Laid down at the yard of the N.V. Scheepsbouwmaatschappij at Amsterdam on 17 January 1936 with building number 240, launched on 24 May 1937, commissioned on 18 August 1938, stricken on 20 December 1968 and sold to be broken up. Her pennants were D 28, KL2, C 804 and at the end of her career A 878 when she served as an accommodation ship. Built according to the Vlootplan Deckers Naval shipbuilding program of Deckers) and called flotilla leader to prevent political discussion when called cruiser.
With a displacement of 3,450-4,025 tons full load were her dimensions 131,95 x 12,43 x 4,32 metres. The 2 Parsons turbines and 4 Yarrow boilers supplied 56,000 ahp driving 2 screws allowing a speed of 32,5 knots. Her crew numbered 298 men later increased to 380 men. The original armament consisted of 3x2-15cm guns, 2x2-40mm machine guns, 1x2-12,7mm machine guns and 2x3-53,cm torpedo tubes and a float plane. The armour consisted of a 15mm belt (amidships), 15 and 25mm decks, 20 and 30mm bulkheads while the turrets were protected by 12-25mm.
computer line drawing by Alexander van Maanen
Her sister ship was the Jacob van Heemskerck which was just prepared for her trials when the German forces invaded the Netherlands. She managed to escape to England and was there fitted out as an air defence cruiser.
