HNLMS ''Abraham van der Hulst'' was a of the

Royal Netherlands Navy The Royal Netherlands Navy ( nl, Koninklijke Marine, links=no) is the naval force of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. During the 17th century, the navy of the Dutch Republic (1581–1795) was one of the most powerful naval forces in the world an ...

Description

The ''Jan van Amstel''-class ships were long, with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of and a draught of at

deep load The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into wei ...

. They displaced was at normal load, which increased to at deep load. A pair of

Yarrow boiler Yarrow boilers are an important class of high-pressure water-tube boilers. They were developed by Yarrow & Co. (London), Shipbuilders and Engineers and were widely used on ships, particularly warships. The Yarrow boiler design is characteristic ...

s fed steam to two triple-expansion steam engines that each drove a single

propeller shaft A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft (Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power and torque and rotation, usually used to connect ...

. The engines were rated at which gave the ships a speed of . They carried up to of

fuel oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bun ...

and had a

complement A complement is something that completes something else. Complement may refer specifically to: The arts * Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave ** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-clas ...

of 45 officers and ratings.Roberts, p. 394; van Willigenburg, p. 106

Service history

Built as a replacement for , she was not yet commissioned when the Netherlands surrendered to Germany in May 1940. Commissioned into

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

's ''

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...

'', first as ''AM 1'' (also listed as ''MH 1'') on 26 August 1940. She sailed for

Emden Emden () is an independent city and seaport in Lower Saxony in the northwest of Germany, on the river Ems. It is the main city of the region of East Frisia and, in 2011, had a total population of 51,528. History The exact founding date of E ...

on 30 August, where she was renamed ''M 553''. She was converted to a torpedo recovery vessel in December 1940. In August 1944 she was transferred to the

27th U-boat Flotilla ''27th U-boat Flotilla'' ("27. Unterseebootsflottille") was a training flotilla ("''Ausbildungsflottille''") of Nazi Germany's '' Kriegsmarine'' during World War II. The flotilla was founded at Gotenhafen in January 1940 under the command of ''Ko ...

, responsible for the tactical training of

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...

s. Returned to the Royal Netherlands Navy in May 1945 and recommissioned as the ''Abraham van der Hulst'' (the Dutch naval authorities apparently thought her to be this ship). She sailed for the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

on 16 September 1946 for service as patrol ship. After returning to Europe, she was rebuilt as boom defence vessel. Struck in 1961 and transferred to the ''Zeekadetkorps Nederland'' (Dutch Sea Cadets) in February 1962. Later scrapped.

Citations

Bibliography

* * Jan van Amstel-class minesweepers Ships built in Rotterdam 1940 ships World War II minesweepers of the Netherlands Mine warfare vessels of the Kriegsmarine Naval ships of the Netherlands captured by Germany during World War II {{netherlands-mil-ship-stub