Hof der dingen - Ship Princess Astrid

You have no doubt noticed the image of the ship Prinses Astrid. Built in 1929 at the Cockerill Sambre shipyard in Hoboken, she was named after and christened in honour of Belgium’s future queen, Astrid of Sweden, wife of Crown Prince Leopold. Like her sister ships of the era, she boasted a black hull, a white superstructure, and two beige-coloured funnels and masts.

In 1930, she entered service, making her maiden voyage as a ferry between Ostend and Dover. During the Second World War, she was requisitioned for military service, taking part in several operations in 1942, including the Normandy landings. In 1946, she was returned to the Belgian government and resumed her original role as a ferry on the Ostend–Dover route. 

Yet the war would still seal her fate. On 21 June 1949, she struck an old naval mine left from the Second World War. Fatally damaged, she sank, taking five crew members with her. Fortunately, more than 270 passengers were able to transfer in time to other vessels before the Prinses Astrid was lost to the sea. 

It was Caroline Zonnekeyn who made this family heirloom from her parental home available to us