In the early 1930s, the Dutch Navy was looking for ways to modernize its fleet. With the focus on the Dutch East Indies, a balanced fleet of heavy ships like battlecruisers and smaller vessels like destroyers and coast defense ship was required.

Getting in contact with German shipbuilders and constructors, designs for various ships were proposed. With the huge distances covered in the Dutch East Indies, the fuel saving diesel propulsion was of a special interest of the Dutch Navy as it opened more tactical options for a Dutch fleet in South East Asia.

While almost all of those planned designs were not completed because of the outbreak of WW2, the first project for a small, diesel powered coast defense ship was.

Laid down at the Wilton-Fijenoord shipyard in Schiedam in 1935, the ship was finally launched on September 24, 1936 and commissioned as "Admiral Kleurendrop" on March 04, 1938. Heavy influenced by the German Panzerschiff designs, it had much visible similarities with those.

Equipped with a single 11" triple turret and two 4.1" twin guns, several light AA guns completed the armament. With its diesel engines, the ship was able to ail 18kn but had a range of over 10.800 miles.

After sea trials and training, the ship started its transfer to the Dutch East Indies where it did arrive in Batavia on August 12. 1939. In the following year, the Admiral Kleurendrop was either stationed in Batavia or Surabaya, changing its location every few weeks. On its way along the north coast of Java, the crew trained to camouflage the ship with trees, nets etc at the shoreline.

The start of WW2 showed that the ship did not had a sufficient AA protection with only two guns, therefore, four additional mounts of triple 2cm guns were added during a stay on Surabaya.  When the Japanese forces started their attack on South-East Asia in late 1941, it soon got obvious that the Dutch East Indies would come into the focus of Japan as well.

When the Battle of the Java Sea took place, the Admiral Kleurendrop was in Batavia for repairs. Within 24 hours, the ship was brought into a state that it could leave the port and it just escaped before the Japanese landing force arrived. While on its way to the southern coast of Java, the ship was attacked by Japanese planes three times, but no hit was scored on it. As the Japanese forces were able to conquer Java within a few days, it was decided to save the ship and it sailed to toe Cocos Islands. There, it was able to damage and push away a Japanese submarine when it was bombarded the island in May 1942.

In July 1942, the Admiral Kleurendrop arrived in Perth for repairs and maintenance. The ship was then send to Darwin to protect the harbor from a potential Japanese attack as the ship was not suitable for any offensive operations. Therefore, the ship stayed in Darwin.

After the war, the ship was to be send back to Batavia. Leaving Darwin on October 3rd 1945, the ship never arrived at its destinations. Best guesses were that the ship run into a mine, however there were rumors that a camouflaged warship was seen on various locations in the Indonesian islands in the mid 1950s.