HNLMS Kortenaer (1927)

History
Netherlands
Name: Kortenaer
Namesake: Egbert Bartholomeusz Kortenaer
Laid down: 24 August 1925
Launched: 30 June 1927
Commissioned: 3 September 1928
Fate: Sunk in the Battle of the Java Sea, 27 February 1942
General characteristics
Class and type: Admiralen-class destroyer
Displacement:
  • 1,316 long tons (1,337 t) standard
  • 1,640 long tons (1,666 t) full load
Length: 98 m (321 ft 6 in)
Beam: 9.53 m (31 ft 3 in)
Draft: 2.97 m (9 ft 9 in)
Propulsion:
Speed: 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Range: 3,200 nmi (5,900 km; 3,700 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement: 149
Armament:
  • 4 × 4.7 in (120 mm) guns (4×1)
  • 2 × 3 in (76 mm) AA guns (2×1)
  • 4 × .50 calibre machine guns
  • 6 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (2×3)
  • 24 × mines
Aircraft carried: 1 Fokker floatplane, but no catapult

HNLMS Kortenaer (Dutch: Hr.Ms. Kortenaer) was an Admiralen-class destroyer of the Royal Netherlands Navy, named after 17th century Dutch Admiral Egbert Bartholomeusz Kortenaer.

Service history

The ship was laid down on 24 August 1925 at the Burgerhout's Scheepswerf en Machinefabriek in Rotterdam and launched on 30 June 1927. The ship was commissioned on 3 September 1928.[1]

On 11 June 1929 a detachment of marines was sent on Kortenaer to Curaçao after Venezuelan rebels had raided Fort Amsterdam in Willemstad on 8 June.[2]

World War II

In 1940 she and her sister Van Ghent guarded five German cargo ships. The ships were relieved by the cruiser Java 26 April 1940.[3]

She served mostly in the Netherlands East Indies, and when war broke out in 1941 she was at Surabaya.

She took part in Battle of Badung Strait on 18–20 February 1942, where she ran aground on one of the channel shores after temporarily losing rudder control. It was impossible for the Dutch ship to return to the formation, and they had to wait for the next morning tide to free the ship. Kortenaer was sent to Surabaya for repairs.

She was back in action in time for the Battle of the Java Sea on 27 February 1942, where she was torpedoed at 17:14 by the Japanese cruiser Haguro. The commanding officer Alexander Sharp of the nearby United States Navy destroyer, USS John D. Edwards, recorded that "Kortenaer about 700 yards bearing 80° relative was struck on the starboard quarter by a torpedo, blew up, turned over, and sank at once leaving only a jackknifed bow and stern a few feet above the surface.". The Royal Navy destroyer HMS Encounter rescued 113 men from the total of 153, including Lieutenant Commander A. Kroese and took them to Surabaya.

Wreck

The wreck of Kortenaer was discovered by specialist wreck divers in August 2004. (The wrecks of HNLMS De Ruyter and HNLMS Java had previously been discovered by the same group in December 2002.)[4] 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 graves. 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.[5] In February 2017 a report was issued confirming the salvaging of the three wrecks. [6][7]

References

  1. ↑ "netherlandsnavy.nl". Retrieved 2013-10-11.
  2. ↑ "scheepvaartmuseum.nl :: Maritieme kalender 1929". Retrieved 2013-10-13.
  3. ↑ "scheepvaartmuseum.nl :: Maritieme kalender 1940". Retrieved 2013-10-13.
  4. ↑ http://www.pacificwrecks.com/people/visitors/denlay/index.html
  5. ↑ Oliver Holmes and agencies (16 November 2016). "Mystery as wrecks of three Dutch WWII ships vanish from Java seabed". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
  6. ↑ https://www.maritiem-erfgoed.nl/sites/default/files/field_attachments/report_verification_mission_feb_2017_java_seapublic_210217.pdf
  7. ↑ https://www.historyanswers.co.uk/history-of-war/java-sea-shipwrecks-of-world-war-2-one-of-the-men-who-found-them-reflects-on-their-loss/

Coordinates: 6°29′S 112°05′E / 6.483°S 112.083°E / -6.483; 112.083

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