HNLMS De Ruyter, was a unique ship built for the Royal Netherlands Navy.

This is in line with his proposition to razee a ship instead of building another heavy frigate according to the existing models.

By the time that De Ruyter was finally launched screw propulsion had made sail-only frigates obsolete.

While still under construction the De Ruyter and the Wassenaar were razeed, or redesigned as heavy frigates, known in the Dutch navy as 'frigates 1st class'.

The fact that in 1851 the De Ruyter was finished 30% and the Wassenaar was 35% ready,[3] gives credence to this theory.

De Ruyter was not similar to the frigates first class laid down at about the same time which had been designed as such from the start.

In her planned and almost completed conversion to a frigate with auxiliary power, she received a 400 hp steam engine.

[6] Note that the 36-pounder was the same gun traditionally found on the lower decks of French ships of the line.

The decision first to convert De Ruyter to use auxiliary steam power, and then to cease the conversion following the expenditure of around eight hundred thousand guilders, attracted criticism.

Between them, these two conversion projects amounted to a great deal of expenditure on a single ship with limited results.

Bouricius and other passengers would stay in the captain's quarters, and therefore new cabins were added on the upper deck.

On the 26th the secretary christened the Evertsen, that had been laid down on the 25th, but he did not inspect the De Ruyter or the Doggersbank.

On 16 November at 8 in the morning the De Ruyter set sail with a powerful South East wind.

After colliding with a Danish barque during a dark night in Sunda Strait she anchored at Batavia on 21 March 1855.

His predecessor VA E.G. van der Plaat and wife would return home with De Ruyter together with many other officers and sailors.

van Maldeghem travelled to Toulon to take over command on the arrival of De Ruyter in that place.

[11] On 1 August many spectators came to hear the music of De Ruyter while it prepared to leave the harbor of Nieuwediep.

She was tugged out by a private tugboat and then left Nieuwediep for a six-week cruise on the North Sea.

In mid-October there were plans for De Ruyter to make a second cruise in the Mediterranean starting 1 November.

The plan was that it would transfer part of its crew and supplies to De Ruyter before returning home.

On 18 July De Ruyter arrived in Lisbon, where she would wait for the steam corvette Groningen, which had the Prince of Orange on board.

Contrary winds made that the Wassenaar anchored in Cagliari on 26 January, instead of reaching Mahon.

On 10 June 120 barrels of silver coins worth 1,200,000 guilders arrived to be transported to the Indies.

On 25 June Prince Lobanoff, ADC of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich of Russia, who was modernizing the Russian fleet.

Apart from bringing the money and 150 soldiers, De Ruyter also exchanged most of her 350 men crew for sailors that had been waiting to return home.

Already in September 1858 there was talk that De Ruyter would be converted to steam in Hellevoetsluis as soon as she returned from the East Indies.

[23] On 18 September 1861 De Ruyter was launched for the second time when Hellevoetsluis Dry Dock was filled with water.

[24] On 8 March 1862 the Battle of Hampton Roads proved that an unarmored frigate did not stand a chance against any armored ship.

[26] It was a difficult decision, further complicated by the fact that the Dutch already had other frigates with auxiliary power, by what the national industry could do, and by the wish to have an ironclad as soon as possible.

By August 1862 the Rijkswerf Vlissingen was busy removing the upper deck and some of the gun ports.