A ceremony has been held at the Zeebrugge military dockyard in West Flanders to mark the transfer of two ships from the Belgian to the Bulgarian Navy. In future the frigate F910 Wielingen and the mine-sweeper M922 Myosotis (Forget-me-not) will be known as the ‘Verni’ and the ‘Tsibar’.

The F910 Wielingen was the last of the Wielingen class frigates in the Belgian Navy’s fleet.

Four Wielingen class frigates were built from the early 1970’s onwards at the Boel Shipyard in Temse (East Flanders) and the Cockerill shipyard in Hoboken, near Antwerp.

They took their names from well-known sandbanks off the Flemish coast.

The F913 Westhinder was decommissioned in 1993.

The remaining three frigates (F910 Wielingen, F911 Westdiep and the F912 Wandelaar) have all been sold to the Bulgarians.

De M922 Myosotis (Forget-me-not) is a flower-class mine-sweeper.

Each of the flower-class ships was named after a flower.

The Myosotis was built at the Mercantile-Belyard shipyard in Rupelmonde (East Flanders).

During the ceremony the name plates and ships bells were handed over to representatives of the ships’ patron towns  Koksijde (West Flanders) and Malmedy (Liège province).

They will set sail for Bulgaria on February 10.

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