Mr. Ms. Abraham van der Hulst (1937)

**Abraham van der Hulst**
	Abraham van der Hulst
Ship data
flag	Netherlands German Empire;
other ship names	M 553
Ship type	Minesweeper
class	Jan van Amstel class
Shipyard	NV Gusto , Schiedam
Launch	May 31, 1937
Commissioning	October 11, 1937
Whereabouts	Burned out after air raid on August 30, 1944
Ship dimensions and crew
length	55.82 m ( Lüa )
width	8.11 m
Draft	Max. 2.68 m
displacement	Construction: 460 t; Maximum: 662 t
crew	3 officers ; 43 men
Machine system
machine	2 three-cylinder triple expansion machines
Machine ; performance	1,600 PSi
Top ; speed	15.3 kn (28 km / h)
propeller	2
Armament
	a 75mm gun / L55; four 12.7 mm machine guns ; as mine-layer : 40 mines ;

The Abraham van der Hulst was a 1937 built minesweeper of the Dutch Jan van Amstel class , which was also designed as a mine-layer and escort ship . During the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940, the crew sank the ship. The Navy lifted and used it with the identification M 553 as a torpedo catch boat . It was badly damaged by a mine hit in 1944 and later burned down after a Soviet air raid.

Construction and technical data

The keel of the boat was laid on November 10, 1936 for the Royal Netherlands Navy at the NV Gusto shipyard in Schiedam under hull number 715 . The launch took place on May 31, 1937, the delivery and commissioning took place on October 11, 1937. It was named after the Dutch admiral Abraham van der Hulst (1619–1666).

The boat was 55.82 meters long, 8.11 meters wide and had a draft of 2.68 meters. The construction displacement was 460 tons, the maximum 662 tons. The drive consisted of two standing three-cylinder triple expansion machines , which together achieved 1600 PSi and operated on two screws . With that she reached a top speed of 15.3 knots. The range was 1600 nautical miles at 15 knots and 4700 nm at 11 knots. The crew consisted of three officers and 43 men. The armament consisted of a 75 mm cannon / L55 and four 12.7 mm machine guns . As a mine-layer, she was able to hold 40 mines .

history

Abraham van der Hulst of the Dutch Navy

The four boats of the class stationed in the Netherlands - the (first) Willem van Ewijck , Pieter Florisz , Jan van Gelder and Abraham van der Hulst - formed the 1st mine sweeping squadron. They were initially in Vlissingen , and from October 1939 in Den Helder . Already in the spring of April 11, 1939, mine rails were installed on the boats in order to be able to use them as mine layers. From October 1939, the main task of the boats was to control the Dutch minefields off the coast near Kamperduin. At the same time, they performed patrol duties along the Dutch coast.

HNLMS Friso

After the German invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg on May 10, 1940, the Abraham van der Hulst was assigned to the IJsselmeer Flotilla on May 12. The flotilla consisted of the sister ship Pieter Florisz , the two old gunboats Friso and Brinio , the torpedo boat Z 3 , the river gunboat Hr. Ms. Hefring from 1880 and eight motor tugs . The flotilla was supposed to prevent the Wehrmacht from crossing the IJsselmeer from Friesland to North Holland. When the Friso was badly damaged by German bombers on May 12th, the Abraham van der Hulst took over the crew before the gunboat capsized. The Pieter Florisz then sank it by shell fire.

The following day the flotilla was in Enkhuizen and Medemblik . When the Netherlands surrendered on May 14th, it was too late to flee to Great Britain and the commander had the Abraham van der Hulst sunk by the crew in Enkhuizen themselves.

M 553 of the Kriegsmarine

After the surrender of the Netherlands, a German rescue team lifted the ship in August 1940. From December 1940, it was restored as a torpedo intercepting boat at the Amsterdam shipyard Nederlandse Scheepsbouw Maatschappij . The boat was armed with three 20-mm anti-aircraft guns and instead of the aft 75-mm gun, a storage space for seven torpedoes . Despite the task now envisaged, it received the identification for the originally intended use as a minesweeper M 553 . The crew size was now 4 officers and 55 men. The two sister ships M 551 (ex Willem van Ewijck ) and M 552 (ex Pieter Florisz ), which were also converted into torpedo fishing boats, were used in the 27th U-Flotilla , a training flotilla stationed in Gotenhafen . However , there is no information about which unit M 553 was assigned.

M 553 was lost on April 21, 1944 when the boat ran into a mine dropped by British planes near Brüsterort . A quarter of a year later it was lifted and towed to Gotenhafen and later to Stettin , where it was to be repaired in the Gollnow shipyard . There it was bombed in a Soviet air raid on August 30th and burned out completely.

literature

Chris Mark: Schepen van de Koninklijke Marine in WO II , De Alk, Alkmaar 1997, ISBN 90-6013-522-9 .
LL von Münching: Schepen van de kon. Marine in de 2e Wereldoorlog , De Alk, Alkmaar 1978, ISBN 90-6013-903-8 .
Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945, Volume 2: Torpedo boats, destroyers, speed boats, minesweepers, mine clearance boats , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1983, ISBN 3-7637-4801-6 .