In a letter published in this newspaper an anonymous Dutch navy officer described the miserable condition of the Dutch warships serving at that moment in the Dutch East Indies. He was quite cynical in his comment dealing with the condition of the ships ending with the phrase Happy Indies! Happy Navy! Poor Netherlands!
The boilers of the Zr.Ms. Maas en Waal were in extremely worse condition. Lacking boilers on stocks she was useless for active service.
Laid down at the navy yard at Amsterdam, Netherlands on slip no. 4 on 19 February 1861, launched on 22 September 1862, departed the shipyard on 30 September 1865, commissioned in 1865, transferred to the Indische Militaire Marine on 1 January 1868, decommissioned on 11 May 1874 and no longer mentioned on the fleet list dated 1 January 1875. With a displacement of 586 tons were her dimensions 38,00-40,70 x 8,16 x 2,30 metres. With a horsepower of 80 nhp/200 ehp was her speed 607 miles. Her crew numbered 75 men. The armament consisted of 2 medium30pd guns and 4-30pd carronades. Building costs ƒ 259.006,76.
