Ship disguised as island

This camouflaged Dutch ship successfully disguised itself as a small tropical island and avoided the Japanese Navy after the Battle of the Java Sea.

HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen was stationed in the Dutch East Indies when WW II began. After the destruction of the Allied Fleet by the Japanese during the Battle of the Java Sea in February 1942, Crijnssen's captain was ordered to escape with his ship to Australia. Covered with tree branches, the minesweeper crossed the Japanese naval lines camouflaged as a tropical island.

HNLMS ABRAHAM CRIJNSSEN (A925) (via Make)

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Anonymous

Wikipedia is your friend:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HNLMS_Abraham_Crijnssen

They travelled at night, and laid up during the day.
Anonymous

My Grandfather was on this Ship – I wouldn’t be here if it had not reached Australia safely.
Anonymous

It only worked cuz it was in black and white.
mdh

it’s a good thing the world was black and white back then.
subrosa

That’s no moon.
Anonymous

See, and this is why I don’t disguise my car keys – I’d walk in circles around them and they’d escape in the confusion.
lewis stoole

don’t look now, but behind the crijnssen, there is an even bigger ship disguised as an even bigger island.
nanuq

Camouflage like that would only be effective against certain backgrounds. I can’t imagine a ship in open sea fooling anyone.
Anonymous

It’s opposite of Inchmickery – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inchmickery – a small island in the Firth of Forth (Scotland) which was disguised as a boat during WWII.
Isalicus

This is the first cool thing I hear about my country’s navy since I learned they once used a Delftware plate to mark New Guinea as Dutch — the ship ran out of official signs.