HNLMS Holland (1896)

HNLMS Holland (Hr.Ms. Holland) 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 Rijkswerf in Amsterdam and launched on 4 October 1896. The ship was commissioned on 1 July 1898. She left the port of Den Helder on 7 January for the Dutch East Indies.

In 1900 the ships together with the HNLMS Piet Hein (1894) and HNLMS Koningin Wilhelmina der Nederlanden was send to Shanghai to save guard European citizens and Dutch interests in the region during the Boxer Rebellion. Holland and Koningin Wilhelmina der Nederlanden returns in the middle of October that year to the Dutch East Indies.

In 1910 the ship together with the HNLMS Hertog Hendrik escorts the HNLMS Noord-Brabant (1899) that had hit a cliff on 31 May while en route to Surabaya. The collision caused the flooding of several compartment of the ship. But damaged as she was she could continue on steam on her own.

The ship was send in 1911 again to Shanghai to save guard European citizens at the time of the fall of Imperial China. The ship arrived on 4 November that year.

In 1912 she is send to represent the Dutch queen at the funeral of the Japanese emperor Meiji in Yokohama.

The ships was finally decommissioned in 1920.