HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen (1936)
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Template:Infobox ship imageTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship characteristicsHNLMS Abraham Crijnssen is a Template:Sclass of the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNN).
Built during the 1930s, she was based in the Dutch East Indies when Japan attacked at the end of 1941. Ordered to retreat to Australia, the ship was disguised as a tropical island to avoid detection, and was the last Dutch ship to escape from the region. On arriving in Australia in 1942, she was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) as HMAS Abraham Crijnssen and operated as an anti-submarine escort. Although returned to RNN control in 1943, the ship remained in Australian waters for most of World War II. After the war, Abraham Crijnssen operated on anti-revolution patrols in the East Indies, before returning to the Netherlands and being converted into a boom defence ship in 1956.
Removed from service in 1960, the vessel was donated to the Netherlands Sea Cadet Corps for training purposes. In 1995, Abraham Crijnssen was acquired by the Dutch Navy Museum for preservation as a museum ship.
Design and construction
Abraham Crijnssen was the third<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> of eight Template:Sclasss constructed for the RNN during the late 1930s.<ref name=Bastock221>Bastock, Australia's Ships of War, p. 221</ref><ref name=RAN/> Built by Werf Gusto at their yard in Schiedam, South Holland, the minesweeper was launched on 22 September 1936, and commissioned into the RNN on 26 May 1937.<ref name=RAN/> She was named after 17th century naval commander Abraham Crijnssen.
Abraham Crijnssen and her sister ships were Template:Convert long, with a beam of Template:Convert, a draught of Template:Convert, and a displacement of 525 tons.<ref name=Bastock221/> The minesweepers were fitted with two Yarrow 3-drum boilers and two StorkTemplate:Citation needed triple expansion engines, which provided Template:Convert to two propeller shafts, allowing the ship to reach Template:Convert.<ref name=RAN/> Abraham Crijnssen was armed with a single 3-inch gun, and two Oerlikon 20 mm cannon, plus a payload of depth charges.<ref name=Bastock221/><ref name=RAN>HMAS Abraham Crijnssen, Royal Australian Navy</ref> The standard ship's company was 45.<ref name=RAN/>
Operational history
Early service
The ship was based at Surabaya in the Netherlands East Indies when Japan invaded in 1941.<ref name=Bastock222>Bastock, Australia's Ships of War, p. 211.</ref><ref name=AWM>The Abraham Crijnssen, Australian War Memorial</ref> Following the Allied defeats at the Battles of the Java Sea and Sunda Strait in late February 1942, all Allied ships were ordered to withdraw to Australia.<ref name=RAN/> Abraham Crijnssen was meant to sail with three other warships, but found herself proceeding alone.<ref name=Liem>Liem, That time a Dutch warship pretended to be an island to evade the enemy</ref>
To escape detection by Japanese aircraft (which the minesweeper did not have the armament to defend effectively against), the ship was heavily camouflaged with jungle foliage, giving the impression of a small island.<ref name=AWM/><ref name=Liem/> Personnel cut down trees and branches from nearby islands, and arranged the cuttings to form a jungle canopy covering as much of the ship as possible.<ref name=Liem/> Any hull still exposed was painted to resemble rocks and cliffs.<ref name=Liem/> To further the illusion, the ship would remain close to shore, anchored and immobile during daylight, and only sail at night.<ref name=RAN/><ref name=AWM/><ref name=Liem/> She headed for Fremantle, Western Australia, where she arrived on 20 March 1942; Abraham Crijnssen was the last vessel to successfully escape Java, and the only ship of her class in the region to survive.<ref name=RAN/><ref name=Bastock222/>
RAN service
After arriving in Australian waters, the minesweeper underwent a refit, which included the installation of new ASDIC equipment.<ref name=RAN/> On 28 September, the minesweeper was commissioned into the RAN as HMAS Abraham Crijnssen.<ref name=Bastock222/> She was reclassified as an anti-submarine convoy escort, and was also used as a submarine tender for the Dutch submarines that relocated to Australia following the Japanese conquest.<ref name=Bastock222/> The ship's Dutch sailors were supplemented with survivors from the British destroyer Template:HMS and Australian personnel, all under the command of an Australian lieutenant.<ref name=RAN/> The wardroom tradition of hanging a portrait of the commissioned ship's reigning monarch led to some tension before it was decided to leave Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands on the bulkhead instead of replacing her with King George VI of the United Kingdom, which was installed in the lieutenant's cabin.<ref name=RAN/>
While escorting a convoy to Sydney through Bass Strait on 26 January 1943, Abraham Crijnssen detected a submarine on ASDIC.<ref name=RAN/> The convoy was ordered to scatter, while Abraham Crijnssen and Template:HMAS depth charged the submarine contact.<ref name=RAN/> No wreckage of the suspected submarine was found.<ref name=RAN/> A pair of hastily released depth charges at the start of the engagement damaged the minesweeper; several fittings and pipes were damaged, and all of her centerline rivets had to be replaced during a week-long dry-docking.<ref name=RAN/>
Return to RNN
Abraham Crijnssen was returned to RNN service on 5 May 1943, but remained in Australian waters for most of World War II.<ref name=Bastock222/> On 7 June 1945, the minesweeper left Sydney for Darwin, with the oil lighter (and former submarine) K9 in tow.<ref name=Bastock222/> On 8 June, the tow cable snapped, and K9 washed ashore at Seal Rocks, New South Wales.<ref name=Bastock222/><ref name=Carrunters151>Carruthers, Japanese Submarine Raiders 1942, p. 151</ref>
Abraham Crijnssen was used for mine-clearing sweeps of Kupang Harbour prior to the arrival of a RAN force to accept the Japanese surrender of Timor.<ref name=Bastock222/>
Post-war
After World War II, the minesweeper was used on anti-revolution patrols of the Netherlands East Indies.<ref name=Bastock222/> She left for the Netherlands in August 1951, and was converted into a boom defence vessel in March 1956.<ref name=RAN/>
Decommissioning and preservation
The ship was removed from the Navy List in 1960.<ref name=Bastock222/> After leaving service, Abraham Crijnssen was donated to the Sea Cadet Corps (Zeekadetkorps Nederland) for training purposes.<ref name=RAN/> She was docked at The Hague from 1962 to 1972, after which she was moved to Rotterdam.<ref name=RAN/> The ship was also used as a storage hulk during this time.<ref name=Bastock222/>
In 1995, Abraham Crijnssen was marked for preservation by the Dutch Navy Museum at Den Helder.<ref name=RAN/> She was retrofitted to her wartime configuration.<ref name=RAN/>
Citations
References
Books
Websites
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External links
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