HNLMS ''De Ruyter'' ( nl, Hr.Ms. De Ruyter) was a (''pantserschip'') 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 ...

. The ship was built by the ''Maatschappij voor Scheeps- en Werktuigbouw Fijenoord'' in Rotterdam just after the turn of the 20th century. The ship participated in two colonial expeditions in 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 ...

. She made several journeys to show the flag and was finally decommissioned in 1923.

Description

The ship was long, had a beam of , a draught of , and had a displacement of 5,002 tons. The ship was equipped with two-shaft reciprocating engines, which were rated at and produced a top speed of . The ship had belt armour of , barbette armour and turret armour. The main armaments of the ship were two single turret guns. Secondary armaments included four single guns and eight single guns. The ship had a complement of 340 men.

Service history

After being laid down in 1900, ''De Ruyter'' was built by the '' Maatschappij voor Scheeps- en Werktuigbouw Fijenoord'' in Rotterdam and launched on 28 September 1901. She was commissioned on 29 October 1902 and subsequently deployed to the

. On 24 June 1905 hit a coral reef near Matjidosteen while en route to the Gulf of Boni. made several attempts to pull the stranded ship loose, but these proved unsuccessful and were abandoned when ''Zeeland''s

bollard A bollard is a sturdy, short, vertical post. The term originally referred to a post on a ship or quay used principally for mooring boats. It now also refers to posts installed to control road traffic and posts designed to prevent automotive v ...

s broke. The ship was later pulled clear after ''De Ruyter'' and ''Japara'', a ship with towing equipment from the

Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij (Dutch for Royal Packet Navigation Company), better known as KPM, was a Dutch shipping company (1888–1966) in the Netherlands East Indies, now Indonesia. It was the dominant inter-island shipping line in Ind ...

, arrived and ''Hertog Hendrik''s coal, reserves and munitions were offloaded. Later that year ''De Ruyter'', ''Hertog Hendrik'', , and two ships of the Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij took part in an expedition to South Celebes where they engaged in operations against the lord of Loewoe. An infantry battalion and a

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

landing party were set ashore near

Palopo Palopo or Kota Palopo is a city located in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, and the second-largest city in the province. Until it acquired its autonomy, Palopo was the capital of Luwu Regency. The area of the city is 247.52 km2, and it had a popu ...

and later that day the soldiers and marines took the lord's palace. In 1906 ''De Ruyter'', along with her sister ship, , and the protected cruiser ''Zeeland'', assisted in an expedition to the island of

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...

as part of Dutch attempts to integrate the southern kingdoms of Tabanan,

Badung Badung is a regency of Bali, Indonesia. Its regency seat is in the upland town of Mangupura. It covers districts to the west of the provincial capital of Denpasar, and it has a land area of 418.52 km2. The regency had a population of 548 ...

and Klungkung into the Dutch East Indies. On 16 and 17 September, the ships bombarded the city of Denpasar and afterwards ground forces broke what resistance remained. On 15 December 1908 the ship left the port of

Den Helder Den Helder () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Den Helder occupies the northernmost point of the North Holland peninsula. It is home to the country's main naval base. From here the Royal TESO fe ...

for

Curaçao Curaçao ( ; ; pap, Kòrsou, ), officially the Country of Curaçao ( nl, Land Curaçao; pap, Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island country in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coast ...

to reinforce the Dutch squadron that had been stationed off the Venezuelan coast following political tension between the two nations. Until then, the squadron had consisted of the , and two protected cruisers, the and the . After this, the ship made two voyages around the Asia-Pacific to

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