HNLMS'' Koningin Wilhelmina der Nederlanden'' ( nl, Hr.Ms. Koningin Wilhelmina der Nederlanden) was a unique

protected cruiser Protected cruisers, a type of naval cruiser of the late-19th century, gained their description because an armoured deck offered protection for vital machine-spaces from fragments caused by shells exploding above them. Protected cruisers re ...

of the Royal Netherlands Navy built by the ''Rijkswerf'' in Amsterdam.

Design

The ship was long, had a beam of , a draught of , and had a

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics * Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

of 4,530 tons. The ship had engines rated at which produced a top speed of . It had deck armour. The ship's main armament was a single gun. Secondary armament included a single gun and two single guns.

Service history

The ship was built at the ''Rijkswerf'' in Amsterdam and named after Queen

Wilhelmina of the Netherlands Wilhelmina (; Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria; 31 August 1880 – 28 November 1962) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 until her abdication in 1948. She reigned for nearly 58 years, longer than any other Dutch monarch. Her reign saw World Wa ...

, who attended the launch ceremony and christened the ship on 22 October 1892. After the liquidation of the original builder, the ''Koninklijke Fabriek van Stoom- en andere Werktuigen'' in Amsterdam, construction of the ship was taken over by the ''Rijkswerf''. She entered service on 17 April 1894. From 14 July to 2 August she carried out see trials in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

and

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. During these trials she ran aground on the island of Harssens on 19 July while leaving the harbor of Den Helder, due to a broken steam engine. Before the ship left for the Dutch East Indies, Queen Wilhelmina and her

mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...

visited the ship on 12 September 1894. On 10 December 1896 she left for a journey from Jakarta, Batavia to China,

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

, Japan and the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

to show the flag. In 1900 the ship together with the coastal defence ship and the protected cruiser was sent to

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

to safeguard European citizens and Dutch interests in the region during the Boxer Rebellion. A landing party from the cruiser ''Holland'' assisted in the defense of the

Shanghai French Concession The Shanghai French Concession; ; Shanghainese pronunciation: ''Zånhae Fah Tsuka'', group=lower-alpha was a foreign concession in Shanghai, China from 1849 until 1943, which progressively expanded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. T ...

where many Dutch citizens where present. ''Koningin Wilhelmina der Nederlanden'' and ''Holland'' returned to the Dutch East Indies on 9 October. On this journey they visited

Amoy Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong' ...

and

Swatow Shantou, alternately romanized as Swatow and sometimes known as Santow, is a prefecture-level city on the eastern coast of Guangdong, China, with a total population of 5,502,031 as of the 2020 census (5,391,028 in 2010) and an administrative ...

. They arrived in ''Tanjung Priok'' on 6 November.Staatsbegrooting voor het dienstjaar 1902. 2. VI. 2., p. 9 The ship started its last journey on 29 December 1909 from Sabang to IJmuiden, where she arrived on 14 February 1910. Later that year, on 5 March, she was decommissioned and on 14 October was sold to Frank Rijsdijk's Scheepssloperij for scrapping at

Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht () is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands. It is located on the island of IJsselmonde, and borders with Zwijndrecht, Ridderkerk, and the Noord River (with Alblasserdam and Papendrecht on the other side). The j ...

Notes

References

*Staatsbegrooting voor het dienstjaar 1902
VI. 2.

External links

Pictures of the ship on maritiemdigitaal.nlNederlandse Mariniers in China (Dutch marines in China)
(nl) {{DEFAULTSORT:Koningin Wilhelmina der Nederlanden Cruisers of the Royal Netherlands Navy 19th-century naval ships of the Netherlands 1892 ships