HNLMS Van Galen (G84)


HNLMS Van Galen was a N-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy during the Second World War and transferred to the Royal Netherlands Navy shortly after completion. The Dutch changed the pennant numbers several times G-84, J-3, JT-3, and D-803.

Description

The N-class destroyers were repeats of the J-class, except that they incorporated the wartime modifications made to the earlier ships. They displaced at standard load and at deep load. The ships had an overall length of, a beam of and a deep draught of. They were powered by Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by two Admiralty three-drum boilers. The turbines developed a total of and gave a maximum speed of. The ships carried a maximum of of fuel oil that gave them a range of at. The ship's complement was 183 officers and men.
The ships were armed with six 4.7-inch Mark XII guns in twin mounts, two superfiring in front of the bridge and one aft of the superstructure. The aft torpedo tubes were replaced by a single QF 4-inch Mk V anti-aircraft gun. Their light anti-aircraft suite was composed of one quadruple mount for 2-pounder "pom-pom" guns, four single Oerlikon 20 mm cannon and two twin mounts for the 0.5 inch Vickers Mark III anti-aircraft machinegun. The N-class ships were fitted with one above-water quintuple mount for torpedoes. The ship was fitted with two depth charge throwers and one rack for 45 depth charges.

Construction and career

Van Galen was built as the British destroyer HMS Noble , but was commissioned into the Royal Netherlands Navy shortly after completion. The ship served throughout the Second World War and was stricken in October 1956 and scrapped in February 1957 in the Netherlands.