The conflicts

Since Belgium raised its own flag in 1830 its merchant navy has been caught up in seven armed conflicts, and its sea fishery hardest of all. The Second World War is the best documented and forms the core of this database; the First cost the fleet proportionally more. In the later conflicts the Belgian contribution was mainly naval, and little about the merchant service itself was recorded. What follows says, for each period, how much we actually hold.

1. 1830–1839Independence and the closing of the ScheldtNo ship lost in action, and still the heaviest blow: Antwerp was cut off from the sea and stayed cut off for thirty years.Blockade · background
2. 1914–1918The First World WarThe fleet's worst war. Almost the whole coastal fishery fled to England; 74 fishermen died and the merchant navy lost forty per cent of its tonnage.War · vessels by name
3. 1939–1945The Second World WarThe core of this database: sixty-six crew lists, the ships that were lost and the people who were aboard.War · full database
4. 1950–1953The Korean WarThe Belgian volunteer corps sailed from Antwerp to Pusan aboard the state vessel Kamina. No merchant loss is known.War · background
5. 1960The Congo CrisisThe CMB's Congo liners carried evacuees away, but the armed action at Matadi was naval, not merchant.Crisis · background
6. 1980–1988The Gulf tanker warIran and Iraq attacked shipping 451 times between them. Belgium sent minehunters, and the Belgian tanker Naess Leopard was hit herself by two Iranian rockets.War · vessels by name
7. 1990–1991The Gulf WarMinehunters again: Operation Southern Breeze, and afterwards command of a Belgian-French-Dutch clearance group.War · background
8. 2009Piracy: the PompeiTen crew held for more than seventy days by Somali pirates. It led to the first conviction of a pirate kingpin in Europe.Hijacking · vessels by name