOV) ships in service with the hydrographic branch of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The ships were built by the Damen Group, with the hull being built in Romania by Damen Shipyards Galați and the fitting out in the Netherlands by Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding.

<i>Buyskes</i>-class hydrographic survey vessel Ships of the Royal Netherlands Navy.

The Buyskes class was a class of two hydrographic survey vessels that were part of the Dutch Hydrographic Service of the Royal Netherlands Navy. Together with HNLMS Tydeman the ships of this class were the main ships of the Dutch Hydrographic Service during the last quarter of the 20th century. While the ships of the Buyskes class were built for performing hydrographic research, the Tydeman was focused on oceanography.

HNLMS Wamandai (A870) was a tugboat of the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNN). She was built in the Netherlands and served between 1962 and 1985 in the RNN.

HNLMS <i>Rigel</i> (1931)

HNLMS Rigel was a multi-purpose steamship of the Government Navy that could also be used as minelayer and as yacht for the Governor-general of the Dutch East Indies. The ship was militarized in 1939 and taken into service of the Royal Netherlands Navy, where it served as minelayer between 1939 and 1942.

<i>Snellius</i>-class hydrographic survey vessel (1950)

The Snellius class was a ship class of two hydrographic survey vessels that were built in the Netherlands for the Royal Netherlands Navy. They were specially designed to be able to conduct surveys under tropical conditions.

HNLMS <i>Zeefakkel</i> (A903)

HNLMS Zeefakkel was a hydrographic survey vessel built in the Netherlands for the Royal Netherlands Navy. She was specially designed to perform surveys in coastal areas and did this between 1951 and 1972. Later she was turned into a training vessel.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.