HNLMS Prins Hendrik der Nederlanden

HNLMS Prins Hendrik der Nederlanden was an ironclad turret ship built in Great Britain for the Royal Netherlands Navy in the mid-1860s. She was transferred to the Dutch East Indies in 1876 and participated in the Dutch intervention in Lombok and Karangasem in 1894. The ship was hulked in 1899 and scrapped in 1925.

Design and description
HNLMS Prins Hendrik der Nederlanden was ordered from Laird & Son Co. by the Royal Netherlands Navy as an enlarged version of the Scorpion-class ironclad turret ships originally ordered by the Confederate States Navy. The gun turrets was normally rotated by two men via a system of gears; 20 seconds were required for a full 360° rotation if a full crew of 19 men was used. The ship's bow was reinforced to act as a ram and a hurricane deck connected the forecastle and poop decks. For sea passages the ship's freeboard could be increased to 14 ft by use of hinged bulwarks 5 ft high.

The ship had an length between perpendiculars of 230 ft, a beam of 44 ft, and a draught of 18 ft. She displaced 3375 t. The iron hull was divided by five watertight bulkheads and the ship had a double bottom beneath the engine and boiler rooms. Her crew consisted of 230 officers and men.

Propulsion
Prins Hendrik der Nederlanden had two horizontal return connecting rod compound steam engines, built by Lairds, each driving a single 15 ft propeller. The engines were powered by four square boilers. The engines produced a total of 2426 ihp which gave the ship a maximum speed of 12.09 kn during her sea trials. She carried 380 LT of coal and was barque-rigged with three masts. Her fore and mainmasts were supported by tripods to reduce interference with the firing arcs of the gun turrets by the ship's rigging. Prins Hendrik der Nederlanden had a total sail area of 1554 sqm.

Armament
The ship mounted a pair of Armstrong 9 in rifled muzzle-loading guns in each gun turret. Each gun weighed 12.5 LT. Two 120 mm Krupp breech-loading guns were fitted in the forecastle and another pair in the poop as chase guns. Six 37 mm Hotchkiss 5-barrel revolving guns were added shortly after completion. They fired a shell weighing about 1.1 lb at a muzzle velocity of about 2000 ft/s to a range about 3500 yd. They had a rate of fire of about 30 rounds per minute

Armor
Prins Hendrik der Nederlanden had a complete waterline belt of wrought iron that was 4.5 in thick. Amidships, for a length of 120 ft, the armor belt had a height of 12 ft of which 3 ft below the waterline. At the bow and stern the belt was only 2.5 ft high above the waterline. 4.5-inch transverse bulkheads were provided to protect the bases of the turrets and the machinery spaces from raking fire. Each turret was protected by 5.5 in armor plates, although the total thickness around the gun ports was 11 in. The deck was unarmored.

Service
Prins Hendrik der Nederlanden was laid down by Laird & Son Co. at Birkenhead in August 1865. She was launched on 9 October 1866 and completed in March 1867. The ship was transferred to the Dutch East Indies in 1876. The 37-millimeter guns were replaced by two quick-firing, 75 mm guns and four 37-millimeter quick-firers by 1890. Prins Hendrik der Nederlanden transported troops during the Dutch intervention in Lombok and Karangasem in July 1894. The ship decommissioned on 5 May 1899 and became an ammunition hulk in Surabaya. She was transferred to the Department of Colonies between 1901 and 1905, but returned to the Navy in 1905. Prins Hendrik der Nederlanden was scrapped in 1925.