HNLMS Pieter Florisz (1937)

History
HNLMS Pieter Florisz at IJmuiden on June 24, 1938
Netherlands
Name:	HNLMS Pieter Florisz
Builder:	P. Smit, Rotterdam
Laid down:	22 November 1936
Launched:	11 May 1937
Commissioned:	13 September 1937
Fate:	Scuttled, 14 May 1940
History
Nazi Germany
Name:	M 551
Commissioned:	1940
Decommissioned:	1945
Fate:	Returned to the Netherlands
History
Netherlands
Recommissioned:	mid-1946
Decommissioned:	1961
Status:	Sold for scrap, 1976
General characteristics
Class and type:	Jan van Amstel-class minesweeper
Displacement:	460 long tons (467 t)
Length:	56.8 m (186 ft 4 in)
Beam:	7.8 m (25 ft 7 in)
Draft:	2.2 m (7 ft 3 in)
Propulsion:	2 × Yarrow 3-drum boilers 2 × Stork triple expansion engines, 1,600 ihp (1,193 kW) 2 shafts 110 tons fuel oil
Speed:	15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement:	45
Armament:	1 × 3 in (76 mm) gun 2 × twin .50-calibre machine guns

HNLMS Pieter Florisz was a Jan van Amstel-class minesweeper of the Royal Netherlands Navy and Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II.

Service history

Scuttled at Enkhuizen on 14 May 1940 after the Dutch surrender, the ship was salvaged by the Germans and commissioned into the Kriegsmarine.

In December 1940 she was converted to a torpedo recovery vessel and renamed M 551. In August 1944 the ship was assigned to the 27th U-boat Flotilla, responsible for the tactical training of U-boats.

In 1945 she was returned to the Royal Netherlands Navy, and repaired at the Willemsoord, Den Helder. Recommissioned under her original name in mid-1946, the ship served as fishery inspection vessel. On 16 September 1947 she sailed for the Dutch East Indies where she served as a patrol vessel, and later as a minesweeper with the 1st Flotilla at Surabaya. After her return to the Netherlands in 1950 the ship was converted to boom defence vessel.

Struck in 1961 and transferred to the Zeekadetkorps Nederland (Dutch Sea Cadets) at IJmuiden in 1962, the ship was finally decommissioned in September 1976 and sold for scrap.

Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in May 1940

Shipwrecks	1 May: Arlington, SS Dronning Maud, Uller 3 May: HMS Afridi, Bison 4 May: ORP Grom 5 May: Maianbar 9 May: Doris 10 May: Nordnorge 11 May: Antilla 12 May: HMCS Gate Vessel 1 14 May: HNLMS Abraham van der Hulst, Batterijschip Ijmuiden, HNLMS Gerard Callenburgh, HNLMS Johan Maurits van Nassau, Jan Pieterszoon Coen, HNLMS O 8, HNLMS O 11, HNLMS O 12, HNLMS O 25, HNLMS O 26, HNLMS O 27, HNLMS Pieter Florisz 15 May: HMS Valentine 16 May: Chrobry 17 May: HNLMS Noordbrabant 18 May: HMS Effingham, SS Sirius 19 May: Belgica, HMS Whitley 21 May: L'Adroit 23 May: Jaguar, Orage 24 May: Chacal, HMS Wessex 25 May: ORP Orzel 26 May: HMS Curlew 27 May: Cap Tafelneh 28 May: Abukir 29 May: HMS Grafton, HMS Grenade, Lorina, Mona's Queen, HMS Wakeful 30 May: Fenella, Bourrasque, HMS King Orry, Normannia 31 May: Siroco, U-13

Other incidents	5 May: HMS Seal 8 May: USS Tutuila 12 May: HMS Revenge 14 May: Chrobry 29 May: HMS Bideford, HMS Montrose

1939 1940 1941 April 1940 June 1940

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