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Friday 15 October 2021

Dutch Defence budget 1930 exceeded according to the Dutch newspaper De Indische courant dated 16 November 1931


An item dated The Hague, Netherlands the 14th reported that the Defence budget for 1930 was increased partly because ƒ 430.000 were more spent for the Dutch squadron in the Dutch East Indies. This exceeding was mainly caused by repairing the fire damage on board of the cruiser Hr.Ms. Sumatra. (1)

Note
1. Laid down at the yard of the Nederlandsche Scheepsbouw Maatschappij at Amsterdam on 15 July 1916, launched 19 December 1920, scuttled as a block ship off Quistreham, France as part of an artificial harbour which was never realized. The wreck was sold in February 1951 to Persia [Iran] to be broken up. Due to lacking material caused by the First World War, enough budget and the loss of her turbines by fire was her launching and completion delayed. After the approval of the budget for 1919 was the building of the Sumatra and her sister ship Java continued. The ships were built based on a Krupp-design but in fact were both ships all altered before they even were commissioned. With a displacement of 6,670 tons were her dimensions 155,30 x 16,00 x 5,50 metres. The two turbines and eight boilers driven 3 screws supplied 72,000 ahp allowing a speed of 31 miles. The armour consisted of a 25-50mm deck, a 75mm belt while the conning tower was protected by 100-125mm. The armament consisted of 10-15cm guns, 4-40mm machine guns, 6-12,7mm machine guns and 2 rails for each 5 depth charges. Her crew numbered 525 men.