The ship was laid down on 26 August 1925 at the shipyard of Burgerhout's Scheepswerf en Machinefabriek in Rotterdam and launched on 2 April 1927. The ship was commissioned on 25 January 1929. On 23 August 1936 Sumatra, her sister and the destroyers , and Piet Hein where present at the fleet days held at Surabaya. Later that year on 13 November both Java-class cruisers and the destroyers Evertsen, Witte de With and Piet Hein made a fleet visit to Singapore. Before the visit they had practiced in the Chinese Sea.