Isaac Sweers

History
Netherlands
Name	Isaac Sweers
Namesake	AdmiralIsaac Sweers
Builder	Koninklijke Maatschappij De Schelde John I. Thornycroft & Company
Laid down	26 November 1938
Launched	16 March 1940
Commissioned	29 May 1941
Fate	Torpedoed and sunk on13 November 1942
General characteristics
Class & type	Gerard Callenburgh-classdestroyer
Displacement	1,604 tons standard 2,228 tons full load
Length	107 m (351 ft 1 in)
Beam	10.6 m (34 ft 9 in)
Draught	2.8 m (9 ft 2 in)
Propulsion	2 shaft, Parsons geared turbines 3 Yarrow type boilers 45,000 hp (34,000 kW)
Speed	37.5knots (69.5 km/h; 43.2 mph)
Range	3,200 nmi (5,900 km; 3,700 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Armament	6 ×QF 4-inch Mk XVI naval guns 4 ×40 mm Bofors 8 ×Vickers .50 machine guns 8 ×British 21-inch torpedoes Mines & Depth Charges

HNLMSIsaac Sweers was one of fourGerard Callenburgh-classdestroyer built for theRoyal Netherlands Navy duringWorld War II.

The keel was laid on 26 November 1938. The ship was launched on 16 March 1940 and the unfinished ship was evacuated to England after theGerman invasion of the Netherlands. She was completed in Great Britain, with six British4-inch dual purpose guns instead of planned five 120 mm guns. The ship was modern for her time, she was fast and had two manually stabilized 40 mm Bofors AA guns, each with its ownHazemeyerfire control, an on-mount mechanical analog fire control computer integrated with a on-mount optical rangefinder. It was the first Dutch ship to use a Dutch radio direction finder (RDF 289),^[1] to aim its AA guns. The ship's plans were saved from the Germans and elements were incorporated intoRoyal Navy ship designs.^[2]

Isaac Sweers was part of the Allied 4th Destroyer Flotilla which torpedoed and sank the Italian cruisersAlberico da Barbiano andAlberto di Giussano on 13 December 1941, at theBattle of Cape Bon.^[3] She riddledAlberto di Giussano with gunfire at short range and launched four torpedoes against theCigno; all of them missed their target. She escorted the important convoy MW 8B toMalta in January 1942. During this mission the British destroyerGurkha was torpedoed by the German submarineU-133 on 12 January 1942.Isaac Sweers towed the stricken British destroyer through a field of burning oil and saved her entire crew of 240 sailors. They were taken toTobruk.

DuringOperation Torch, on 11 November 1942, along withHMS Porcupine,Isaac Sweers helped rescue 241 men from the shipNieuw Zeeland, a Dutch troop transport that had been torpedoed by theGerman submarine U-380 at35°57′N03°58′W / 35.950°N 3.967°W /35.950; -3.967 - about 80 miles (130 km) east ofGibraltar, in the Mediterranean.^[4] On 13 November 1942,Isaac Sweers was hit by two torpedoes from the German submarineU-431. She sank with the loss of 108 of her 194 crew.

• Bosscher, P. M. (1984).De Koninklijke Marine in de Tweede Wereldoorlog (in Dutch). Franeker: T. Wever BV.ISBN 9789061353713.
• Van Kuilenburg, H. (1994).Hr.Ms. Isaac Sweers: ontwerp, bouw en levensloop van een succesvolle torpedobootjager (in Dutch). Amsterdam: Van Soeren.ISBN 9789068810417.

• Dutch navy destroyers in WWIIArchived 6 March 2015 at theWayback Machine
• Dutch radar developments 1936-1941

37°23′N2°12′E / 37.383°N 2.200°E /37.383; 2.200

• Gerard Callenburgh-class destroyers
• Ships built in Vlissingen
• Ships built in Southampton
• 1940 ships
• World War II destroyers of the Netherlands
• Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II
• Destroyers sunk by submarines
• World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea
• Maritime incidents in November 1942
• Naval ships of Operation Torch

• CS1 Dutch-language sources (nl)
• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from March 2017
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• Coordinates on Wikidata