Photos

Vlissingen. Sailing on the River Scheldt. Point of view is Vlissingen. Blurred is Breskens.
The Western Scheldt (Westerschelde) in the province Zeeland in the southwestern Netherlands, is an estuary of the Scheldt river. It is an important shipping route to Antwerp, Belgium. Therefore, unlike the other sea arms, it is not closed by a dam as part of the Delta Works. Instead, the dykes around it have been heightened and reinforced.

Many ships have sunk in the Western Scheldt. Following an agreement between the Netherlands and Flanders governments in 1995, many of these wrecks have been removed to improve shipping access to Antwerp. It was expected that the last 38 wrecks in the shipping channel would be removed during 2003. The largest wreck was the 131 metre long Alan A. Dale which was removed during June 2003.