HNLMS Zeeland (1897)

HNLMS Zeeland (Hr.Ms. Zeeland) was a protected cruiser of the Royal Netherlands Navy.

Design
The ship was 93.3 m long, had a beam of 14.8 m, a draught of 5.41 m, and had a displacement of 3,840 ton. The ship was equipped with 2 shaft reciprocating engines, which were rated at 10,000 ihp and produced a top speed of 20 kn. The ship had a deck armour of 2 in. Two 5.9 in single turret guns provided the ship's main armament, and these were augmented by six single 4.7 in guns and four 3 in single guns. The ship had a complement of 324 men.

Service history
The ship was built at the Koninklijke Maatschappij de Schelde in Flushing and launched on 20 March 1897. The ship was commissioned on 1 June 1898. She left the port of Flushing on 18 June that year for a series of trials on the North sea. During these trials the ship visited Plymouth. The ships served as flagship of a fleet of 18 ships on 15 September that year at a fleet review on the Hollands Diep. The review was held because of the coronation of the Dutch queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands.

On 24 June 1905 HNLMS Hertog Hendrik hit a coral reef near Matjidosteen while en route to the Gulf of Boni. Zeeland made several attempts to pull the stranded ship loose, but these proved unsuccessful and were abandoned when Zeeland's bollards broke. The ship was later pulled clear after De Ruyter and Japara, a ship with towing equipment from the Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij, arrived and Hertog Hendrik's coal, reserves and munitions were offloaded. Later that year the ship took part in two expeditions to South Celebes. The first expedition was undertaken against the lord of Boni. Armed sloops of Hertog Hendrik and the Zeeland protected the landing of Dutch forces near Patiro on 20 July 1905.

In 1906 Zeeland, HNLMS Koningin Regentes, along with her sister ship HNLMS De Ruyter (1901), assisted in an expedition to the island of Bali in the Dutch East Indies as part of Dutch attempts to integrate the southern kingdoms of Tabanan, Badung and Klungkung into the Dutch East Indies. On 16 and 17 September, the ships bombarded the city of Denpasar and afterwards ground forces broke what resistance remained.

The ship left on 2 July 1914 the port of IJmuiden for practice in the North and Baltic Sea. On board was Prince Henry of the Netherlands. During the trip the ship visited the ports of Copenhagen, Saint Petersburg, Stockholm and Kristiania. On 29 July the ship returned in Den Helder.

On 7 June 1917 the ship left from Den Helder for a journey round the world to Soerabaja. Along the way the ship visited Tórshavn, New York, Curaçao, Colon, Panama, San Francisco, Honolulu, Yokohama and Nagasaki. During the trip she passes through the Panama Canal and becomes the first foreign warship to do so. 4 November that year she reached her destination. During the trip 53 man of the crew deserted during the visits of the US city’s of New York (45) and San Francisco (8). 3 December that year the ship left for the Netherlands. The same route was taken to reach it.

The ships was finally decommissioned in 1924.