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October 13, 2016

One Salad, To Go

HNLMS_Abraham_Crijnssen_Covered_In_Branches.jpg

Stranded in Java after the Japanese invasion of 1941, the Dutch minesweeper Abraham Crijnssen found a unique way to sneak out:
The crew covered the decks with jungle foliage and painted the hull to resemble cliffs, giving the ship the appearance of a small island. Traveling only at night and anchoring near shore, the minesweeper gradually made her way to West Australia, becoming the last Allied vessel to escape Java and the only one of her class in the region to survive. - - Futility Closet

Posted by gerardvanderleun at October 13, 2016 11:56 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

Couldn't find sheeite on who the captains was ... that was one smart little fikker.

Let his strategy be a lesson to us all. Amen!

Posted by: edaddy at October 13, 2016 6:42 PM

There were a lot of officers in the Dutch colonial army who didn't really g.a.s. that the Japanese had invaded the Dutch East Indies, what with the Nazi puppets already running the show back home and all. They may have thought, "what's the point"? But the navy, perhaps reflecting the rich maritime traditions of the Netherlands, fought hard against overwhelming odds as the IJN blasted the Allies out of the seas around what today is Indonesia. A DeRuyter or Tromp would have been proud of the resourcefulness that enabled this small ship to survive.

Posted by: waltj at October 15, 2016 2:31 PM

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