''K XIII'' was a patrol
submarine
A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
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 ''Fijenoord'' shipyard in
Rotterdam.
Service history
The submarine was ordered on 3 September 1921 and laid down in Rotterdam at the shipyard of ''Fijenoord'' on 15 October 1923. The launch took place on 23 December 1924.
On 29 March 1926 the boat was commissioned in the Dutch navy.
On 27 May 1926 ''K XIII'' left
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 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 ...
. Onboard was professor F.A. Vening Meinesz, who was to conduct gravity measurements. The submarine made the journey alone and took a route that led by
Horta
Horta may refer to:
People
* Horta (surname), a list of people
Places
* Horta, Africa, an ancient city and former bishopric in Africa Proconsularis, now in Tunisia and a Latin Catholic titular see
* Horta, Azores, Portugal, a municipality an ...
,
Willemstad,
Mazatlán,
San Francisco,
Honolulu,
Guam,
Yap,
Manila,
Ambon
Ambon may refer to:
Places
* Ambon Island, an island in Indonesia
** Ambon, Maluku, a city on Ambon Island, the capital of Maluku province
** Governorate of Ambon, a colony of the Dutch East India Company from 1605 to 1796
* Ambon, Morbihan, a co ...
and
Burma. She arrived in
Surabaya
Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Provinces of Indonesia, Indonesian province of East Java and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. L ...
on 13 December 1926.
The following years she made several trips to conduct gravity measurements for professor F.A. Vening Meineszs research.
Destinations were
Christmas Island, the
Gulf of Boni, the
Makassar Strait
Makassar Strait is a strait between the islands of Borneo and Sulawesi in Indonesia. To the north it joins the Celebes Sea, while to the south it meets the Java Sea. To the northeast, it forms the Sangkulirang Bay south of the Mangkalihat Pe ...
and
Sumatra
Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
.
On 6 September 1938 she participated in a fleet review at Surabaya. The review was held in honour of the Dutch Queen
Wilhelmina of the Netherlands who was than 40 years the head of state. More than twenty navy ships participated in the review.
World War II
''K XIII'' patrolled from 7–16 December 1941 in the
South China Sea and off
Malaya
Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia:
Political entities
* British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...
. During this patrol the Netherlands declared war on Japan. An unsuccessful attack was made on the Japanese invasion fleet on 10 December 1941 of the north east coast of Malaya.
The boat was damaged as a result of a battery explosion in the
Singapore harbor on 21 December 1941. Three men were killed in the explosion.
Afterwards ''K XIII'' returned to Surabaya for repairs and was escorted by the destroyer where they arrived on 6 January 1942.
Still under repairs the boat was scuttled to prevent her being captured by the invading Japanese forces on 2 March 1942.
References
External links
Description of ship
{{DEFAULTSORT:K XIII, HNLMS
1924 ships
Ships built in Schiedam
K XI-class submarines
Maritime incidents in March 1942