The 1959 HMS Enterprise was a compact Echo-class coastal survey ship, not the later multi-role vessel. At only 122 tons standard and 163 tons full load, she nevertheless worked the English east coast, English Channel, and North Sea. Her visits extended through Belgium and the Netherlands and as far upriver as Cologne on the Rhine. The example demonstrates why coastal hydrography needs small hulls able to enter waters inaccessible to ocean-survey ships.
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The 1959 HMS Enterprise on rivers, coasts, and the North Sea
A 163-ton Echo-class vessel shows how very small survey ships could work from the English Channel to inland European waterways.