V902 Libération

The Libération was a patrol ship of the Belgian army that was used to guard the Rhine in the '50s. Due to their shallow draft, the “stars” of this class were only suitable for use on rivers and inland waterways.

The Rijnsmaldeel was disbanded in 1960 and in 1963 the Rhine stars found their new home in the naval base of Kallo. The ships were used, among other things, for surveillance assignments and for combating pollution on the Scheldt and in the port of Antwerp. They were then sold or donated one by one.

The command ship Libération, however, remained the property of the Belgian Naval Forces. The ship moved to Zeebrugge in 1989, where it was used as a representation vessel until 2010.

In 2012, the Royal Naval Cadet Corps was able to purchase the Libération from the Ministry of Defence. By Ministerial Decree of 19 November 2012, the ship was definitively protected as a sailing heritage and was restored in 2015-2016 by the GARDEC shipyard in Zeebrugge.

In September 2021, the flag of the navy's auxiliary ships flew from the mast of the Libération.