Passing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, 3 October 1930, named De Ruyter at the time.
In the mid-1920s, the Netherlands placed orders for four new destroyers to be deployed to the East Indies. They were built in Dutch shipyards to a design by the British Yarrow Shipbuilders, which was based on the destroyer HMS Ambuscade, which Yarrow had designed and built for the British Royal Navy.[3]
The ship's main gun armament was four 120 millimetres (4.7 in) guns built by the Swedish company Bofors, mounted two forward and two aft, with two 75 mm (3.0 in) anti-aircraft guns mounted amidships. Four 12.7 mm machine guns provided close-in anti-aircraft defence. The ship's torpedo armament comprised six 533 mm (21.0 in) torpedo tubes in two triple mounts, while 24 mines could also be carried. To aid search operations, the ship carried a Fokker C.VII-Wfloatplane on a platform over the aft torpedo tubes, which was lowered to the sea by a crane for flight operations.[2][4]
On 29 July 1929, De Ruyter, her sister Evertsen, the cruiser Java, and the submarines K II and K VII, left Surabaya, and steamed to Tanjung Priok. At Tanjung Priok, the ships waited for the royal yacht, Maha Chakri, of the king of Siam, and the destroyer Phra Ruang. After this, the ships, without the submarines, visited Bangka, Belitung, Riau, Lingga Islands, Belawan, and Deli. On 28 August, they returned in Tanjung Priok. On 31 August, she participates in a fleet review at Tanjung Priok, held in honor of the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, who was born that day. Other ships that participated in the review where the destroyer Evertsen and the cruiser Java.[6]
While practicing with the cruiser Sumatra, her sister Evertsen, and five submarines, Sumatra stranded on an uncharted reef near the island Kebatoe, on 14 May 1931. Sumatra was later pulled lose by Soemba and a tugboat.[7]
De Ruyter was renamed Van Ghent on 1 October 1934 to free up her former name for the newly built light cruiser HNLMS De Ruyter.[8]
World War II
In 1940, she and her sister Kortenaer, guarded five German cargo ships. The ships were relieved by Java on 26 April 1940.[9]
De Ruyter, along with several Dutch and U.S. cruisers and destroyers, took part in an unsuccessful attempt to attack a Japanese invasion convoy reportedly bound for Surabaya (which in actuality was heading to Makassar) on 3–4 February 1942. This battle became known as the Battle of Makassar Strait,[10] with the Allied force being driven off with damage to several ships by Japanese air attacks[11][12] before ever nearing the convoy. Doorman's forces attempted another sortie against another Japanese invasion convoy on 15 February 1942, and to locate them this time took his ships northwest through the Gaspar Strait, to the east of Bangka Island. While passing through the strait in poor visibility, Van Ghent struck a rock and stuck fast,[13] Another Dutch destroyer took off her crew, Deemed a wreck, Van Ghent was subsequently scuttled by the destroyer Banckert.[11]
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