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HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën (1908-1943)
Encyclopedia
HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën (Dutch: Hr.Ms. De Zeven Provinciën) was an armoured warship (pantserschip) of the Royal Netherlands Navy
from 1910 to 1942. She was armed with 2× 280 mm (11 inch), 4 × 150 mm (6 in.), 10 × 75 mm (3 in.) and 4 × 37 mm guns. Additionally she also had a 75 mm mortar
. She was 101.5 m long, had a beam of 17.1 m, a draft of 6.15 m and displaced 6,530 t. She had a crew of 448 and was able to reach 16 knots.
She was a pantserschip
or "coastal defence ship", a warship
built for the purpose of coastal defence
, defined as a "a small cruiser
-sized warship which sacrificed speed and range for armour
and armament". To the chagrin of the Dutch, the construction of such ships was ascribed by bigger naval powers to "nations which could not afford battleships or which needed specially-suited shallow-draught vessels small enough to operate close to their coasts".
She served part of her career in the Dutch East Indies
, from 1911–1918 and from 1921 onwards. During the 1920s, her crew included the future Rear Admiral Karel Doorman
. She suffered a high profile mutiny on 5 February 1933, which had far-reaching implications for politics in the Netherlands. She was renamed HNLMS Soerabaja in 1936.
On 18 February 1942 she was sunk by Japan
ese bombers. The Japanese raised her and used her as a battery ship until she was sunk again by Allied aircraft in 1943.
which broke out on board on 5 February 1933.
, part of the mixed Dutch and Indonesian crew seized control of the ship, keeping it in operation and sailing it southwards along the Sumatran coast
After six days during which the mutineers remained defiant, the Dutch Defence Minister Deckers authorized an attack by military aircraft. One of the bombs struck the ship, killing twenty-three mutineers, whereupon the others immediately surrendered. In the fierce controversy which immediately broke out, it was asserted that this outcome was not deliberate, and that the only intention was to intimidate the mutineers.
Incidentally, this was an early demonstration of the revolution in naval warfare
due to the vulnerability of surface ships to aerial bombardment, of which this ship itself was to be a victim ten years later. However, at the time naval experts in the Netherlands and elsewhere paid little attention to this aspect, the whole event being mainly discussed in terms of the putting down of a mutiny.
The cause and motivation of the mutiny was at the focus of considerable debate, both in the Dutch public opinion and political system at the time, and among historians up to the present. Dutch researchers such as Loe de Jong
believe that there had been an active communist cell among the sailors - which was asserted in a highly inflammatory manner by nationalist right-wingers at the time, while in later periods Dutch and Indonesian communists were happy enough to be credited with what became a heroic myth in left-wing circles.
However, J. C. H. Blom asserts that the mutiny was essentially spontaneous and unplanned, resulting from protest at pay cuts and bad working conditions as well as a generally poor morale in the Dutch Navy at the time.
In that, the case of De Zeven Provinciën is reminiscent of the Invergordon Mutiny
of sailors in the Royal Navy
a year and half earlier, which ended without the use of lethal force. Indeed, Dutch sailors may have been inspired by their British counterparts' mutiny, which had recently been international news. The harsher stance of the Dutch Government in relation to the mutineers might be partially attributed to the British mutiny taking place in Britain itself, while the Dutch one happened in the context of a restive colony where an independence movement was already active, but which the Dutch contemporary political establishment was completely determined to retain.
Peter Boomgaard links the mutiny with a relatively high level of social unrest and strikes in the Dutch Indies during the 1932-1934 period, which the colonial authorities attempted to suppress by force.
. Historian Louis de Jong accounts it as among one of the most significant Dutch events in the 1930s. As the aforementioned J. C. H. Blom notes, the main effect of the spectacular incident - at least in the short term - was to cause a shift to the right, clearly manifest in the general elections
two months later, in April 1933.
The government proceeded to root out social-democratic influences among naval unions and civil servants, since "such 'unreliable elements' threatened the loyalty of the armed forces and with it the nation's hold on its seemingly indispensable overseas possessions". In this it was supported, as Blom notes, by the officer corps as well as by the predominantly burgerlijkBurgerlijk translates roughly as "bourgeois", though with specific untranslatable overtones sociopolitical groups in the country (Calvinist, Catholic, and liberal).
Apprehensive of appearing "unpatriotic", the Social Democratic Workers' Party
was unable to offer an effective defence, and in the April elections lost two seats - setting back (though, as it turned out, only temporarily) their march towards strength and respectability in the political mainstream).
Conversely, the Anti Revolutionary Party
which ran a strong "law-and-order" campaign gained two seats and its leader Hendrikus Colijn
- himself with a bloody past in the colonial army at the Indies - became the next Prime Minister. Moreover, in the direct aftermath of the mutiny a new party known as the "Alliance for National Reconstruction
" (Verbond voor Nationaal Herstel) suddenly emerged, with firm defence of the eastern colonial empire as its main elections plank, and with only two months' existence won thirty-thousand votes and a seat in parliament.
Moreover, a report by the Dutch Intelligence Service
quoted by Blom attributes the meteoric rise of Anton Mussert
's "Nationaal Sociallistische Beweging", from one thousand members in January 1933 to 22,000 a year later to the both Hitler's coming to power in neighbouring Germany and to the uprising on De Zeven Provinciën - the two events being virtually simultaneous. The effect turned out to be short-term, however, with the Dutch Nazi Party politically moribund by 1937.
The single voice in Dutch politics to clearly and outspokenly support the Zeven Provincien mutineers was the left-communist Revolutionary Socialist Party
(Dutch: Revolutionair Socialistische Partij), whose leader Henk Sneevliet
had been among the founders of what was to become the Indonesian Communist Party, and who was sentenced to five months prison term for hailing the mutiny as "the beginning of the anti-colonial revolution".
Sneevliet's outspoken position was used in the aforementioned right-wing campaign. However, for its constituency - mainly left-leaning intellectuals, especially in the more cosmopolitan capital Amsterdam
- the RSP raised a large and effective campaign with such slogans as: "From the Cell to Parliament", "Make Sneevliet the public prosecutor in the Second Chamber" and "I accuse" (a clear reference to Emile Zola
's "J'accuse"). The campaign worked and the party won a single parliamentary seat, the only such success in its history, and thus got Sneevliet released from prison. (No one at the time could imagine that ten years later the radical Sneevliet would die heroically, fighting the Nazi occupation, and enter the pantheon of Dutch national heroes).
happened, to the Home Fleet
, ostensibly to purge the memory of the mutiny
, the Surabaya was sunk by Japanese bombers near the city whose name she bore - Surabaya
, headquarters of the Dutch Navy in the Indies.
Unlike most of the other Dutch ships, sunk far from any shore battle of February and March 1942, the Surabaya lay in shallow enough waters that - once they were in control - the Japanese were able to salvage and raise her up. In the Japanese service she was used as a battery ship (her name in this period not being on record).
In the following year, 1943, she was hit by Allied
aerial bombardment and sank to the bottom, this time a permanent loss.
Royal Netherlands Navy
The Koninklijke Marine is the navy of the Netherlands. In the mid-17th century the Dutch Navy was the most powerful navy in the world and it played an active role in the wars of the Dutch Republic and later those of the Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
from 1910 to 1942. She was armed with 2× 280 mm (11 inch), 4 × 150 mm (6 in.), 10 × 75 mm (3 in.) and 4 × 37 mm guns. Additionally she also had a 75 mm mortar
Mortar (weapon)
A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....
. She was 101.5 m long, had a beam of 17.1 m, a draft of 6.15 m and displaced 6,530 t. She had a crew of 448 and was able to reach 16 knots.
She was a pantserschip
Coastal defence ship
Coastal defence ships were warships built for the purpose of coastal defence, mostly during the period from 1860 to 1920. They were small, often cruiser-sized warships that sacrificed speed and range for armour and armament...
or "coastal defence ship", a warship
Warship
A warship is a ship that is built and primarily intended for combat. Warships are usually built in a completely different way from merchant ships. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster and more maneuvrable than merchant ships...
built for the purpose of coastal defence
Coastal defence and fortification
Coastal defence , Coastal defense and Coastal fortification are measures taken to provide protection against attack by military and naval forces at or near the shoreline...
, defined as a "a small cruiser
Cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...
-sized warship which sacrificed speed and range for armour
Armour
Armour or armor is protective covering used to prevent damage from being inflicted to an object, individual or a vehicle through use of direct contact weapons or projectiles, usually during combat, or from damage caused by a potentially dangerous environment or action...
and armament". To the chagrin of the Dutch, the construction of such ships was ascribed by bigger naval powers to "nations which could not afford battleships or which needed specially-suited shallow-draught vessels small enough to operate close to their coasts".
She served part of her career in the Dutch East Indies
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
, from 1911–1918 and from 1921 onwards. During the 1920s, her crew included the future Rear Admiral Karel Doorman
Karel Doorman
Karel Willem Frederik Marie Doorman was a Dutch Rear Admiral who commanded ABDACOM Naval forces, a hastily-organized multinational naval force formed to defend the East Indies against an overwhelming Imperial Japanese attack. Doorman was killed and the main body of ABDACOM Naval forces destroyed...
. She suffered a high profile mutiny on 5 February 1933, which had far-reaching implications for politics in the Netherlands. She was renamed HNLMS Soerabaja in 1936.
On 18 February 1942 she was sunk by Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese bombers. The Japanese raised her and used her as a battery ship until she was sunk again by Allied aircraft in 1943.
Mutiny on De Zeven Provinciën
More than any event in its career, including even her demise in active fighting, this ship is remembered especially for the mutinyMutiny
Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...
which broke out on board on 5 February 1933.
Mutiny in the Indies
While the vessel was off the northwest tip of SumatraSumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
, part of the mixed Dutch and Indonesian crew seized control of the ship, keeping it in operation and sailing it southwards along the Sumatran coast
After six days during which the mutineers remained defiant, the Dutch Defence Minister Deckers authorized an attack by military aircraft. One of the bombs struck the ship, killing twenty-three mutineers, whereupon the others immediately surrendered. In the fierce controversy which immediately broke out, it was asserted that this outcome was not deliberate, and that the only intention was to intimidate the mutineers.
Incidentally, this was an early demonstration of the revolution in naval warfare
Naval warfare
Naval warfare is combat in and on seas, oceans, or any other major bodies of water such as large lakes and wide rivers.-History:Mankind has fought battles on the sea for more than 3,000 years. Land warfare would seem, initially, to be irrelevant and entirely removed from warfare on the open ocean,...
due to the vulnerability of surface ships to aerial bombardment, of which this ship itself was to be a victim ten years later. However, at the time naval experts in the Netherlands and elsewhere paid little attention to this aspect, the whole event being mainly discussed in terms of the putting down of a mutiny.
The cause and motivation of the mutiny was at the focus of considerable debate, both in the Dutch public opinion and political system at the time, and among historians up to the present. Dutch researchers such as Loe de Jong
Loe de Jong
Louis de Jong was a Dutch journalist and historian specialising in the history of the Netherlands in World War II and the Dutch resistance....
believe that there had been an active communist cell among the sailors - which was asserted in a highly inflammatory manner by nationalist right-wingers at the time, while in later periods Dutch and Indonesian communists were happy enough to be credited with what became a heroic myth in left-wing circles.
However, J. C. H. Blom asserts that the mutiny was essentially spontaneous and unplanned, resulting from protest at pay cuts and bad working conditions as well as a generally poor morale in the Dutch Navy at the time.
In that, the case of De Zeven Provinciën is reminiscent of the Invergordon Mutiny
Invergordon Mutiny
The Invergordon Mutiny was an industrial action by around 1,000 sailors in the British Atlantic Fleet, that took place on 15–16 September 1931...
of sailors in the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
a year and half earlier, which ended without the use of lethal force. Indeed, Dutch sailors may have been inspired by their British counterparts' mutiny, which had recently been international news. The harsher stance of the Dutch Government in relation to the mutineers might be partially attributed to the British mutiny taking place in Britain itself, while the Dutch one happened in the context of a restive colony where an independence movement was already active, but which the Dutch contemporary political establishment was completely determined to retain.
Peter Boomgaard links the mutiny with a relatively high level of social unrest and strikes in the Dutch Indies during the 1932-1934 period, which the colonial authorities attempted to suppress by force.
Upheaval in Dutch politics
In the Netherlands, both the mutiny itself and its bloody conclusion had a deep impact, a blot on the record of Defence Minister Deckers and Prime Minister BeerenbrouckCharles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck
Jhr. Charles Joseph Maria Ruijs de Beerenbrouck was a Dutch nobleman and Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1918 to 1925 and again from 1929 to 1933...
. Historian Louis de Jong accounts it as among one of the most significant Dutch events in the 1930s. As the aforementioned J. C. H. Blom notes, the main effect of the spectacular incident - at least in the short term - was to cause a shift to the right, clearly manifest in the general elections
Dutch general election, 1933
A general election of the House of Representatives of the Dutch Parliament was held in the Netherlands on April 26, 1933.-National summary:-Parties:* Anti Revolutionary Party...
two months later, in April 1933.
The government proceeded to root out social-democratic influences among naval unions and civil servants, since "such 'unreliable elements' threatened the loyalty of the armed forces and with it the nation's hold on its seemingly indispensable overseas possessions". In this it was supported, as Blom notes, by the officer corps as well as by the predominantly burgerlijkBurgerlijk translates roughly as "bourgeois", though with specific untranslatable overtones sociopolitical groups in the country (Calvinist, Catholic, and liberal).
Apprehensive of appearing "unpatriotic", the Social Democratic Workers' Party
Social Democratic Workers' Party (Netherlands)
The Social Democratic Workers' Party was a Dutch socialist political party and a predecessor of the social-democratic PvdA.-1893-1904:...
was unable to offer an effective defence, and in the April elections lost two seats - setting back (though, as it turned out, only temporarily) their march towards strength and respectability in the political mainstream).
Conversely, the Anti Revolutionary Party
Anti Revolutionary Party
The Anti Revolutionary Party was a Dutch Protestant Christian democratic political party. The ARP is one of the predecessors of the Christian Democratic Appeal. After 1917 the party never received more than twenty percent of the vote.-History before 1879:The anti-revolutionary parliamentary caucus...
which ran a strong "law-and-order" campaign gained two seats and its leader Hendrikus Colijn
Hendrikus Colijn
Hendrikus Colijn was a successful Dutch soldier, businessman and politician.-Early life:He was born in 1869 in the Haarlemmermeer to Antonie Colijn and Anna Verkuil, who had migrated to the Haarlemmermeer polder from the Land of Heusden and Altena for religious reasons...
- himself with a bloody past in the colonial army at the Indies - became the next Prime Minister. Moreover, in the direct aftermath of the mutiny a new party known as the "Alliance for National Reconstruction
Alliance for National Reconstruction
The Alliance for National Reconstruction was a Dutch conservative-nationalist political party. The VNH played only a marginal role in the Dutch parliament.-History:...
" (Verbond voor Nationaal Herstel) suddenly emerged, with firm defence of the eastern colonial empire as its main elections plank, and with only two months' existence won thirty-thousand votes and a seat in parliament.
Moreover, a report by the Dutch Intelligence Service
General Intelligence and Security Service
Algemene Inlichtingen- en Veiligheidsdienst , formerly known as the BVD is the General Intelligence and Security Service or The Secret service of the Netherlands. The office is in Zoetermeer...
quoted by Blom attributes the meteoric rise of Anton Mussert
Anton Mussert
Anton Adriaan Mussert was one of the founders of the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands and its de jure leader. As such, he was the most prominent national socialist in the Netherlands before and during the Second World War...
's "Nationaal Sociallistische Beweging", from one thousand members in January 1933 to 22,000 a year later to the both Hitler's coming to power in neighbouring Germany and to the uprising on De Zeven Provinciën - the two events being virtually simultaneous. The effect turned out to be short-term, however, with the Dutch Nazi Party politically moribund by 1937.
The single voice in Dutch politics to clearly and outspokenly support the Zeven Provincien mutineers was the left-communist Revolutionary Socialist Party
Revolutionary Socialist Party (Netherlands)
The Revolutionary Socialist Party was a Dutch socialist political party.-Predecessors:The oldest predecessor of the Revolutionary Socialist Party is the Revolutionary Socialist Union , a group of dissidents from the Communist Party Holland led by Henk Sneevliet...
(Dutch: Revolutionair Socialistische Partij), whose leader Henk Sneevliet
Henk Sneevliet
Hendricus Josephus Franciscus Marie Sneevliet, known as Henk Sneevliet or the pseudonym Maring , was a Dutch Communist, who was active in both the Netherlands and the Dutch East-Indies...
had been among the founders of what was to become the Indonesian Communist Party, and who was sentenced to five months prison term for hailing the mutiny as "the beginning of the anti-colonial revolution".
Sneevliet's outspoken position was used in the aforementioned right-wing campaign. However, for its constituency - mainly left-leaning intellectuals, especially in the more cosmopolitan capital Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
- the RSP raised a large and effective campaign with such slogans as: "From the Cell to Parliament", "Make Sneevliet the public prosecutor in the Second Chamber" and "I accuse" (a clear reference to Emile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
's "J'accuse"). The campaign worked and the party won a single parliamentary seat, the only such success in its history, and thus got Sneevliet released from prison. (No one at the time could imagine that ten years later the radical Sneevliet would die heroically, fighting the Nazi occupation, and enter the pantheon of Dutch national heroes).
A change of name
Meanwhile, the actual ship from which the whole imbroglio began was in July of that year taken out of service and modified to serve as a training ship. In 1936 she was renamed HNLMS Soerabaja. It might be no accident that the purely Dutch name De Zeven Provinciën was changed to the name of a major city of the Indies.The British also changed the name of their Atlantic Fleet, in which the Invergordon MutinyInvergordon Mutiny
The Invergordon Mutiny was an industrial action by around 1,000 sailors in the British Atlantic Fleet, that took place on 15–16 September 1931...
happened, to the Home Fleet
British Home Fleet
The Home Fleet was a fleet of the Royal Navy which operated in the United Kingdom's territorial waters from 1902 with intervals until 1967.-Pre–First World War:...
, ostensibly to purge the memory of the mutiny
Loss
On 18 February 1942, a few days before the outbreak of the Battle of the Java SeaBattle of the Java Sea
The Battle of the Java Sea was a decisive naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, that sealed the fate of the Netherlands East Indies....
, the Surabaya was sunk by Japanese bombers near the city whose name she bore - Surabaya
Surabaya
Surabaya is Indonesia's second-largest city with a population of over 2.7 million , and the capital of the province of East Java...
, headquarters of the Dutch Navy in the Indies.
Unlike most of the other Dutch ships, sunk far from any shore battle of February and March 1942, the Surabaya lay in shallow enough waters that - once they were in control - the Japanese were able to salvage and raise her up. In the Japanese service she was used as a battery ship (her name in this period not being on record).
In the following year, 1943, she was hit by Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
aerial bombardment and sank to the bottom, this time a permanent loss.
External links
- J.C.H. Blom, De Muitereij op De Zeven Provinciën
- http://navalhistory.flixco.info/H/284741x53056/8330/a0.htmDescription of ship
See Also
- Spithead and Nore mutiniesSpithead and Nore mutiniesThe Spithead and Nore mutinies were two major mutinies by sailors of the Royal Navy in 1797. There were also discontent and minor incidents on ships in other locations in the same year. They were not violent insurrections, being more in the nature of strikes, demanding better pay and conditions...
- Chilean naval mutiny of 1931
- Royal Indian Navy Mutiny
- Chilean naval mutiny of 1931
- Kronstadt rebellionKronstadt rebellionThe Kronstadt rebellion was one of many major unsuccessful left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks in the aftermath of the Russian Civil War...
- Wilhelmshaven mutinyWilhelmshaven mutinyThe Kiel mutiny was a major revolt by sailors of the German High Seas Fleet on 3 November 1918. The revolt triggered the German revolution which was to sweep aside the monarchy within a few days. It ultimately led to the end of the First World War and to the establishment of the Weimar Republic.-...
- Invergordon MutinyInvergordon MutinyThe Invergordon Mutiny was an industrial action by around 1,000 sailors in the British Atlantic Fleet, that took place on 15–16 September 1931...
- Revolt of the Lash