13. The One Thing That the Crijnssen’s Camouflage Plan Could Do Little About
The Crijnssen’s flight was an agonizingly slow and terrifying ordeal. While they spent the daylight hours at anchor, the Dutch ship’s crew hoped and prayed that their camouflage would hold up, and avert detection by the numerous Japanese ships and airplanes crisscrossing the Java Sea. Once the sun went down and the tropical night descended, the small vessel weighed anchor and resumed her journey to safety. As they inched their way towards Australia, there was one thing that the Crijnssen’s crew could do little to camouflage: the sound of her engines.
All the sailors could do was pray that the noise would not attract the attention of nearby enemy ships or watchers. Luck was with the plucky Dutch minesweeper. After one of the more hair-raising journeys of WWII, which lasted for eight frightful days, she finally reached safety. On March 20, 1942, the Crijnssen arrived in Freemantle, Western Australia. The Abraham Crijnssen was the last Allied vessel to successfully escape the disastrous defeat in the Java Sea and the Dutch East Indies, and the only ship of her class to survive the debacle.
