The ''Evertsen'' class or ''Kortenaer'' class was a class of
coastal defense ships of the
Royal Netherlands Navy
The Royal Netherlands Navy (, ) is the Navy, maritime service branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. It traces its history to 8 January 1488, making it the List of navies, third-oldest navy in the world.
During the 17th and early 18th centurie ...
.
The class comprised ''Evertsen'', ''Piet Hein'' and ''Kortenaer''.
[Jane (1900), p. 158.]
History
The protection of the
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...
came into the spotlight at the end of the nineteenth century. Many countries began expanding their battle fleets. In 1887, two medium-sized Chinese
battleships
A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...
became operational and were considered superior to the Dutch defence. This led to a reassessment of the defence of the Dutch East Indies. In April 1892, the foundations for modernisation were formulated by a committee consisting of three officers
J.H. Kromhout, F.J. Haver Droeze and
G. Kruys.
Navalism Nekt Submarine; The influence of foreign naval strategies on the Dutch naval strategy for the defense of the Dutch East Indies, 1912-1942.
J. Anten. University of Leiden. Amsterdam University Press, 2011.
Naval expert, rear admiral
Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral.
Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...
and Chief of the Naval Staff Gerhardus Kruys advocated for a squadron of artillery ships. The recommendations were adopted by the government, which led to the construction of HNLMS ''Evertsen'', HNLMS ''Kortenaer'', and HNLMS ''Piet Hein''. Ultimately, only the ''Piet Hein'' was sent to the Indies from 1899 to 1901, because the financing of the ships was dependant on their suitability for coastal defence of the Netherlands and the Dutch Caribbean
The Dutch Caribbean (historically known as the Dutch West Indies) are the New World territories, colonies, and countries (former and current) of the Dutch Empire and the Kingdom of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea, mainly the norther ...
.
Design
The ships of the class were long, had a beam of , a draught of , and had a displacement of 3,464 ton.reciprocating engine
A reciprocating engine, more often known as a piston engine, is a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common features of al ...
s, which were rated at and produced a top speed of .[Jane (1970), p. 314.]
When it came to naval armour
Naval armor refers to the various protections schemes employed by warships. The first ironclad warship was created in 1859, and the pace of armour advancement accelerated quickly thereafter. The emergence of battleships around the turn of the 20t ...
all three ships were equipped with Harvey armour.
Armament
The main armament of the ships consisted of three 21 cm A No. 1 guns. Two of these were placed in a Barbette
Barbettes are several types of gun emplacement in terrestrial fortifications or on naval ships.
In recent naval usage, a barbette is a protective circular armour support for a heavy gun turret. This evolved from earlier forms of gun protection ...
on the bow.HNLMS Koningin Wilhelmina der Nederlanden
HNLMS'' Koningin Wilhelmina der Nederlanden'' () was a unique protected cruiser of the Royal Netherlands Navy built by the ''Rijkswerf'' in Amsterdam.
Design
The ship was long, had a beam of , a draught of , and had a displacement of 4,530 t ...
was already available. This led to sharp criticism. The 21 cm A No. 1 gun was a 21 cm L/35 Krupp gun first built in 1882. The 9 guns required were taken from 9 gunboats instead of buying 9 new 21 cm A No. 2 guns. The 21 cm A No. 2 was a newer model of the Krupp gun, had the same length (L/35) and was only 700 kg heavier, but had about 10% more penetrative power at 2,000 m.
Secondary armament included two single guns and six single guns.
Ships
Notes
Citations
References
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External links
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Description of class
{{1890-1920DutchShips
Evertsen-class coastal defence ships
19th-century naval ships of the Netherlands