Jan van Amstel class

*Jan van Amstel* class
	The Abraham van der Hulst in 1939
Ship data
country	Netherlands German Empire Australia; ;
Ship type	Minesweeper
Construction period	1936 to 1940
Launch of the type ship	August 27, 1936
Units built	9
period of service	1937 to 1961
Ship dimensions and crew
length	56.8 m ( Lüa ) 56 m ( Lpp )
width	7.8 m
Draft	Max. 2.2 m
displacement	Standard : 460 t; Use: 525 t
crew	45
Machine system
machine	3 Yarrow three-drum boilers. ; 2 Stork triple expansion steam engines
Machine ; performance	1,600 hp (1,177 kW)
Top ; speed	15 kn (28 km / h)
propeller	2
Armament
	When commissioned 1 x 7.5 cm; 2 × MG 12.7 × 81 mm ; 40 sea mines;

The Jan van Amstel class was a class of minesweepers that was built for the Royal Netherlands Navy and was used in World War II .

General

The Jan van Amstel class was the third class of anti-mine vehicles built for the Dutch Navy. Its predecessors were the M and A classes, each comprising four boats .

Eight construction contracts were awarded to two private shipyards - Machinefabriek en Scheepswerf van P. Smit Jr. in Rotterdam and Gusto in Schiedam - which laid the boats on Kiel from March 1936 and put them into service until October 1937. Four more boats were ordered later, but only one of them could be laid on keel before the occupation of the Netherlands by the German Wehrmacht in 1940.

Navy

The Pieter Florisz and Abraham van der Hulst sank on May 14, 1940 near Enkhuizen and the Willem van Ewijck (II) was captured unfinished. After lifting, repairs and completion, all three boats were put into service by the Kriegsmarine as M 551 ( Willem van Ewijck ), M 552 ( Pieter Florisz ) and M 553 ( Abraham van der Hulst ) and used as torpedo fishing boats in the Baltic Sea. The M 553 sank in mid-April 1944 near Brüsterort ( East Prussia ) after being hit by a mine. However, the boat could be lifted and should later be repaired at a Szczecin shipyard. There it was bombed during a Soviet air raid in late August 1944 and burned out completely. The other two boats survived the war and were returned to the Netherlands.

Royal Australian Navy

After the Abraham Crijnssen , unlike her three sisters also deployed in the Dutch East Indies , survived the Japanese conquest of the Dutch territories. It was handed over to the Australian Navy in August 1942 and was used there until May 5, 1943 under the name HMAS Abraham Crijnssen . Then she returned to Dutch service.

List of units

Identifier	Surname	Shipyard	Keel laying	Launch	Commissioning	Whereabouts
A.	Jan van Amstel	Scheepswerf van P. Smit Jr. , Rotterdam	March 21, 1936	August 27, 1936	March 15, 1937	sunk by Japanese destroyers near Surabaja on March 8, 1942
B.	Pieter de Bitter	Scheepswerf van P. Smit Jr. , Rotterdam		October 29, 1936	May 26, 1937	self-sunk on March 6, 1942 near Surabaja
C.	Abraham Crijnssen	Gusto, Schiedam		September 22, 1936	May 26, 1937	Decommissioned in 1961 and later a museum ship
D.	Eland Dubois	Gusto, Schiedam		October 24, 1936	June 21, 1937	self-sunk on March 8, 1942 near Surabaja
E.	Willem van Ewijck (I)	Scheepswerf van P. Smit Jr., Rotterdam	1936	February 22, 1937	July 19, 1937	Sunk September 8, 1939
F.	Pieter Florisz	Scheepswerf van P. Smit Jr., Rotterdam	November 22, 1936	May 11, 1937	September 13, 1937	later scrapped
G	Jan van Gelder	Gusto, Schiedam	October 10, 1936	March 27, 1937	September 13, 1937	later scrapped
H	Abraham van der Hulst	Gusto, Schiedam	November 10, 1936	May 31, 1937	October 11, 1937	Sunk on April 21, 1944 after being hit by a mine, later scrapped
	Willem van Ewijck (II)	Scheepswerf van P. Smit Jr., Rotterdam	1940	April 16, 1940	August 30, 1940	later scrapped
Construction contracts for three more boats were given to Scheepswerf van P. Smit Jr. , but the keel was no longer laid by the German occupation.

technology

hull

The hull of a Jan van Amstel class boat was 56.8 meters long, 7.8 meters wide and had a draft of 2.2 meters with an operational displacement of 525 tons . The crew consisted of 45 men.

drive

It was driven by two Stork - triple expansion steam engines with three oil-fired steam generators - boilers of the Yarrow type - with which a total output of 1,600 hp (1,177 kW ) was achieved. The power was delivered to two shafts with one screw each . The top speed was 15 knots (28 km / h ). 110 tons of fuel could be bunkered, resulting in a maximum travel distance of 1,600 nautical miles (2,963 km) at 15 knots. There were also water reserves and a distillation system with which the feed water was preheated and purified for the boilers. When the boiler had cooled down, you had to preheat for four hours before you could drive out.

literature

Harald Fock: Fleet Chronicle - The active warships involved in the two world wars and their whereabouts . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-7822-0788-2 , p. 217-235 .

Web links

Commons : Jan van Amstel class - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Jan van Amstel class on netherlandsnavy.nl (English)
Jan van Amstel class on uboat.net (English)
M 551 on navypedia.org (English)