The Mr. Ms. Prins van Oranje was a miner in the Dutch Navy during World War II , laid down on September 20, 1930 at De Maas Dockyard in Slikkerveer. The launch took place on July 10, 1931, the commissioning on February 2, 1932.
On December 8, 1941, the Prins van Oranje was under the command of Lt. Cdr. Antoine Catharinus van Versendaal stationed in Tarakan to lay defensive minefields against an expected Japanese invasion. With no signs of invasion, the ship went to Tawao in British North Borneo. There the Japanese fishing vessel Borneo Maru and three other small boats captured it . Seven small craft were sunk and a total of 56 Japanese fishermen were captured. On December 12, 1941, the Prins van Oranje returned to Tarakan. At the end of December 1941 and in January 1942, Japanese bombers attacked the mine-layer several times without getting direct hits. However, a near hit on January 9, 1942 caused minor damage and wounded. In the night of 10./11. On January 1st, 1942, the Prins van Oranje tried to escape on a north course before the invasion of Tarakan, but was sighted and attacked by the Japanese destroyer Yamakaze and patrol boat No. 38 . The weakly armed mine-layer was hopelessly inferior to this superior force and was sunk with most of the crew. Only sixteen survivors could be saved. How many crew members were actually on board is unclear, as the wounded from the air strike on January 9th were brought ashore to a hospital and some crew members were handed over to the Borneo Maru , which was equipped for the patrol boat Van Masdijn . The Van Masdijn sank on January 10, 1942 when a Japanese flying boat was bombed, and other crew members of the Prins van Oranje died.
The sister ship of the Prins van Oranje , the Hr. Ms. Gouden Leeuw , did not survive the Japanese advance in the Pacific . It put some defensive mine barriers off Java and was finally sunk by the crew themselves on March 7, 1942, in front of the advancing Japanese troops in Soerabaja (Indonesia).
