HNLMS Sumatra (1890)

For other ships of the same name, see HNLMS Sumatra.
Career (Netherlands)
Name: Sumatra
Launched: 1890
Fate: discarded 1907
General characteristics
Type:Protected cruiser
Displacement:1693 tons
Length:229 ft 7 in (69.98 m)
Beam:37 ft 1 in (11.30 m)
Draft:15 ft 4 in (4.67 m)
Propulsion:2,350 ihp (1,750 kW)
Speed:17 kn (20 mph; 31 km/h)
Capacity:207 to 276 tons of coal
Complement:181
Armament:1 × 8.2 inch/35 caliber gun

1 × 5.9 inch/35 caliber gun
2 × 4.7 inch/35 caliber guns (2x1)
4 × 1-pounder guns
2 × 1-pounder revolvers

2 × 14-inch torpedo tubes
Armor:
  • Deck: 1.5 in (38 mm)

The Dutch cruiser HNLMS Sumatra was a small protected cruiser with a heavy main gun. The ship was named after the island of Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). It was discarded in 1907.

Design and construction

The design resembled a smaller version of the Esmeralda concept (the 1883 protected cruiser built by Armstrong/Elswick shipyards for Chile) and is most similar in size to the Chinese protected cruiser Chi Yuan (1883) a ship built at about the same time as Esmeralda. Sumatra had the 8.2-inch gun forward and the 5.9-inch gun aft, both in shields, with sponsons on the sides for the two 4.7-inch guns. The Dutch Navy also built a larger protected cruiser with even heavier armament, Koningin Wilhelmina der Nederlanden launched in 1892, which had an 11-inch gun forward and was most comparable to the Japanese protected cruisers of the Matsushima type.[1] These ships represented a design philosophy in which navies that could not afford first-class battleships (including the Netherlands) mounted heavy weapons on coastal defense ships or moderately sized protected cruisers with the idea these ships would pose a threat to first-class opponents.

References

  1. Conways, p.376

Bibliography