We are delighted to announce that we held our mixing of the waters ceremony at Flanders Maritime Laboratory. This traditional ceremony goes back to the very first (Torquay and Haslar) towing tanks in the world opened by William Froude and his son, Eddie Froude. With the mixing of water from the first tank into the second, both tanks were symbolically linked. This ceremony has been performed all over the world linking all towing tanks to each other.
On December 19th drops of three towing tanks (the oldest tank, Torquay; the oldest commercial towing tank Denny in Dumberton and the sister tank from Antwerp) have been brought together in our youngest towing tank for manoeuvres in shallow water, Ostend (thank you James Warren and Chris Richardsen from QinetiQ and Dougie McCann and David Mann from Denny tank). The ceremony was performed by dr. Katrien Eloot, president of the Knowledge Centre Manoeuvring in Shallow and Confined Water; Prof. Evert Lataire, head of the Maritime Technology Division Ghent University and dr. Steven Kaptein, Director of Flanders Hydraulics.
With this ceremony we want to emphasize the importance of collaborations between companies working in the maritime field with the 150th anniversary of William Froude opening the first ship tank and the Ostend Company (1722-1731) given their permission to operate as a joint stock corporation by Emperor Charles VI on December 19th 1722. In addition, the reputation of the Denny ship model experiment tank was established thanks to an order of the Belgian Government for a fast vessel operating between Dover and … Ostend!
We will bring you in 2023 some related history and future developments through our media, website and newsletter.
Warmth and sympathy for 2023.
