The ships of the colonial navy (Indische Militaire Marine) were meant for transport and flotilla services.

The tasks of the colonial navy were: fighting piracy; executing and supporting military actions; showing the flag; hydrographic work; training crews.

[3] The Aceh War that started in 1873, created an extra demand for ships that left many of the stations in the east of the archipelago practically empty.

It roughly had five tasks: blockading the coast of Aceh; supporting landing operations; transporting men and equipment of the expedition force; executing all kinds of communication services; executing punitive expeditions on the coast.

[6] The gunboats laid down during the ministry of Fransen van de Putte were the ships of the Pontianak class.

[9] The need for these kind of ships in the Dutch East Indies made that Suriname was transferred to the colonial navy before she was finished, and was renamed 'Makassar'.

[11] It was a further evolution of the previous classes that had been composite ships, which had a wrought iron frame with wooden planking.

With 60 pounds steam pressure and 113 revolutions a minute the ship made 9.4 knots (17.4 km/h; 10.8 mph).

[14] Both speeds are significantly higher than would be reached in service, because the ships were not fully loaded on trials.

[22] Of the six ships three were built by the Koninklijke Fabriek van Stoom- en andere Werktuigen and three, Samarang, Bonaire and Padang by Fijenoord.

That Suriname (not the ship that was renamed to Makassar) and probably also Bonaire and Padang were also part of this class can be derived from Tideman's work.

The ships paid by the department of the colonies, and employed there as part of the 'Indische Militaire Marine' have names referring to the archipelago.