HNLMS Kortenaer (1927)

HNLMS Kortenaer (Dutch: Hr.Ms. Kortenaer) was an Admiralen-class destroyer of the Royal Netherlands Navy, named after 17th century Dutch Admiral Egbert Bartholomeusz Kortenaer.

For other ships with the same name, see HNLMS Kortenaer.
HNLMS Kortenaer
History
Netherlands
Name: Kortenaer
Namesake: Egbert Bartholomeusz Kortenaer
Laid down: 24 August 1925
Launched: 30 June 1927
Commissioned: 3 September 1928
Fate: Sunk in the Battle of the Java Sea, 27 February 1942
General characteristics
Class and type: Admiralen-class destroyer
Displacement:
  • 1,316 long tons (1,337 t) standard
  • 1,640 long tons (1,666 t) full load
Length: 98 m (321 ft 6 in)
Beam: 9.53 m (31 ft 3 in)
Draft: 2.97 m (9 ft 9 in)
Installed power:
Propulsion:
  • 2 × Parsons geared turbines[1]
  • 2 × shafts
Speed: 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Range: 3,200 nmi (5,900 km; 3,700 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement: 149
Armament:
  • 4 × 4.7 in (120 mm) guns (4×1)
  • 2 × 3 in (76 mm) AA guns (2×1)
  • 4 × .50 calibre machine guns
  • 6 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (2×3)
  • 24 × mines
Aircraft carried: 1 × Fokker C.VII-W floatplane
Aviation facilities: crane

Design

In the mid-1920s, the Netherlands placed orders for four new destroyers to be deployed to the East Indies. They were built in Dutch shipyards to a design by the British Yarrow Shipbuilders, which was based on the destroyer HMS Ambuscade, which Yarrow had designed and built for the British Royal Navy.[2]

The ship's main gun armament was four 120 millimetres (4.7 in) guns built by the Swedish company Bofors, mounted two forward and two aft, with two 75 mm (3.0 in) anti-aircraft guns mounted amidships. Four 12.7 mm machine guns provided close-in anti-aircraft defence. The ship's torpedo armament comprised six 533 mm (21.0 in) torpedo tubes in two triple mounts, while 24 mines could also be carried. To aid search operations, the ship carried a Fokker C.VII-W floatplane on a platform over the aft torpedo tubes, which was lowered to the sea by a crane for flight operations.[1][3]

Service history

The ship was laid down on 24 August 1925, at the Burgerhout's Scheepswerf en Machinefabriek, in Rotterdam, and launched on 30 June 1927. The ship was commissioned on 3 September 1928.[4]

On 11 June 1929, a detachment of marines was sent on Kortenaer to Curaçao, after Venezuelan rebels, lead by Rafael Simón Urbina, had raided Fort Amsterdam, in Willemstad, on 8 June.[5]

World War II

In 1940, she and her sister Van Ghent guarded five German cargo ships. The ships were relieved by the cruiser Java on 26 April 1940.[6]

She served mostly in the Netherlands East Indies, and when war broke out in 1941, she was at Surabaya.

She took part in Battle of Badung Strait on 18–20 February 1942, where she ran aground on one of the channel shores after temporarily losing rudder control. It was impossible for the Dutch ship to return to the formation, and they had to wait for the next morning tide to free the ship. Kortenaer was sent to Surabaya for repairs.

She was back in action in time for the Battle of the Java Sea on 27 February 1942, where she was torpedoed at 17:14 by the Japanese cruiser Haguro. The commanding officer, Alexander Sharp, of the nearby United States Navy destroyer, USS John D. Edwards, recorded that, "Kortenaer, about 700 yards (640 m) bearing 80° relative, was struck on the starboard quarter by a torpedo, blew up, turned over, and sank at once leaving only a jackknifed bow and stern a few feet above the surface." The Royal Navy destroyer HMS Encounter rescued 113 men from the total of 153, including Lieutenant Commander A. Kroese, and took them to Surabaya.

Wreck

The wreck of Kortenaer was discovered by specialist wreck divers in August 2004. (The wrecks of HNLMS De Ruyter and HNLMS Java had previously been discovered by the same group in December 2002.)[7] In 2016 it was discovered that the wrecks of De Ruyter and Java, and much of Kortenaer had disappeared from the seabed, although their imprints on the ocean floor remained. Over 100 ships and submarines of various countries sank during the war in the seas around Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia; many are designated as war graves. There is known to be illegal scavenging of these wrecks, often using explosives; the Netherlands Defence Ministry suggested that De Ruyter, Java, and Kortenaer may have been illegally salvaged.[8] In February 2017 a report was issued confirming the salvaging of the three wrecks. [9][10]

References
  1. Gardiner and Chesneau 1980, p. 389.
  2. Gardiner and Chesneau 1980, p. 390.
  3. Whitley 2000, pp. 210–211.
  4. "netherlandsnavy.nl". Retrieved 2013-10-11.
  5. "scheepvaartmuseum.nl :: Maritieme kalender 1929". Retrieved 2013-10-13.
  6. "scheepvaartmuseum.nl :: Maritieme kalender 1940". Retrieved 2013-10-13.
  7. "Kevin Denlay - Shipwreck Discoveries and SCUBA Diver".
  8. Oliver Holmes and agencies (16 November 2016). "Mystery as wrecks of three Dutch WWII ships vanish from Java seabed". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
  9. https://www.maritiem-erfgoed.nl/sites/default/files/field_attachments/report_verification_mission_feb_2017_java_seapublic_210217.pdf
  10. "Java Sea Shipwrecks of World War 2: One of the men who found them reflects on their loss | All About History".

Bibliography
  • Gardiner, Robert and Roger Chesneau. Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. London: Conway Maritime Press 1980. ISBN 0 85177 146 7.
  • Whitley, M.J. Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. London: Cassell & Co, 2000. ISBN 1 85409 521 8.


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