This video is a real treat for those who are interested in Naval history.
You will see spectacular and unique footage of the Dutch Royal Navy during the First World War.

The film starts with magnificent shots of the Hr.Ms. Holland, a kruiser with a fortified deck, launched in 1896, commissioned on 1 July 1898 and decommissioned in 1920. Its armament consisted of two single 150 mm guns, six single 120 mm guns, four single 75 mm guns and two 450 mm torpedo launch tubes. It's speed was 20 knots and carried a
crew of 371 heads!

A small Naval vessel passes the Hr.Ms.Holland, followed by a number of similar shots of the same vessel.

A rowing party brings a high official on board, most likely young Queen Wilhelmina who was inaugurated in 1898.

Plenty of action can be seen in the following scenes, all part an excersize, considering that the Queen is still on board and that The Netherlands was neutral during WW-I.

The names of naval ships are difficult to determine because at the time they did not have large letter followed by digits markings.

We see a number of large life boats being lowered. The excersize is being observed by the Queen. Climbing up a rope ladder that swings violently is not an easy task.

The film then moves to the Hr.Ms.Hydra, a minelayer launched in 1911, commissioned on 25 january 1912 and decommissioned on 15 May 1940. In fact it was sunk by the Germans.

We see the Hydra in action whereby two mines, numbers 23 and 24 are brought on deck. A torpedo is also being prepared by loading it into a launch tube. Subsequently the torpedo is launched.

A rowing boat is lowered into the sea in order to retrieve the probably unarmed torpedo. Bringing the torpedo back on board is done in a rather primitive way.

The crew have some fun with the ships mascot dog. Most Dutch navy ships carried mascots.

The film continues with splended shots of a large number of smaller Dutch Navy vessels.

One of the Dutch submarines can be seen, most likely one of the O2 class that were built around 1914. It could be the O2, O3, O4 or O5.

The film ends with great shots of the Hr.Ms.Holland filmed from the persuing submarine and some more excersizes.

Part-1 about the Dutch Army during WW-I is here:    • Splendid footage of the Dutch Army du...  

This film has been meticulously restored, speed-corrected, motion-stabilized, enhanced and colorized by means of the latest video software that uses Artificial Intelligence to reconstruct facial features, object contours, details and much more!

Music: Experia.
Source: Beeld En Geluid.