HNLMS Abraham van der Hulst (1937)

HNLMS Abraham van der Hulst (1937)
Career (Netherlands)
Name:	HNLMS Abraham van der Hulst
Namesake:	Abraham van der Hulst
Builder:	Gusto, Schiedam
Laid down:	13 November 1936
Launched:	31 May 1937
Commissioned:	11 October 1937
Fate:	Scuttled, 14 May 1940
Career (Germany)
Name:	M 552
Commissioned:	1940
Decommissioned:	April 1944
Fate:	Destroyed during an air raid, 20 August 1944
General characteristics
Class & type:	Jan van Amstel-class minesweeper
Displacement:	450 long tons (457 t) standard 585 long tons (594 t)
Length:	56.70 m (186 ft 0 in) oa 55.80 m (183 ft 1 in) pp
Beam:	7.80 m (25 ft 7 in)
Draft:	2.00 m (6 ft 7 in)
Propulsion:	2 × Yarrow 3-drum boilers 2 × Stork triple expansion engines, 1,690 ihp (1,260 kW) 2 shafts 110 tons fuel oil
Speed:	15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement:	46
Armament:	• 1 × 75 in (1,900 mm) gun • 2 × twin 12.7 mm machine guns

HNLMS Abraham van der Hulst after it had run on a mine on 8 October 1939

HNLMS Abraham van der Hulst was a Jan van Amstel-class minesweeper built for the Royal Netherlands Navy in the 1930s. The German invasion of the Netherlands resulted in the ship being scuttled at Enkhuizen on 14 May 1940, but was raised by the Germans and entered service as the Minesweeper M.552 with the German Kriegsmarine. M.552 was returned to the Netherlands when Nazi Germany surrendered in May 1945, and was renamed Willem van Ewijck as it was thought that the ship was another minesweeper of the same class that had also been recovered from the Germans.

References

• Gardiner, Robert and Roger Chesneau. Conway's All The World's Fighting Warships 1922–1946. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1980. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
• Lenton, H.T. German Warships of the Second World War. London: Macdonald and Jane's, 1975. ISBN 0-356-04661-3.