HNLMS ABRAHAM CRIJNSSEN (A925)
Class: Van Amstel Steel Minesweeper
Length: 186 feet
Address:
HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen was stationed in the Dutch East Indies when WW II began. After the destruction of the Allied Fleet by the Japanese during the Battle of the Java Sea in February 1942, Crijnssen's captain was ordered to escape with his ship to Australia. Covered with tree branches, the minesweeper crossed the Japanese naval lines camouflaged as a tropical island. After WW II, Abraham Crijnssen assisted in clearing the many minefields that had been laid in the Dutch East Indies during the war. She returned to The Netherlands in 1951, where she was refitted as a net-guardian ship. Following her decommissioning in 1961 she was loaned in 1962 to the Dutch Naval Cadet Corps. In 1995, the Royal Netherlands Navy decided that she should be preserved as a museum. She opened for visiting at the Dutch Naval Museum in July 1997. Two other ships on display at the Museum are the ironclad ram ship HNLMS Schorpioen and the submarine HNLMS Tonijn. 
Camouflaged Abraham Crijnssen can be seen in the center of the photo. Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie Photo Return to the HNSA Home Page.
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