Meeting proud commander of ‘ship of the year’ Kri Diponegoro

Lewis Nainggolan has every right to be proud. The corvette KRI Diponegoro, of which he has been Commander since January last year, was named Indonesia’s Ship of the Year 2020 in December.

Lewis himself accepted the award from the Chief of Staff of the Indonesian Navy, Admiral Yudo Margono, during the annual Fleet Day celebrations on 5 December in Surabaya.

The annual award – with the official name of The Indonesia Navy’s Exemplary Ship of the Year – was awarded to the KRI Diponegoro due to its excellent performance in three specific areas, making it worthy to be called an exemplary ship. The corvette operates outstandingly, its equipment is in good condition, and is thus in a state of readiness, and it has an exemplary crew.

“We have a very disciplined and hard-working crew,” says a satisfied Commander. “The number of disciplinary problems on board was zero last year. Furthermore, a large number of crewmembers passed additional training exams. This shows that they are constantly improving themselves and I am very proud of my crew.”

Operationally, the SIGMA corvette also performed well last year, participating in several important exercises and operations, performing very well throughout.

The jury also assessed the vessel’s material parameters, and on that point too, the KRI Diponegoro was able to distinguish itself. “The vessel is very well maintained and therefore has a high degree of readiness,” says Lewis. “Everything on board works well; the ship is in perfect condition.”

The prize that the naval ship received in December consists of a flag that the KRI Diponegoro will now fly in its mast for one year, after which it will be passed on to the next winner at the 2021 Ship of the Year Award presentation.

KRI Diponegoro was one of four SIGMA corvettes that Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding built for the Indonesian Navy. “Twelve years ago, I was in Vlissingen with the very first crew of the second corvette of the series, the KRI Sultan Hasanuddin,” Lewis recalls. “I saw that ship being built and I was part of the group of people from our Navy who first got to know the ship. I also sailed from Vlissingen to Surabaya, a wonderful journey that lasted three months. For almost ten years, I have served in four different ranks on three ships of the SIGMA corvette class: KRI Sultan Hasanuddin, KRI Sultan Iskandar Muda – the third ship – and now as Commander on the first ship, KRI Diponegoro. I was promoted to Commander on 4 January 2020.”

Lewis knows “every corner” of these ships. He believes that DSNS has “built four very good ships”. The fourth and last in the corvette series was KRI Frans Kaisiepo.

“KRI Diponegoro is now thirteen years old,” the Commander concludes, “but she is aging gracefully. In other words, she is hardly wearing out. Damen can be proud to have built these ships.”