Excellent work, Alvama! Just awesome to look at! Wonder what their names could've been. I have a few suggestions: HrMs Gouden Leeuw; HrMs Hollandia; HrMs Tijdverdrijf, for instance...
And (I think Ace commented on this), the Japanese were an ever growing menace and potential threat to the Dutch East Indies, ever since Adm. Kamimura Hikonjo had violated the right of passage through the Sunda Straits, while searching for Russian men-o'-war in March and April 1905, during the Russo-Japanese War. This war also definitely established Imperial Japan as a Great Power, and President Theodore Roosevelt, a great admirer of the Japanese conceded certain territorial expansion to them; which, co-incidentally would have conflicted with Dutch interests! Hence the pursuit of the Dutch to try and create a viable East Indies Fleet!
_________________ My Avatar:Петр Алексеевич Безобразов (Petr Alekseevich Bezobrazov), Вице-адмирал , царская ВМФ России(1845-1906) - I sign my drawings as Ari Saarinen