A cruiser is a warship that can perform many tasks such as fighting enemy warships, patrolling, protecting trade routes, reconnaissance tasks and strengthening the attack power of fleet units.In order to perform these tasks, it must have a large range and provide good accommodation for its crew for longer periods. The term cruiser was already used in the age of sail and did not so much refer to a specific type of ship, but rather to a task to be performed. Due to the introduction of the steam engine, armour plating and modern artillery, armoured ships, armoured cruisers, armoured deck cruisers and various variants such as ram tower cruisers appeared in the course of the 19th century. Later, the first battleships emerged from these.
During World War II, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Russia, the United States, Germany, Italy and Japan built a total of 87 cruisers, while at the beginning of the war they had 191 of these ships. A total of 113 were lost.
Types of cruisers:
Screw steamer or Unprotected cruiser: a ship without armor.
Protected cruiser: a type of ship with an armored deck that was replaced by the light cruiser.
Armored cruiser: a ship with an armored deck and armor along the sides. This type was replaced by the battle cruiser.
Armored ship: a type of ship with heavy guns intended to knock out enemy cruisers in coastal waters. Often used by smaller navies that could not afford or needed battleships.
Light cruiser: a lighter version of the armored cruiser.
Battle cruiser: a ship with similar armament to that of a battleship but with lighter armor
Heavy cruiser: a type of light cruiser with approximately 200mm guns.
The Royal Netherlands Navy has used three types of cruiser classes over the years (unprotected, protected and light class).
Unprotected cruisers
Atjeh class
Hull | Name | Class | Type | Commisioned | Decommisioned | Status |
-- | HNLMS Atjeh | Atjeh | Unprotected cruiser | 01-11-1877 | 1921 | Unknown |
-- | HNLMS Tromp | Atjeh | Unprotected cruiser | 01-09-1882 | 1904 | Sold for scrap |
-- | HNLMS Koningin Emma | Atjeh | Unprotected cruiser | 01-12-1880 | 23-06-1900 | Capsized 1942, salvaged and scuttled in April 1943 |
-- | HNLMS de Ruyter | Atjeh | Unprotected cruiser | 01-08-1885 | 27-05-1899 | Sold 29 May 1900 |
-- | HNLMS van Speyk | Atjeh | Unprotected cruiser | 16-07-1883 | -- | Instruction vessel, Sold for scrap 1946 |
-- | HNLMS Joahn Willem Friso | Atjeh | Unprotected cruiser | 01-02-1888 | 16-09-1897 | Sold for scrap in 1899 |
HNLMS Johan Willem Friso
No images available
Protected cruisers
HNLMS Sumatra and Koningin Wilhelmina der Nederlanden
Hull | Name | Class | Type | Commisioned | Decommisioned | Status |
-- | HNLMS Sumatra | -- | Cruiser | 01-04-1891 | 10-05-1902 | Sold for scrape in 1907 |
-- | HNLMS Koningin Wilhelmina | -- | Cruiser | 17-04-1894 | 05-03-1910 | Sold for scrape in 1910 |
Holland class
Hull | Name | Class | Type | Commisioned | Decommisioned | Status |
-- | HNLMS Holland | Holland | Cruiser | 01-07-1898 | 1920 | Unknown |
-- | HNLMS Zeeland | Holland | Cruiser | 01-06-1898 | 1924 | Unknown |
-- | HNLMS Friesland | Holland | Cruiser | 16-01-1898 | 1913 | Unknown |
-- | HNLMS Gelderland | Holland | Cruiser | 15-07-1900 | 17-05-1940 | trainingship 1920 |
-- | HNLMS Noordbrabant | Holland | Cruiser | 01-03-1900 | 17-05-1940 | Sunk by own personel on 17-05-1940 |
-- | HNLMS Utrecht | Holland | Cruiser | 01-03-1901 | 1913 | Unknown |
Light cruisers
Java class
Hull | Name | Class | Type | Commisioned | Decommisioned | Status |
-- | HNLMS Java | Java | Light cruiser | 01-05-1925 | -- | Torpedoed and sunk by Japanese, 27-02-1942 |
-- | HNLMS Sumatra | Java | Light cruiser | 26-05-1926 | -- | Scuttled on 09-06-1944 |
-- | HNLMS Celebes | Java | Light cruiser | -- | -- | Canceled |
-- | HNLMS De Ruyter | No class | Light cruiser | 03-10-1936 | Sunk by Japanese cruiser, Haguro on 27-02-1942 |
HNLMS Celebes
No images available
Tromp class
The Tromp class was a class of ships of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The hull shape was also known as the Argonaut 600. They were designed as “flotilla leaders” and their intended role was to be the backbone of a squadron of modern destroyers that was planned at the same time.
Hull | Name | Class | Type | Commisioned | Decommisioned | Status |
-- | HNLMS Tromp | Tromp | Light cruiser | 18-08-1938 | 20-12-1968 | scraped 1969 |
-- | HNLMS Jacob van Heemskerk | Tromp | Light cruiser | 10-05-1940 | 20-11-1969 | Scuttled on 23-06-1970 |
De Zeven Provinciën class
There were two ships in the class: HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën (renamed De Ruyter in 1947) and Kijkduin (renamed Eendracht c. 1940, De Ruyter in 1944 and De Zeven Provinciën in 1947). Both ships enjoyed long service lives, first in the Koninklijke Marine (until the early 1970s) and then in the Marina de Guerra del Perú.
Hull | Name | Class | Type | Commisioned | Decommisioned | Status |
C801 | HNLMS De Ruter | Zeven Provincien | Light cruiser | 18-11-1953 | 12-10-1972 | Sold to Peru 1973, museum ship, scraped july 2022 |
C802 | HNLMS De Zeven provincien | Zeven Provincien | Light cruiser | 18-11-1953 | 16-10-1975 | Sold to Peru, 1976, scraped 2000 |
References:
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lijst_van_scheepsklassen_van_de_Nederlandse_marine
https://laststandonzombieisland.com/
https://www.tracesofwar.nl/
https://www.navypedia.org/ships/netherlands
https://maritimedigital.nl/