On Tasman’s Sea-Trail

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1064, 30 August 1930, Page 8

On Tasman’s Sea-Trail

Squadron from Dutch East Indies (Written for THE SUAJ SINGE it Mas to the enterprise of the Governor of the Dutch East Indies who, in 3 642, sent out .Abel Tasman to discover the unknown South land, that we owe the discovery of New Zealand, as M’ell as its name, the visit of three ships of the Dutch East Indies Squadron for the first time on record is of particular interest.

Tasman’s tiny ships, the Heemskerck and Zeehaen, after discovering Tasmania, sailed on and explored part of the West Coast of the South Island. They were cockleshells compared w ith even the smallest ships of the visiting squadron. But it is on traditions forged by navigators such as Tasman and by fighting admirals of Tromp's breed that the Dutch Navy of today is built.

The magnificent fleets which challenged even the naval might of England in many a bloody sea-fight three centuries ago, are gone. Today Holland has no battle-fleet, but in the East Indies, she maintains a force of up-to-date cruisers, destroyers, submarines and minelayers, that could give an excellent account of itself should her interests in the East ever be threatened.

As well as the Java, flagship of the visiting squadron, and her sister-ship, the Sumatra, there are 18 submarines, seven minelayers, eight destroyers, two surveying vessels, some old torpedo boats and four 40-knot Thornycroft torpedo motor-boats. To man these ships there are 359 officers and 4,070 petty officers and men. Of the latter, more than half are natives. A flying corps of 40 seaplanes forms an efficient scouting force. Aircraft are also carried by the cruisers and destroyers. The Dutch Navy in the East Indies has to guard a scattered territory, extending over 785.000 square miles of sea. and having a population of more than 50,000,000 people. BIGGER THAN THE DUNEDIN

Rear-Admiral C. C. Kayser’s flagship, the Java, is a powerful modern cruiser halt as big again as H.M.S. Dunedin, and slightly larger than the German cruiser Emden. which visited Auckland more than 12 months ago. Although launched at Amsterdam in 1920, the Java was not completed until 1926. when she commissioned for service in the East Indies.

The Java displaces 7,050 tons, which is 2,290 more than the Dunedin or Diomede. She is 509 feet G inches long, with a beam of 52 feet 6 inches, •and draws IS feet. The New Zealand cruisers are 37 feet shorter, six feet narrower, and two feet less in draught. The Dutch flagship is powerfully

armed with ten 5.9-inch guns, four 3-inch anti-aircraft, and eight machine guns. She is also equipped with 40 mines, an unusual feature in ships of her type. She has no torpedotubes.

The disposal of her main armament gives the Java a broadside of seven guns. The Dunedin’s six-inch guns can bear on either beam. The Java’s guns lire shells weighing lOlilb, with a velocity of well over half a mile a second. For protection she has a three-inch armour belt.

Having been designed for service on a station, where such long distances have to be steamed, the Java is both powerfully engined, and provided with ample storage space for her fuel. Her engines develop 65,000h.p., and on her trials drove her at 31.5 knots. With 1,070 tons of oil in her tanks, the Java could steam 4,800 tons —say from Eatavia to Wellington, via Fremantle and Melbourne —at 12 knots, without refuelling. At 15 knots she could cover 3,600 miles. The Java carries two Fairey 111. D type seaplanes, each with 450-h.p. Napier-Lion engines. Each machine has a crew’ of three. Each of the destroyers also carries a seaplane. SWIFT DESTROYERS Although built in Dutch shipyards, both the Evertsen and the De Ruijter are of British design. They *were built to the plans of Messrs. Yarrow and Co., Ltd., of Glasgow’, and under the supervision of Yarrow experts. They are 321 feet 6 inches long, with a beam of 31 feet, and draw 9 feet 9 inches. Each displaces 1,620 tons, and is capable of anything up to 36 knots. The engines are of 31,000-h.p., and each vessel carries 330 tons of oil fuel. The Evertsen and her sistership are armed with six 21i-neh torpedo-tubes, four 4.7-inch guns, two 3-inch anti-aircraft, four one-pounders, four machine-guns, and 24 mines. Bomb-tlirowers are a new’ feature of their offensive equipment. An efficient system of fire control enables all the guns to be fired simultaneously, as in a cruiser or battleship. The two destroyers are the most modern ships of this tj*pe in the Dutch Indian military marine, having been completed early this year. They have six sister-ships in the East Indies squadron. c.w.v.