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After WW2 the Dutch navy had to rebuild everything. The ships in commission were lend-lease ships and worn out by the war. While quite a few of them lasted far post-war, new ships had to be build.

Part of this rebuild was a new class of destroyers.

The destroyers were first mentioned in 1946, the budget for 1947. In 1948 6 of the 12 planned destroyers were ordered. The first 4, the 1947A, would use the sets of machinery build for the Germans during WW2, which was based on the Gerhard Callenburgh Class machinery. The rest of the class, 1947B, would be slightly bigger and would be fitted with new build machinery.
The design was based on the British wartime expertise, and would use a gastight design of all welded construction. The machinery, which was left near-finished after the liberation of the Netherlands, was fitted in a unitised arrangement. The armament was originally meant to become 2 4,5in twin mounts and 5 40mm guns.

As reference ships for the new destroyers the designers looked mostly at the Dutch Admiralen class, the RN N-class (of which the Dutch had one in commission)

the project started of with the machinery designed for the Gerard Callenburgh class. Werkspoor build some units while under german command for the construction of the Flottentorpedoboot 1940. postwar these units were finished and destined for use in the 1947A destroyers.

the hull changed very little over the design process because this machinery would have to be fitted.

the 1947A design with the abovementioned 'british' guns. for everything but the arnament, see the description for the next image.


the 1947A as planned in 1947. interesting to note is that the fire control for the secondaries was single-director: the rangefinding and the directing was fitted on one director. as stand in for this director (which is not defined as it was not finished at the time) I have fitted the director that ended up in that role, except that the target-finding was put on a separate position.


In January 1950 the Dutch Navy paper ‘Alle Hens’ published a walk around of the new destroyer design as it looked at that point in the design. The image that came along with it shows in rough lines the design as it was completed, but many of the details are still different. Radars seem to lack, the bridge seems to be open and the depth charge mortars forward are not yet there, but there is something on the position they would end up.


In July 1951 the ship had changed considerably. the hull and machinery stayed the same, but the superstructure and armament had some changes. The sonar and depth charge mortars were added and the fire control updated at the cost of 2 40mm guns. the ZW surface radar and the DA search radar were placed on the foremast and the aft superstructure grew to a full secondary control system. in the aft superstructure there was fitted an radar room as well, although the search radar later fitted on the mast above it is not yet shown on these plans. the forward superstructure grew slightly with the new radars. The DA radar was also not fully developed, so I have made 2 versions of the drawing: one with the DA as shown on the plans, and one with the DA-02 radar as would be fitted on the final ships.



in May 1954 'alle hens' published another article about the 1947A class destroyer, reflecting the final design. the design, commissioned later that year, had still some differences from this design.

interesting to see is the lack of 40mm guns, the very small director fit but finally the fitting of the large search radar on the aft mast. interesting to see is that the aft superstructure changed very little since 1951, but the forward superstructure was completely rebuild.

As completed, we see some small differences from the published design above. first of all, quite a lot of the equipment is not yet delivered when some of the ships are commissioned. at least some of the ships are first completed with a pole mainmast and with only the navigation radar (ZW-01) in place.

the pole mast is replaced by the radar mast (shorter then originally envisioned)



as completed, the ships have the 40mm gun amidships instead of the originally planned lichtraketwerper. in addition, the main deck level is lowered slightly compared with the earlier plans and less boats are carried. all this was to get the topweight lower.

it was proposed for the 4 holland class ships to be converted to missile ships. this was never actually done or even completely designed, but this was what they most likely would look like.

later in the 1947A's life some small modifications were made. the important one was the use of inflatable liferafts

The Gelderland was from 1974 onward moored as an instruction vessel at the Netherlands Navy Etablissement Amsterdam, to be used for the technical educations of the RNLN. Her gun turrets got a second life on board the 2 Tromp Class frigates.

this concludes the 1947A...... I hope to be adding the first 1947B drawings somewhere in the future.

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Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
I ask of you to prove me wrong. Not say I am wrong, but prove it, because then I will have learned something new.
Shipbucket Wiki admin

Looks really nice acelanceloet, looking forward to more.

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My Worklist
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Official German Parts Sheet
German Capital Ship Projects of The First World War

Waiting your 1946-1947 version (with the the Mk-III or the Mk-V mount ?)
I have somes doubts between the MK-III & MK-V mounts in 1946-1947...(By 1946-1947, the Mk 5 model is completely NEW*** in the BRITISH gun inventory (not even tested at sea !, it will be tested only in 1947 onboard the HMS Saintes)).
*** even in the prototype stage !!!

there are no references for the the 1947 version (I might do a try, but that will be based on only textual references and even then, very little)
I will ignore the rest, as you have linked later plans, and my ship is as shown in 1950, as stated above. for that same reason the underwater hull is undrawn: the 1951 version I have the full plans of and will have an underwater hull, but for the 1950 I have no references but the ones showing this shape, and I would thus be incorrect by drawing it as shown in the plan you posted.
do you have the reference you posted without the red lines and somewhat bigger, btw? I don't think I have exact this version, it is somewhere between 1951 and 1954 I think?

_________________
Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
I ask of you to prove me wrong. Not say I am wrong, but prove it, because then I will have learned something new.
Shipbucket Wiki admin

Ooooh, you do not have the mid-1945/late 1946 preliminary dutch destroyers studies ?, roooh the map I posted is the real 1947 plan preliminary studies...

could you link me the full one then, so I can put that one over here as well? I can compare and adjust with the one released in 'alle hens' 1950 then too. interesting that the design shows influence from both the later and the earlier designs then the one in alle hens. looking from this, you have?

_________________
Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
I ask of you to prove me wrong. Not say I am wrong, but prove it, because then I will have learned something new.
Shipbucket Wiki admin

Nice work Ace.
Those 4.7in mounts look pretty big on this ship, and A mount looks very close to the bows. I wonder if that would have affected accuracy and seakeeping in poor weather?

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Interwar RN Capital Ships
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well, the primary armament and the size of the hull was unchanged even in the as build version, so you can look up the seakeeping of the actual holland class

_________________
Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
I ask of you to prove me wrong. Not say I am wrong, but prove it, because then I will have learned something new.
Shipbucket Wiki admin

as colombimike does not even replies on my question if he can send an bigger version of the plan he used for comparision above, I have used the one above (deleted now) that the ships depicted are different designs. I hope the above image will be good enough to draw out the 1947 version as well

as you can see, the mast position, funnel position, and the placement of weapons is different. deckhouses are of roughly the same length, and it is visible it is an ship in the same design lineage, but they are far from the same design.

_________________
Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
I ask of you to prove me wrong. Not say I am wrong, but prove it, because then I will have learned something new.
Shipbucket Wiki admin

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