Tromp was a light cruiser built as a flotilla leader, named for Maarten Tromp. The Nederlandsche Scheepsbouw Maatschappij at Amsterdam laid her down on 17 January 1936, launched her on 24 May 1937, and the navy commissioned her on 18 August 1938. She was already in the East Indies when the Netherlands fell. Her sister was still fitting out at home.
Jan Balthazar de Meester took her on 19 July 1941. On the night of 19–20 February 1942 he brought the second Allied wave into Badung Strait: Tromp, with Stewart, Parrott, Pillsbury, and John D. Edwards. They came after midnight. Asashio and Oshio were still in the strait.
Asashio hit Tromp with eleven shells. She hit back. Four men were killed on Asashio and seven on Oshio. She sank neither of them. She was not sunk herself. The casualty lists record those dead and do not name the ship that fired. The counts are the shells she fired that night.
She went to Australia and was repaired. She spent the rest of the war in the East. The navy made her an accommodation ship on 1 April 1955. She was sold for scrap on 13 May 1969.