Cruisers - Royal Netherlands Navy: books - history and ships
A book on cruisers of the Royal Netherlands Navy? Here are illustrated books on the history, deployment and technology of Dutch armoured ships and cruisers.
Protected cruiser Gelderland (Warship 5)
Protected cruiser (Pantserdekschip) HNLMS Gelderland was a Holland-class cruiser of the Royal Netherlands Navy. This class, of six ships, was considered a modest, but well thought-out design. The ship was built at the shipyard Fijenoord in Rotterdam. Launched on 28 September 1898 it was commissioned on 15 July 1900. At a speed of 10 knots the radius of action would have been 8000 miles, the two triple expansion engines could give a top speed of 20 knots.
Trapped in the far east by the over-run of the Netherlands and by the occupancy of the Netherlands East Indies, Tromp's destiny lay in the Indian Ocean ans Pacific onslaughts. The ship became one of the highest decorated Dutch warships of World War 2. Often refered as to as 'The Ghostship', the crew prefered to call her The Lucky ship. Because besides the British Ark Royal, there was no other ship more often claimed as to be sunk.
