This concerns the Virtus, a shrimp cutter from 1965 that was built in Zeebrugge. The ship has been on dry land since 2010, not far from the fishermen’s cross in Zeebrugge. It was restored in 2011 by the province of West Flanders and the city of Bruges was then responsible for the maintenance of the ship and the greenery around it. Municipal councilor Jean-Marie De Plancke asked a question about it during the municipal council and received a surprising response from mayor Dirk De fauw.
“After my interpellation at the municipal council about the ship, the mayor said, to everyone’s surprise, that we have been the owner of the ship since 2011. This means that we are actually also responsible for the maintenance of the boat, but no one knew that. The boat has not been looked at for twelve years and it now looks very dilapidated,” says De Plancke.