Governorate Navy

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Governorate Navy

active 1861 to 1949/1962
Country NetherlandsNetherlands Dutch East Indies
Type Coast guard
Main base Soerabaja
management
Commander Governor General of the Dutch East Indies

The Gouvernementsmarine (also spelled Gouvernements Marine ) was the small state-owned civilian navy and coast guard of the Dutch East Indies . It was independently controlled by the administration of the colony and was subordinate to the governor general (hence the name); their area of ​​operation was limited to the colony - the Malay Archipelago . The main base was in Soerabaja .

history

The governorate navy was established on August 22, 1861. It emerged from the 's Lands Civiele Schoeners en Kruisbooten ("state-civil schooners and cruisers "), the civil part of the dissolved Colonial Navy (which in turn was an indirect successor organization of the VOC Navy ).

Formally, the civil naval affairs of the colony were summarized from 1905 under the name Dienst der Scheepvaart ("Schifffahrtsdienst"). This included three sub-organizations: First, the service of Bebakening en Kustverlichting ( lighting service ) of the fire vessels that supply the lighthouses and maintenance of the buoys was in charge of the colony. Second, the service of the Gewestelijke Vaartuigen ("Service for regional ships"), which carried out smaller transports with simple boats and carried colonial officials. The third and most important sub-organization was the actual governorate navy . This was primarily responsible for water police and paramilitary tasks, such as patrol services along the coasts, monitoring fishing, combating piracy , smuggling and slave trade , enforcing the state monopoly on the opium trade ( opium control ) and putting down unrest. The boats and ships were also used for mapping and hydrographic missions. Since the three partial services were not strictly separated from each other, colloquially the governorate navy is usually used as a generic term.

From 1866, a distinction must be made between the colony's navy, the Indian Militaire Navy . Their warships were paid for by the colonial ministry or the colony itself and were formally subordinate to the governor general, but were manned by marines from the Royal Zeemacht . Furthermore, the Nederlandsch Eskader operated in the region, which was controlled directly by the naval commander without the participation of the colony.

Transport tasks that went beyond short distances and small quantities were taken over by the Nederlandsch Indische Stoomvaart Maatschappij (later KPM) , which also did not belong to the governmental navy.

At the time of its establishment, the governorate's navy mainly comprised small sailing ships , so-called "cruisers". These were built on site, were lightly armed (three cannons) and had a local crew of 20 men. A total of about 75 (planned 85) boats were used; an extremely small number compared to the size of the colony. The total manpower was around 1500 native sailors and a few European officers. At the end of the 19th century, the outdated boats were then replaced by steamships . The ships were mostly named after stars or constellations or after birds.

In 1929 the governorate navy was partially militarized by government resolution, d. H. it was stipulated that in times of war the units of the governorate navy can be attached to the military (similar to the US Coast Guard ).

After the outbreak of the Second World War it came on 1./2. September 1939 for the militarization of the governorate navy. This meanwhile also had some reasonably modern motor ships , which were handed over to the Dutch navy together with their crew and converted into military auxiliary ships. A total of several dozen ships and boats with a total of around 1,300 crew members of the Royal Navy were transferred, of which only twelve ships (namely Fazant , Arend, Merel, Bellatrix, Valk, Gemma, Castor, Sirius, Reiger, Zuiderkruis, Rigel, Tydeman ) were transferred to the direct military command structure were involved. These units of the militarized Gouvernementsmarine ( Gemilitariseerde Gouvernementsmarine ) had hardly any military potential, they were converted to mine ships , minesweepers and supply ships such as seaplane tenders for the Navy Luchtvaartdienst . Most of the ships were used in the next few years of the war to support seaplanes as well as light sea patrols. During the Japanese invasion in early 1942 , these units ultimately played no significant role. None of the governorate navy ships were involved in the major naval battles between the Japanese Navy and the ABDA fleet . Most of the ships were finally during the invasion of Java on 2 March 1942, Tanjung Priok (the port of Batavia ) or Soerabaja scuttled to block the ports and not to fall into the hands of the attackers. Only one ship, the Zuiderkruis , was able to flee to Ceylon and entered British service there. The militarization of the governorate navy was formally lifted in March 1942. Many of the sunk ships were later lifted by the Japanese and used as auxiliary ships, most of which fell victim to Allied attacks.

After the war, Indonesia's declaration of independence in 1949 led to the end of the governor's navy. In Dutch New Guinea it existed in a smaller form until 1962.

Ships used in World War II

The Deneb in 1917
The Bangkalan mine- layer (ex- Hydrograaf ) in 1936

The governorate navy included (in brackets the year of construction and displacement ):

  • Albatros (1912; 807 tons), lifted again after the self- sinking of Japan and used as the salvage ship Nibato Maru (or Arabato Maru or Abatoe Maru )
  • the "opium hunters" Arend and Valk (1929; 1011 tons), replaced the obsolete predecessor ships Argus and Cyclops , converted to seaplane tenders during the war , lifted again after the self-sinking and used as Japanese patrol boats No. 108 and No. 104 ; Sunk by American air raid or mine
  • Aldebaran (1913; 892 tons), built in Soerabaja
  • Bellatrix , Canopus , Deneb (1914/15; 773 tons); were built as an alternative to the Aldebaran in Amsterdam; Bellatrix was converted to a seaplane tender; Canopus was raised and entered Japanese service as Ariake Maru
  • Eridanus (1918; 996 tons), after self-sinking and lifting of the Japanese mountain tractor Enoshima Maru
  • Gemma (1918; 845 tons), later the Japanese transport and support ship Kita Maru
  • Fomalhaut (1923; 1001 tons)
  • Sirius and Wega (1922; 1018 tons), the former ship was converted to a seaplane tender
  • Merel , Reiger , Fazant (1928–1931; 592/624 tons) were converted to seaplane tenders. The Fazant served as the Japanese patrol boat No. 109 and was used as a Kartika ship by President Sukarno after the war.
  • Rigel (1931; 1631 tons), governor general's yacht; converted to an auxiliary mine-layer; later the Indonesian ship Dewakambar
  • Castor (1915; 670 tons), repair ship, later the Japanese salvage ship Osei Maru
  • Zuiderkruis (1926; 2661 tons), built as a cable lay and converted into a submarine depot ship; only ship that escaped in 1942; later as Bimasakti to Indonesia
  • the lightvessels hoofdinspecteur Zeeman (1909; 803 tonnes), Orion (1912; 1062 tons), Pollux (1922; 1012 tonnes later Korai Maru or Hoyo Maru ) and Poolster (1939; 1565 tons). The latter was converted to a seaplane tender or MTB mother ship and later used as the Horei Maru .
  • the survey vessels Tydeman (1916; 1160 tons), Willebrord Snellius (1928; 930 tons) and Hydrograaf (1926, 397 GRT, ex. tug Willem van Braam ; converted to mine ship and renamed in Bangkalan )
  • the six patrol boats ( Politiekruiser , "Police Cruiser ") of the ABC class ( Alor, Aroe, Bantam, Bogor, Ceram, Cheribon ) with 145 tons each, which were converted into minesweepers, belonging to the service of the Gewestelijke Vaartuigen from 1938 onwards.

Built according to government naval drafts during the war, but no longer used by them due to militarization:

Web links

Commons : Ships of the Governorate Navy  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Regerings-Almanak van Nederlandsch-Indië voor het jaar 1871 (Volume 44), Lands-Drukkerij, Batavia 1871, p. 532 (digitized from Google Books )
  2. ↑ Herman Stapelkamp: Oorlog in Aceh: Het journaal van luitenant-ter-zee Henricus Nijgh, 1873-1874 , Uitgeversmaatschappij Walburg Pers, 2010, pp 11/12 ( De marineorganisatie )
  3. ↑ Warshipsresearch: Kruisboten of the Dutch government in 1863 in the Dutch East Indies gemäß to the Annual Colonia account
  4. ^ Donald A. Bertke, Gordon Smith, Don Kindell: World War II Sea War , Volume I, Lulu, 2011, p. 140 ( Dutch East Indies, September 25, 1939 )
  5. ↑ For the seaplane tenders see Tom Womack: The Dutch Naval Air Force Against Japan: The Defense of the Netherlands East Indies, 1941–1942 , McFarland, Jefferson NC, 2006, p. 174f ( Appendix 7: Marine Seaplane Tenders )
  6. ^ JJA Wijn: Tot in de verste uithoeken ... De cruciale rol van de Gouvernements Marine bij het vestigen van de Pax Neerlandica in de Indische Archipel 1815–1962 , De Bataafse Leeuw, Amsterdam 1998
  7. Jump up ↑ Bob Hackett, Sander Kingsepp, Peter Cundall: combinedfleet.com: Ex-Dutch Vessels in IJN Service as Patrol Boats