The Admiralen class were eight destroyers built for the Royal Netherlands Navy between 1926 and 1931. All ships fought in World War II and were scuttled or sunk.

This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2008)

Quick Facts Class overview, General characteristics ...

Admiralen class

HNLMS Evertsen
Class overview
Name	Admiralen class
Operators	Royal Netherlands Navy
Preceded by	Wolf class
Succeeded by	Gerard Callenburgh class
Built	1926–1930
In commission	1928–1942
Completed	8
Lost	8
General characteristics
Type	Destroyer
Displacement	1,316 tons standard 1,640 tons full load
Length	98 m (321 ft 6 in)
Beam	9.53 m (31 ft 3 in)
Draught	2.97 m (9 ft 9 in)
Propulsion	2 shaft, Parsons geared turbines 3 Yarrow type boilers 23,000 kW (31,000 hp)
Speed	36 kn (67 km/h)
Range	3,200 nmi (5,900 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h)
Complement	129 (120 in second group)
Aircraft carried	1 × Van Berkel W-A
General characteristics First group
Armament	4 × 120 mm (4.7 in) no. 4 Bofors guns (4 × 1) 2 × 75 mm (3 in) no. 6 AA guns 4 × 13 mm (.5 in) Browning machine guns 6 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes (2 × 3)
General characteristics Second group
Armament	4 × 120 mm (4.7 in) no. 5 HIH Siderius guns (4 × 1) 1 × 75 mm (3 in) no. 7 (VG, WW) and no. 8 AA HIH Siderius (BK, VN) guns 4 × 40 mm (1.6 in) no. 1 Vickers AA guns 4 × 13 mm (.5 in) Browning machine guns 6 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes (2 × 3)

Close

These ships were built in the Netherlands with assistance from the British company Yarrow (at that time the leading builder of destroyers in the world). The Dutch ships were based on the British destroyer HMS Ambuscade. A novel feature was the provision of a seaplane for scouting. There was however no catapult, the plane being lowered into the sea by a crane.

The differences between the two groups were minor; the second group was fitted for minesweeping rather than mine laying, and they carried one less 75-millimetre (3 in) gun for 30 tons of fuel.^[1]

Between 1925 and 1928 eight new destroyers were laid down to replace the Wolf-class destroyers. The design came from Yarrow & Co, they based it on HMS Ambuscade and HMS Amazon. The Royal Netherlands Navy took the Yarrow & Co design and made some minor changes.

The first group was fitted with four 120mm no. 4 Bofors guns, while the second group was fitted with four 120mm no. 5 HIH Siderius guns. The main differences are the mounts used and the no. 4 were able to elevate between −5 and +30 degrees while the no. 5 guns could elevate between −5 and +35 degrees, giving a range of 19,500 meters.^[2]

The second group was equipped with 40mm no. 1 Vickers AA guns, however these guns had problems firing at higher angles; the guns would malfunction or not fire at all. Because of this the ships of this group could use only their single 75mm AA gun against targets above 1000 meters. After 12 years of ignoring this issue it was finally solved in 1939 by stiffening the guns, however when Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940 this issue wasn't solved for the surface ships of the Royal Netherlands Navy.