Built as a light cruiser under yard No 652 by Wilton Fijenoord, Rotterdam for the Dutch Royal Navy.
16 September 1933 laid down.
11 March 1935 launched as the DE RUYTER named after the Dutch Admiral Michiel de Ruyter.
Displacement 6,442 ton standard, 7,822 ton full load, dim. 170.92 x 15.7 x 5.1m. (draught).
Powered by three Parsons geared steam turbines, 66,000 shp, two shafts, speed 32 knots.
Bunker capacity 1,300 ton oil.
Range by a speed of 12 knots, 6,800 mile.
Armament: 7 – 150mm guns, 10 – 40mm Bofors AA, 8 – 12.7mm Browing MG.
Crew 435.
03 October 1936 commissioned.
HNLMS DE RUYTER (Dutch: Hr.Ms. DE RUYTER) was a unique light cruiser of the Royal Netherlands Navy. She was originally designed as a 5,000-long-ton (5,100 t) ship with a lighter armament due to financial problems and the pacifist movement. Later in the design stage, an extra gun turret was added and the armor was improved. She was the seventh ship of the Dutch Navy to be named after Admiral Michiel Adriaenszoon DE RUYTER.
DE RUYTER was laid down on 16 September 1933 at the Wilton-Fijenoord dockyard in Schiedam and commissioned on 3 October 1936, commanded by Captain A. C. van der Sande Lacoste. She was sunk in the Battle of the Java Sea in 1942.
Design
DE RUYTER was designed during the Great Depression, which, in addition to being a period of economical depression, was also a period in which pacifism was widespread in the Netherlands. For these reasons, the design was officially called a flottieljeleider (flotilla leader) instead of a cruiser, and every effort was made to cut costs.
Its function was to aid the two existing cruisers of the Java class in the defence of the Dutch East Indies; the idea was that with three cruisers, there would always be two cruisers available, even if one cruiser had to be repaired.
However, due to the cost-cutting policy that went into her design, DE RUYTER was not quite up to her task. Her main battery (7 × 150 mm guns) was underpowered in comparison to other light cruisers of the time (for example the British Leander class), and the class had inadequate armour as well and lacked long range anti-aircraft guns. However, her fire control system was excellent.
Service history
12 January 1937 she sailed from the Netherlands bound for the Dutch East Indies, where she arrived on 05 March 1937. During World War II, DE RUYTER saw repeated action in the Dutch East Indies in fruitless attempts to ward off the Japanese invasion. She was damaged by air attack in the battle of Bali Sea on 4 February 1942, but not seriously. She fought in the battle of Badung Strait on 18 February.
In the Battle of the Java Sea on 27 February, DE RUYTER was the flagship of the Dutch Rear-Admiral Karel Doorman, with his flag captain Eugène Lacomblé (who had previously served on board the ship as a lieutenant). Off the north coast off Java on the evening of the 27th the remains of the ABDA fleet was surprised by the Japanese heavy cruisers NACHI and HAGURO. DE RUYTER was hit by a single Type 93 torpedo fired by HAGURO at about 23:30, and she sank at about 02:30 the next morning with the loss of 345 men, including Admiral Doorman and Captain Lacomblé.
109 Crew were taken POW one sailor was picked up by a unknown ship, one American crew member Marvin Edward Sholar was picked up by the USS S-37.
Her wreck was found after the war (in 2002) and declared a war grave, with the ship's two bells — one now in the Kloosterkerk in the Hague— being recovered.
Netherlands 1944 5c sg598, scott?
(Stanley Gibbons give also that she is depict on the Marshall Island stamp 1992 29c sg412 scott300, which is given by Watercraft Philately as the Dutch destroyer EVERTSEN but she took not part in the Battle of the Java Sea. I agree that its looks the EVERTSEN is depict with in the background the USS HOUSTON, but found that most probably the KORTENAER is depict, she took part in the battle and sank broken in two as given:
http://www.shipstamps.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =2&t=15497 )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HNLMS_De_Ruyter_(1935)
