HMS Van MEERLANT - 1941

[stewart mcloughlin]

I'm told that there may be someone on this site who could help me in my research of Hn.M.S. Van MEERLANT which was constructed by Gusto of Schiedam for the Royal Dutch Navy in 1920, a sister ship of the Douwe Aukes, as a minsweeper/layer.
On the outbreak of WW2 she sailed to Britain and was accepted into the Royal Navy but was sunk by a mine in the Thames Estuary on 4the June, 1941, with the loss of 40+ of her crew. One member came from our village near Preston, England, and I have been tasked by the local vicar to carry out resear ch on the war memorial as a whole.
I have built up 40+ pages of information about our casualty and the ship but am still lacking:-
a biography of Commander Van Meerlant 1871-1919 whom the ship was named after.
Apparantly he was a minesweeper/layer pioneer in the Dutch Navy, but that is all I know.
Does anyone have any details of him, early life, service history etc? It would be much appreciated to enable me to conclude my enquiries, or could point me in the correct direction?
Many thanks

Stewart McLoughlin

[Folkert]

Commander

Hr. Ms. Van Meerlant

Captain 25.08.1939-05.06.1940 Luitenant ter zee der 1e klasse Th.K. baron Van Asbeck
02.07.1940-14.03.1941 Luitenant ter zee der 1e klasse Th.K. baron Van Asbeck


14 March 1941
The Dutch minelayer Van Meerlant was decommissioned 14 March 1941 and transferred to the Royal Navy the same day.
HMS Van Meerlant (Lt.Cdr. A.H. Piggott, RNR) was mined in the Thames Estuary 4 June 1941 while serving with the Royal Navy.
3 Officers and 38 men were lost with the ship
Officers:
T/Sub Lt N. Moore RNVR, T/Sub Lt R.C. Palmer RNVR, and T/LT (E) R.R.G. Perrett RNR, were lost in the ship.
T/LT R.H. Church RNR, and the Commander Piggott was wounded in the minelayer

Never Founded:
MARSHALL William
Stoker
LT/KX115352
R.N.P.S., H.M.S. "Van Meerlant"


Cdr Arnold Howard Piggott (1904-1996)
History
Born in 1904; educated at Taunton School and HMS CONWAY; Midshipman, Royal Naval Reserve (RNR), 1921; service with Canadian Pacific Steamship Company, 1921; Lt, 1928; commanded Royal Naval Reserve contingent, Armistice Day ceremony, London, 1930; Lt Cdr, 1937; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; appointed to command inshore minesweeping flotilla, 1940; commanded HMS VAN MEERLANT, 1940-1941; wounded and lost a leg when HMS VAN MEERLANT sunk by mine, Thames estuary, Jun 1941; served in Admiralty on Staff of Second Sea Lord and in the Combined Operations Division; Cdr, 1944; retired from Royal Naval Reserve, 1945; died 1996.

Papers relating to Piggott's service in World War Two, 1939-1945, notably the sinking of HMS VAN MEERLANT, 4 Jun 1941, including typescript list of the ship's company, annotated to show survivors of the sinking, with manuscript notes by an unknown survivor relating to Piggott's exemplary conduct during the sinking, Jun 1941; manuscript letter to Piggott from Hugh G Collins, HMS WILDFIRE, relating to Piggott's injuries, the loss of HMS VAN MEERLANT, and to the writing of sympathy letters to the crew's next of kin, Jul 1941; letter to Piggott from Cdr Humphry Gilbert Boys-Smith, Royal Naval Reserve, relating to accomodation for Naval officers, Mar 1945

History
Placed in the Centre by the family in 1998 at King's College London

IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code: GB99 KCLMA Piggott
Title: PIGGOTT, Cdr Arnold Howard (1904-1996)
Dates of creation of material: 1941-1945, [1996]
Level of description: collection level
Extent: 1 file


King's College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, England, United Kingdom. Tel:+44 (0) 20 7836 5454

Greeting Folkert

[Bram]

Stewart,

I hope this helps:

Name: Roelof Hendrik van Meerlant

Regstration number:
1017

Decorations:
ON
E9
E12
E17
HO mv
XXV
Mar V 1
L II 5

Born:
Utrecht 11 March 1871

Deceased:
Utrecht 14 July 1919

Ranks:
Adelb 1e kl - 2 Aug 1892
Ltz 2e kl - 2 Aug 1896
Ltz 1e kl - 2 Aug 1907
Kapt Ltz - 16 Aug 1918

Source: Various Editions of the Gedenkboek Adelborsten opleiding Willemsoord

His biografy is described in Marineblad (a naval magazine) series 34 on page 229. Unfortunately I do not have a copy of that magazine. But several people in this forum collect those magazines, so perhaps they can help you out.

[Folkert]

Roelof Hendrik Meerlant van 11-03-1871 / 14-07-1919
family graftombe on the cemeterie Groenekan ,Utrecht (Utrecht)

[Folkert]

Memorial

A memorial island has been created at the Queens Steps, Lock Head, Royal Docks, Grimsby, to commemorate the memory of the 2,385 men of "The Royal Naval Patrol Service", popularly know as "Harry Tate's Navy". The memorial site can be visited by obtaining a day visitor’s pass at the Royal Docks office. There is a car park and a narrow road leads onto the dockside, and the memorial is across the lock gates opposite the dock tower. The Royal Naval Patrol Service Veterans have created this memorial

http://www.poulton.info/familyhistory/g ... 0RNPSV.htm

[Folkert]

Off topic

ps

Catalina Attack by John Wynne Hopkins.

D for Donald of 270 squadron, Royal Air Force, out of Freetown, West Africa operating in the Atlantic Ocean. It was during routine operation search that D for Donald surprised U515 on the surface and immediately attacked the submarine. U515 in putting up stiff resistance blew a large hole in the hull of D for Donald and the magazine of the starboard side 0.5 twin Browning was hit and the subsequent shrapnel wounded both blister gunners. U515 escaped but was sunk by an American naval hunter group a year later. D for Donald limped back to base and managed to make the beach before it would sink completely.

The squadron 270 reformed at Juli in Gambia on 12 November 1942 as a general reconnaissance unit equipped with Catalinas. These were used for anti-submarine patrols along the West African coast. It moved its base to Apapa in Nigeria in July 1943 and the following December began to convert to Sunderland, although it was May 1944 before the last Catalina left. The squadron finally disbanded on 30 June 1945.

http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2-2RAF-c2.html

[Bram]

Err, aren't we getting off-topic a bit ?

[Henk]

Dear Stewart,

Enclosed some technical and hystorical information about Hr.Ms. 'Van Meerland'

Kind Regards,

Henk

[boissevain]

Stewart,

my references say van Meerlant was used as a minelayer, not as a sweeper. Also, in case you have a problem translating dutch, she had been used in the thirties as a training ship for midshipmen and as such made some small trips abroad.

[Folkert]

HMS Van Meerlant ex Hr.Ms.van Meerlant

14 March 1941 and transferred to the Royal Navy the same day.
HMS Van Meerlant (Lt.Cdr. A.H. Piggott, RNR) was mined in the Thames Estuary

HMS Van Meerlant has an excellend job as sweeper for acoustic and magnetic mines.

Early in the war the Germans laid the 'Falmouth Field', the first offensive mine field against the UK. The UK had developed 'k cutters' (static cutters with sharp jaws) for wire sweeping but when they swept this minefield they found the Germans had planted sweep obstructors and delayed action mines to thwart their efforts.

acoustic mine's
The first known use of an acoustic mine occurred in 1940. However work on an acoustic countermeasure had already been initiated by HMS Vernon and the Sweeping Division of its Mine Design Department. This resulted in the SA acoustic hammer box in the bow compartment of a vessel (usually a converted trawler) but later bow-mounted about 12 feet below the water. By 1942, the bow mounted hammer box was one of the most common acoustic countermeasures and was being streamed abeam, usually in combination with the LL magnetic sweep. The hammer boxes contained a pneumatic or electric driven riveting hammer mounted to strike against a 7/16 inch thick 19 inch diameter steel diaphragm. The pneumatic hammers proved more reliable than the electric type and were incorporated into the standard hammer box designated 'A Mark 1' which was either suspended over the bow of a minesweeper or towed in combination with the magnetic sweep.

magnetic mine's
The first German laid magnetic mine was recovered by Lt Cdr John Ouvry RN on 23 November 1939. This resulted in the British development of magnetic mine sweeping. In the first development, the 'M' sweep carried 34 magnetized bars towed on pendants 40 feet long and spaced 15 feet apart. The M Mk 2 sweep carried seventy 27 inch magnets spaced 10 feet apart across its swept path of 700 feet. Like the Mk 1 sweep, the Mk 2 was designed to sweep in the water column and not on the surface.

Magnetic sweep
The first operational magnetic sweep called the 'LL' comprised two cables of different lengths with electrodes towards their tail ends. A petrol-powered 35KW generator set and batteries pulsed at 3000 amps for 5 seconds each minute. This early magnetic sweep was not only used to clear British areas but was also used in cooperation with the French to clear German air-laid magnetic mines from the entrance to Le Havre at the beginning of WW II. This sweep led to the requirement for a buoyant magnetic sweep cable and its development.
During this same period, the UK developed a 'Portable Pulsing Unit' designed to be placed on available craft-of-opportunity for clearing continental ports. Also known as the 'Portable Mine Destructor', it used the UK developed floating magnetic cable.

Summer of 1941
In the summer of 1941, German submarines laid moored magnetic mines in water 600 to 960 feet deep. These mines could also be laid in as little as 90 feet of water. Because of these developments, the UK developed a single ship deep sweep. The test ship was HMS Fraserburgh, a Bangor class minesweeper.

[stewart mcloughlin]

Gentlemen and or ladies
What a magnificent response to my enquiry!!!
Truely astounded by the response and valuable new information that has come forward which will enable me to reach a final conclusion to my research on this subject.
The post about U.515 was very interesting. How could you possibly know that I have also been researching Werner Henke (U.515) and the sinking of the SS Ceramic and seperately I have also been looking at RAF 270 Sqdn on another of our casualties. Regretfully on this occasion (D) Donald and U.515 are not my two getting together, they remain two seperate items. Spookey though that it should appear here on this post. I'm sure this will take me another few days / nights to disseminate this information, just when I'm putting everything together to go to Cologne and Netherlands on other enquiries this weekend.
Sincerely, many thanks to all.
Stewart Mcloughlin

[Folkert]

OFF TOPIC

Thanks Stewart, good police work.
Have a nice weekend !!
http://www.geocities.com/mulderspants/ceramicstats.html

[stewart mcloughlin]

Sorry, have been away some time now doing my research thing and should really have updated this thread.
Have collected a considerable file on HNMS Van Meerlant and her subsequent time with the Royal Navy. I suppose I still have things to finally conclude which will require me to attend the British National Archives once again to eliminate the possibility of documents surviving.
Did manage to trace the daughter of her British captain, Cmdr Piggott in U.S. of A. and she provided me with personal details and photograph of him. Absolute spitting image of the British actor Noel Coward.
Apart from filing all this information in my local library for the benefit of our local village history, has anyone any suggestions, nice ones only please, where it could be used by a wider audience. I'm not very computer literate and don't have a clue as to how to post it on the internet.
Many thanks to all who helped on the way.
Stewart McLoughlin
Preston, England

[Visje]

HMS Van Meerlant has an excellend job as sweeper for acoustic and magnetic mines.

Hi Folkert,

What is your source for this information?

Thanks,
Jan Visser

[Folkert]

What is your source for this information?

but where history of magnetic mine's and sweeping
and the re equipped of the van Meerlant -06/07 -1940 at Sheerness by Thames patrol groep


Van 12 juli tot 14 maart 1941 ingedeeld bij het Thames Local Defence
Flotilla met als thuishaven Sheerness gezocht foto's uit deze periode

I'm trying to locate any info/pictures regarding the HMS VAN MEERLANT


(*) Degaussing device: German magnetic mines were fitted with a sensor that detected larger changes in the Earth magnetic field around the device. Should enough difference be detected [distortion of the Earth magnetic field] the mine would be set off. The blast would kill a ship, especially in shallow waters. As such the mines were most effective in shallow waters. Obviously - since the Earth Magnetic field was mandatory - different devices were required for the southern and northern hemisphere due to the reversed Earth magnetic field. The Germans used "Gauss" as a measurement of strength of the magnetic field, and as such "degaussing" was born. First degaussing was done by dragging an electrical cable along the ship with large quantity of amps flowing through it. It induced the magnetic field of the ship. This method was called "wiping the ship". Yet ships tend to pick up magnetic fields from the Earth magnetic field by simply sailing the seas. As such ships had to be wiped on a regular basis. Later bigger units were fitted with electromagnets to guarantee a continuous and stable magnetic profile that saw to minimizing the distortion of the "North Pole down" indicator of the mines...
Mine sweepers that were able to sweep this kind of mines first needed to have a bias magnetic profile themselves. Preferably they were constructed out of wood or any non-steel hull. The sweeping device used in the early days of the war was the towing of a heavy pulsed electrical cable behind the sweeper or - preferably - between two sweepers [called the "Double L Sweep"]. The Dutch navy sweepers in 1940 were not only made of steel but also they lacked the devices to sweep magnetic mines. The British and French navies however were equipped with some of these devices. The fact that the Allies had already taken active counter-measures was caused by the fact that they already became acquainted with the mines in September 1939. The Allies also used airplanes fitted with degaussing coils, which would fly rather low over the shallow waters in which mines were expected.

not yet..........founded

I do not have a full casualty list, only the officers:

Sub Lieut. Nigel Moore
Sub Lieut. Robert Charles Palmer
Lieut. (E) Reginald Robert Perrett

and seven of the ratings:
Second Hand Charles Whitby Blakly Quickfall
O/Tel Donald Ian Blair
O/Tel James Patrick Dolan
Sig Jack Eric Marsh
Seaman Andrew Watson ( John,s grandfather was killed jonwatssav@aol.com )
Ord. Seaman Leslie Adams
Stoker William Marshall

I know the Commanding Officer survived, although badly wounded - Commander
Arnold Stewart Piggott.