Hermelin

German engineers designed a "colonial gunboat" project under an order from the Netherlands. The Dutch planned to build a series of seven ships and laid down three of them under a simplified design. During the occupation of the Netherlands, these ships fell into German hands and were completed for the German Navy. The original design outmatched Dutch ships in terms of size and armament. There is a presumption that the German Admiralty intended to construct ships based on the original design for future German outlying bases during the post-war era.