Built for service in the Dutch Antilles

The Hr.Ms. Johan Maurits van Nassau was a Dutch gunboat and was built in Flushing in 1931. The purpose of the ship was to serve in the Dutch Antilles as a stationed vessel and the ship was named after Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen, governor-generaal of Dutch Brasil (from 1636 to 1644).

The ship was taken into service in 1933 and left for Curaçao that year. It returned to Europe in 1937 to protect Dutch ships in the area around Spain during the Spanish Civil war. On January 21st, 1939, the ship returned to the Netherlands for the first time since 1933.

Wikimedia Commons/Ministerie van Defensie

The Johan Maurits van Nassau during WWII

During the German attack on the Netherlands in 1940, the Johan Maurits was on the roads of Flushing. On May 10th, the first day of the German attack, the schip managed to shoot down one of the German airplanes laying mines near Flushing. The same day the ship received orders to sail for Hook of Holland. Shortly after arriving in Hook of Holland however, this command was revoked and the ship was sent back to Flushing. But because the propeller of the ship got caught in the anchor of a buoy, the night was spent in the port of Hook of Holland. The next day the ship received new orders and sailed on to Den Helder. On May 13th, the ship was attacked by a German Heinkel plane, but it suffered no damage.

After arriving on the roads of Den Helder, the ship was sent to the Texelstroom inlet to open fire from there on the head of the Afsluitdijk dike. On may 14th, the German battery near Kornwerderzand was fired upon bij the Johan Maurits, which fired 98 shots. Later that day, the ship tried to evade to the United Kingdom, but it was lot during an air attack near Callantsoog. 17 crew members died in this. The rest of the crew could be saved by other ships that were diverting to the united kingdom.

Yard: Koninklijke Maatschappij de Schelde, Flushing

Armament: 3 x 15 cm cannon, 2 x 40 mm cannon, 4 x 12,7 mm machine gun

Public Domain/Leiden University Libraries

The Hr.Ms. Johan Maurits van Nassau, photographed from the Slamat, while it was escorting merchant ships near the Gibraltar Strait, 1937, photographer unknown.

The anchor of the Johan Maurits was salvaged by the crew of the minesweeper Hr.Ms. Woerden on June 21st, 1984, near the coast of Callantsoog. It was made into a monument at the Navy Museum in Den Helder.

As a memorial to the perished crewmen, a monument was revealed at the Kazemattenmuseum in Kornwerderzand on April 7th, 2005.

• Wikipedia.
  Hr.Ms. Johan Maurits van Nassau (1933).
• KITLV.
  Kanonneerboot Hr. Ms Johan Maurits van Nassau, gefotografeerd vanaf de Slamat, die vanwege de Spaanse Burgeroorlog Nederlandse koopvaardijschepen escorteerde bij de Straat van Gibraltar.
• Historisch Documentatiecentrum Marinebedrijven.
  Het Anker van de Hr.Ms. Johan Maurits van Nassau.
• Zeeuws Archief/Rosanne Goudbeek.
  Kanonneerboot met een korte, maar roemruchte carrière.