SMS was a built for the German Imperial Navy () in the late 1870s. The ship was named for Admiral Albrecht von Stosch, the first chief of staff (from 1872 to 1883) of the newly created Imperial Navy. She was the third member of the class, which included five other vessels. The -class corvettes were ordered as part of a major naval construction program in the early 1870s, and she was designed to serve as a fleet scout and on extended tours in Germany's colonial empire. was laid down in November 1875, launched in October 1876, and was commissioned into the fleet in June 1879. She was armed with a battery of ten guns and had a full ship rig to supplement her steam engine on long cruises abroad.
embarked on a major overseas cruise in the 1880s, first as the flagship of the East Asia Squadron from 1881 to 1885. In early 1885, she was transferred to the East Africa Squadron, where she also served as the flagship, though this stint lasted just six months, when she was transferred again, briefly, to the West African Squadron, before returning to Germany in late 1885. During these four years abroad, she was involved with mediating disputes over Germany's growing colonial empire in the Pacific Ocean and in Africa. Beginning in early 1886, underwent an extensive modernization in preparation for her service as a training ship for naval cadets and later apprentice seamen.
The ship served in this capacity from 1888 to 1907, during which time her activity consisted primarily of fleet training exercises and overseas training cruises. These cruises frequently went to the West Indies and Mediterranean Sea, though she also made visits to South America and West Africa. She also engaged in settling disputes involving foreign governments, including over the murder of a pair of German citizens in Morocco in 1895 and during the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903. After being decommissioned in April 1907, she was briefly used as a hulk in Kiel before being sold for scrap in October that year.
Design
The six ships of the class were ordered in the early 1870s to supplement Germany's fleet of cruising warships, which at that time relied on several ships that were twenty years old. and her sister ships were intended to patrol Germany's colonial empire and safeguard German economic interests around the world. They were designed as a smaller and more economical version of the preceding s.
was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced at full load. The ship's crew consisted of 18 officers and 386 enlisted men. Her hull had a straight stem and was sheathed with zinc to prevent marine biofouling on long voyages abroad.
She was powered by a single marine steam engine that drove one 2-bladed screw propeller, with steam provided by four coal-fired fire-tube boilers, which was vented through a single, retractable funnel. Her propulsion system gave her a top speed of at . She had a cruising radius of at a speed of . As built, was equipped with a full ship rig, but this was later reduced.
was armed with a battery of sixteen 22-caliber (cal.) breech-loading guns and four 25-cal. guns. Her armament was revised several times during her career; by 1890, the number of 15 cm guns had been reduced to ten. She also had six Hotchkiss revolver cannon installed for close-range defense against torpedo boats. During another refit in the 1890s, a pair of guns were added, along with four guns. In the early 1900s, she was rearmed with a pair of guns, ten 8.8 cm guns, and four 3.7 cm guns.
Service history The keel for , ordered under the contract name " ", was laid down in November 1875 at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin. She was the third member of the , and she was launched on 8 October 1876. At the launching ceremony, she was christened after Admiral Albrecht von Stosch by (KAdm—Rear Admiral) Reinhold von Werner, the Chief of the (Naval Station of the Baltic Sea). By the end of November, she was seaworthy enough to be transferred to Swinemünde and then to Wilhelmshaven by a shipyard crew, where fitting out work was completed, including the installation of her guns. began sea trials on 25 June 1879, which lasted until 11 August. After completing the tests, she was decommissioned and placed in reserve.
Overseas deployment East Asia Squadron was reactivated on 1 April 1881 for a deployment to the Far East under the command of (KzS—Captain at Sea) Louis von Blanc, where she was to serve as the flagship of the overseas cruiser squadron in the region. At the time, Stosch, who was the head of the (Imperial Admiralty), had implemented a plan whereby Germany's colonies would be protected by gunboats, while larger warships would generally be kept in reserve, with a handful assigned to a flying squadron that could respond to crises quickly. left Germany on 15 April, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and reached Batavia in the Dutch East Indies on 18 July, where she met the previous flagship of the squadron, the corvette . then proceeded to Chefoo, where she met the rest of the squadron, which consisted of the screw frigate and the gunboats and . Blanc also became (Commodore) of the cruiser squadron. The ships conducted squadron training exercises, and then visited Japanese harbors by herself and then went to Hong Kong.
The had determined that the responsibilities of squadron commander and ship captain were too much of a burden for one individual, and so Stosch ordered that squadron flagships should have new captains sent; KzS Glomsda von Bucholz arrived aboard the ship on 8 January 1882 to serve as the new captain. then began a cruise in the South China and Sulu Seas; this voyage also included a stop at the island of Jolo, where Blanc negotiated a trade agreement with the sultan of the Sulu Islands, Badarud-Din II. The squadron assembled in Chefoo in mid-June, and on 16 June, and sailed to Chemulpo with a diplomatic delegation to negotiate a trade treaty with Korea, then under the Joseon dynasty. then returned to Chefoo before proceeding to Hakodate, Japan, where she met the corvette , which had recently arrived to replace . On 25 September, and began an exploration of the Hai River while they were carrying the diplomat Max von Brandt on the way to Tianjin, from which he was to travel overland to Beijing.
On 6 March 1883, , which had sailed south to Amoy, began a cruise in the East Asian region, at times in company with other members of the squadron. In June, the corvette arrived to replace . The squadron met in the Wusong roadstead on 19 August in response to anti-European unrest in the area, owing to China's conflicts with France over Tonkin and Annam that led to the Sino-French War. While here, KAdm Max von der Goltz arrived on 26 August to relieve now-KAdm Blanc. went to Hong Kong in June for an overhaul that lasted five months; with the completion of the work on 4 November, she exchanged crews with her sister ship , which had been sent with a replacement crew. then began another cruise in the region. On 4 March 1884, KzS Carl Heinrich Theodor Paschen arrived to relieve Goltz, and a week later began the voyage home, being replaced by the corvette , which arrived in mid-May.
The German squadron, along with other foreign warships, remained anchored in Shanghai as a precaution against unrest in the city. The Austro-Hungarian gunboat was temporarily assigned to Paschen's command during this period. went to Japan to rest her crew, but renewed violence in Shanghai forced her return, along with and to protect German nationals in the city. On 16 September, was detached to South American waters, leaving only and the gunboat in the squadron with . In January 1885, had to return to Chemulpo in response to disturbances in the city. She did not remain there long; in February, she received orders to sail to East African waters to serve as flagship of a new cruiser squadron being formed there. The East Asia Squadron was accordingly disbanded, since there were just the two gunboats remaining on the station.
East Africa Squadron
On 1 March 1885, departed Chemulpo for Hong Kong, where she received amended orders instructing her to first stop in Australia to help mediate disputes between Germany and Great Britain over the German acquisition of colonies in the Bismarck Archipelago and Kaiser-Wilhelmsland and defend the claims by force if necessary. She arrived in Sydney on 11 April, where she received news of the accidental grounding of the corvette off Neu-Mecklenburg, and so went to tow her back to Sydney for repairs. By the time and had arrived in Sydney on 6 May, the political situation had calmed, allowing to return to her original assignment, departing Australia in mid-June and arriving in Port Louis in Mauritius on 5 July, where she waited for other members of the new squadron to arrive. Within the span of a few days, her sister ship , , and the chartered steamship arrived. The first operation the new squadron embarked upon was a search for the corvette , which had disappeared in the Gulf of Aden. The search began around the Maldives and the Chagos Archipelago, but the ships were unable to locate the missing vessel.
By this time, Germany had entered the Scramble for Africa, establishing protectorates in Southwest Africa, Kamerun, and Togoland. On 7 July, the squadron left Port Louis, bound for Zanzibar. While en route, s commander, KzS von Nostitz, had a heart attack and died; s first officer, (Corvette Captain) Geissler temporarily served as s captain until Nostitz's replacement, KzS Otto von Diederichs arrived on 8 September. In the meantime, the squadron anchored off Zanzibar on 7 August, surprising the sultan of Zanzibar Barghash bin Said, who disputed Germany's most recent colonial acquisition, the protectorate of Wituland, which formed the nucleus of what was to become German East Africa. Paschen and Consul General Travers negotiated on the basis of three German demands: that bin Said recognize the German protectorate in Wituland, conclude a separate trade and friendship treaty, and name his nephew, the son of his sister Emily Ruete, as his successor. Bin Said agreed to the first two terms, but the third was deferred for the time being.
On 17 August, s sister ship arrived in Zanzibar with the new squadron chief, KAdm Eduard von Knorr. At the same time, Paschen was ordered to form a new squadron, based on , , and , to support the colonies in West Africa. went to Cape Town on 11 October for maintenance, and while she was out of service for repairs, Paschen, who was now promoted to , temporarily transferred his flag to . On 21 November, went to Freetown, where Paschen came back aboard the ship for the return of and to Germany, having already returned to the East African Squadron. The dissolved the squadron on 21 December and ten days later, was decommissioned for extensive modernization that included installing new boilers and replacing the old 15 cm guns with new quick-firing models. The ship was then placed in reserve, assigned to the list of training ships.
Training ship
1888–1896