Freya was built in 1905 by J & K Smit, Kinderdijk, as Westerschelde sailing from Visslingen until 1933. In 1935 she was out of service and operating as a bunkering station. Recued for preservation in 1988 and fitted with a secondhand steam engine and boiler entered service around Rotterdam Harbour as Der Nederlander. Sold again in 1999, she has been used as a trip boat based in Kiel on the Kieler Foerd and the Kiel Canal but with occasional visits to Hamburg and Rostock.
She is now fitted with an auxiliary diesel engine and screw propeller, leaving Waverley to claim to be the only ocean-going paddlesteamer left in the world.