Therefore, the Dutch required a disproportionately large number of shallow draught vessels for the defense of their cities.

The Dutch naval budget equaled that of Austria, and superseded that of Turkey and Spain, but these three states each deployed 5-9 battleships, while the Netherlands had none.

For service in home waters they would not have to be loaded so heavily, and would therefore have the shallower draught required for coastal defense.

[4] A relatively small high pressure steam engine would allow these plans to be realized on a ship much smaller and cheaper than the Vesuvius class.

Somewhere before October 1859 the Dutch navy got the news that high pressure steam engines were not suitable for the far east.

One can assume that this was even before they were launched, because no mention was found about a change of plans after the succeeding Haarlemmermeer class was ordered.

It meant that the department of the navy published plans, and shipyards could offer to realize these at a certain price.

[9] Shipyard Koning William on the Hoogte Kadijk in Amsterdam was awarded the contract for the Amstel and the Apeldoorn.

Furthermore, wages in Amsterdam were on average much higher than in places like Maassluis, Groningen and Gouda.

[12] The preceding Hector had been a vessel of 34.60 m by 7.40 m with a draught of 3.20 m. After the news that high-pressure engines could not be used in the East Indies came in, the naval department set about to design a new dual purpose gunvessel that used a low pressure steam engine.

[15] It meant that the original idea to build a small type of ship (Hector, Haarlemmermeer) that would rival the bigger Vesuvius class in armament had not been realized.

The Haarlemmermeer class drew a lot of criticism in the 1862 investigation of the navy by the Dutch house of representatives.

Lieutenant 1st class P. van Lelyveldt stated: "The flotilla vessels are bad sea ships.

They are too small, not suitable for service in the colonies, and lack proper lodgings for the crew."

He stated that for certain purposes he thought the Haarlemmermeer class the best type of ship to send to the East Indies.

[16] The summary of the 1862 investigation accidentally mentions the worst consequence of the design failure that the Haarlemmermeer class would later prove to be.

Due to the attempt to combine too much functions on a small surface, the heat of the engines could not properly escape the ship.

They have too much draught, are hindered by too heavy sails and rigging, and do not have enough space to lodge the crew.

By 1866 five of the nine ships in the class were no longer in service, all of them unfit after only a few years in the Dutch East Indies.

The Haarlemmermeer would see extensive service in the East Indies, it was still short, but she survived significantly longer than the others.

At the time it was well known that seasoning the wood before use and ventilation of the ship were the only effective means to prevent dry rot.

Pieter Blussé van Oud-Alblas, a major shipping line owner from Dordrecht, made the following remarks: I read on the bottom of page 2: Especially for steamships, which are exposed to varying degrees of temperatures, dampness and drought, and of which the timber is exposed to dry rot far more than that of sailing ships, it is important not to hasten construction more than necessary.

Later the ship would be rounded off and finished... Then at the bottom of page 3 I read: The advantage gained by leaving these (small) ships on the slipway for some time, while using the amount of wood only suitable for small vessels, prompted a decision to slowly built three more steam flotilla vessels at the Rijkswerf in Amsterdam, and two at the Rijkswerf Vlissingen.

[23] The minister of the navy Lotsy replied as follows: The remark that a too short time frame was allowed for the construction of the steam flotilla vessels, I can only answer in one way.

At that moment even those that did not appreciate the international situation as very threatening were convinced of the necessity to improve the national defense as soon as possible.