HNLMS Van Kinsbergen (1939)

HNLMS Van Kinsbergen (Hr.Ms. Van Kinsbergen) was a unique sloop of the Royal Netherlands Navy build by Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij. She served in the Dutch West Indies in 1940. Later, she served as escort vessel and survived World War II. She was decommissioned on 29 May 1959 and was sold for scrap on 19 May 1974.

Construction
Van Kinsbergen was laid down on 11 September 1937. She was launched on 5 January 1939 and commissioned on 24 August 1939.

Service history
On 26 August 1939, Van Kinsbergen left Den Helder port to meet with the Dutch submarine HNLMS O 13 in the English Channel. After meeting with O 13, which returned from the West Indies, both ships returned to the Netherlands. On 2 October, Van Kinsbergen left Den Helder port with the submarines HNLMS O 20 and HNLMS O 14 accompanying her to the West Indies, where she was to relieve the sloop HNLMS Johan Maurits van Nassau and to train new gunners. She arrived in Curacao on 31 October.

On the evening of 1 November, Van Kinsbergen left port to intercept a British destroyer that had entered territorial waters; this was forbidden because of the Netherlands′ declaration of neutrality in September 1939. A similar incident occurred when a British cruiser entered the territorial waters. Both incidents where resolved without using force.

On 10 May 1940, war with Germany broke out, and boarding parties from Van Kinsbergen captured seven German merchant ships which were present at Curacao. As the war continued, she took part in several other missions to capture merchant ships and rescue survivors of torpedoed ships.

On 1 November 1955, her conversion to accommodation ship was completed. She was decommissioned on 29 May 1959 and was sold for scrap to the Belgian company Van Heyghen for 515,000 guilders on 19 May 1974.