Sale To Belgium
On 20 July 2005, the Belgian government decided to buy two of the remaining six Dutch M-class frigates to replace the two remaining frigates of the Wielingen class (Wielingen and Westdiep) currently in service with the Belgian Naval Component. On 22 December 2005, Karel Doorman and Willem van der Zaan were sold to Belgium.
The HNLMS Karel Doorman was taken out of service in 2006 and turned over to the Belgian Naval Component on 29 March 2007 when it was christened the F930 Leopold I, in honour of the first King of the Belgians, by Queen Fabiola of Belgium at the Zeebrugge Naval Base. The patronage of the F930 Leopold I was accepted by the city of Nivelles. The Willem van der Zaan was commissioned into the Belgian Naval Component as the F931 Louise-Marie in April 2008.
Read more about this topic: Belgian Frigate Leopold I (F930)
Famous quotes containing the word sale:
“[T]he dignity of parliament it seems can brook no opposition to it’s power. Strange that a set of men who have made sale of their virtue to the minister should yet talk of retaining dignity!”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)