The Dutch coastal defence ship Hr. Ms. Tromp (1) commanded by captain N.J. van Laer left on 6 October 1926 Nieuwediep, Netherlands for a voyage towards the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
In November visited the Tromp Constanza which was described as large harbour although again less busy as before the war. Most important export products were grain and petrol; de later nowadays more as bulk than in cans. This was caused by the Turkish and Greek government petrol monopolies and founding their own cans plants. Wayer was enough available but no coals. When it was reported that at Syracuse no coal could be bunkered, managed the Dutch commanding officer to buy at Constanza 200 ton Silesian coal enough for the voyage towards Algiers. The coal bunkering went extremely slow. At 13.00 o’clock was just 112 tons loaded. After the support of 30 Dutch sailors were all the coal loaded at 15:30 o’clock. In the harbour were two Romanian destroyers (2) lying out of service and some torpedo boats and gunboats. The Romanian navy commanding officer, a rear admiral, was called towards Bucharest and in his place acted the director of the scolo navala, a captain. He complimented the Dutch commanding officer. An officer of the serving gunboats proposed to forget the official visits while the boats mainly served as training ships as part of the scolo navala. Romanian midshipmen were allowed to visit the Tromp.
Notes
1. Coast defence ship Marten Harpertsz Tromp, often referred to as just Tromp. She was laid down at the navy yard at Amsterdam, Netherlands 2 May 1903, launched 15 June 1904, trial 17 November 1905 and commissioned 5 April 1906. The armament consisted of 2-24cm guns, 4-15cm guns, 8-7.5cm guns, 4-3.7cm guns, one submerged torpedo tube and two submerged torpedo guns. After some voyages for instance again towards the Dutch East Indies was she decommissioned 2 May 1927, stricken 1932 and leaving 6 December 1933 Den Helder towards Pernis to be broken up. Part of her armour was used to strengthen in 1933 the fortress Kijk Uit at Den Helder, Netherlands.
2. This must be the Marasti-class destroyers Marasti (ex-Sparviero and ex-Vartej), launched on 26 March 1917 and the Marasesti (ex-Nibbio and ex-Viscal), launched on 30 January 1918.
Source
Jaarboek van de Koninklijke Nederlandsche Zeemacht 1926-1927.
