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

light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to th ...

of the Royal Netherlands Navy. She was originally designed as a 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 Wilton-Fijenoord was a shipbuilding and repair company in Schiedam the Netherlands from 1929 to 1999. Presently, the shipyard of Wilton-Feijnoord is part of Damen Shiprepair Rotterdam. Merger of Wilton and Fijenoord (1929) Wilton-Fijenoord had ...

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 The Battle of the Java Sea ( id, Pertempuran Laut Jawa, ja, スラバヤ沖海戦, Surabaya oki kaisen, Surabaya open-sea battle, Javanese : ꦥꦼꦫꦁꦱꦼꦒꦫꦗꦮ, romanized: ''Perang Segara Jawa'') was a decisive naval battle o ...

in 1942.

Design

''De Ruyter'' was designed during the Great Depression, which, in addition to being a period of economic depression, was also a period in which

pacifism Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...

was widespread in the Netherlands. For these reasons, the design was officially called a ''flottieljeleider'' (

flotilla leader A flotilla leader was a warship of late 19th century and early 20th century navies suitable for commanding a flotilla of destroyers or other small warships, typically a small cruiser or a large destroyer (known as a destroyer leader). The flotil ...

) instead of a cruiser, and every effort was made to cut costs. Its function was to aid the two existing cruisers of the 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 British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

), and the class had inadequate armour as well and lacked long range anti-aircraft guns. However, her fire control system was excellent.

Service history

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, ''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. HNLMS De Ruyter

In the

on 27 February, ''De Ruyter'' was the flagship of the Dutch Rear-Admiral

Karel Doorman Karel Willem Frederik Marie Doorman (23 April 1889 – 28 February 1942) was a Dutch naval officer who during World War II commanded remnants of the short-lived American-British-Dutch-Australian Command naval strike forces in the Battle ...

, with his flag captain

Eugène Lacomblé Eugène Edouard Bernard Lacomblé (26 October 1896 – 28 February 1942) was an officer in the Royal Netherlands Navy from 1914 to 1942. He began and ended his career on board a ship named after Admiral Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter. Life Afte ...

(who had previously served on board the ship as a lieutenant). Off the north coast off

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

on the evening of the 27th the remains of the

ABDA The American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command, or ABDACOM, was a short-lived, supreme command for all Allied forces in South East Asia in early 1942, during the Pacific War in World War II. The command consists of the forces of Austra ...

fleet was surprised by the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

heavy cruiser The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm (8 inches) in caliber, whose design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval T ...

s and . Several minutes after the Dutch cruiser ''

'' had been torpedoed and sunk, ''De Ruyter'' was hit by a single

Type 93 torpedo The was a -diameter torpedo of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), launched from surface ships. It is commonly referred to as the Long Lance by most modern English-language naval historians, a nickname given to it after the war by Samuel Eliot Mori ...

fired by ''Haguro'' at about 23:40 and was set on fire; the torpedo also disabled the ship's electrical systems and left the crew unable to combat the fire or the flooding. The ''De Ruyter'' sank at about 02:30 the next morning with the loss of 367 men, including Admiral Doorman and Captain Lacomblé.

Wreck

The wreck of ''De Ruyter'' was discovered by specialist wreck divers on 1 December 2002 and declared a war grave, with the ship's two bells—one now in the Kloosterkerk in

the Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

—being recovered. The wreck of , was also found the same day by the same divers. The same dive group then found on 12 August 2004. 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 grave A war grave is a burial place for members of the armed forces or civilians who died during military campaigns or operations. Definition The term "war grave" does not only apply to graves: ships sunk during wartime are often considered to b ...

s. 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. In February 2017 a report was issued confirming the salvaging of the three wrecks. According to Indonesian journalist Aqwam Hanifan, the remains of Dutch sailors on ''De Ruyter'' and the other illegally salvaged ships were dumped in a mass grave in east

References in text

References

* van Oosten, Franz Christiaan. "Her Netherlands Majesty's Ship ''De Ruyter''." In ''Profile Warship'', edited by Anthony Preston, 73-96. Windsor: Profile Publishing, 1974. . . * * * *

External links

Tabular record of movement

{{DEFAULTSORT:De Ruyter (1935) Cruisers of the Royal Netherlands Navy 1935 ships Ships built by Wilton-Fijenoord World War II cruisers of the Netherlands World War II shipwrecks in the Java Sea Maritime incidents in February 1942