SMS was a steam corvette of the German (Imperial Navy). She was the second member of the , which included two other ships, and . Ordered as part of a large naval expansion program after the Austro-Prussian War, she was laid down in 1871 during the Franco-Prussian War. She was launched in December 1872 and completed in June 1874. was a small vessel, armed with a battery of just eight guns.
went on two major overseas cruises early in her career, both to East Asian waters. The first lasted from 1875 and 1877; during the cruise, she visited Chinese ports to protect German interests and show the flag. The second lasted from 1878 to 1880 and saw similar activities, though during her time in the East Asia Squadron, she served as its flagship. While on the way home, she attempted to negotiate a dispute between Germany and Madagascar, but a severe storm forced her to leave before a settlement could be reached.
In 1881, was converted into a training ship, and she served in this capacity for most of the rest of her career. She made several overseas cruises, visiting the Americas twice in 1881–1882 and 1885. The ship carried replacement crews to the gunboats stationed in German West Africa in 1886 and 1887. was hulked in 1892 and used as a torpedo test ship in 1894–1896, before being stricken from the naval register in December 1896. She was sold for scrap the following year and broken up in Hamburg.
Design
The three -class corvettes were ordered as part of the fleet plan of 1867, an expansion program aimed at strengthening the Prussian Navy in the wake of the Austro-Prussian War. The plan called for a total of twenty screw corvettes. The design for was prepared in 1869, but work on the ship was delayed until 1871 by the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War.
was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced at full load. The ship's crew consisted of 12 officers and 220 enlisted men. She was powered by a single marine steam engine that drove one 4-bladed screw propeller, with steam provided by four coal-fired fire-tube boilers, which 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 to a barque rig.
was armed with a battery of six 22-caliber (cal.) breech-loading guns and two 23-cal. guns. In 1882, she had four Hotchkiss revolver cannon installed.
Service history The keel for , named for Princess Louise of Prussia, was laid down in 1871 at the (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig. She was launched on 16 December 1872 without any celebration and she was commissioned into the fleet on 4 June 1874. She then began sea trials, which ended in mid-July, after which she was moved to Wilhelmshaven and decommissioned in late August.
First deployment abroad
was reactivated in early 1875 for training operations with the main fleet in German waters. She was ordered on a deployment abroad late in the year, which she began on 11 October. She left Wilhelmshaven on 26 October and sailed through the Atlantic Ocean to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil before rounding the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean. She arrived in Melbourne, Australia on 1 April 1876, where she was compelled to stay for two weeks, since a fever had broken out among the crew. From there, sailed to Jolo, the main island of the Sulu Archipelago of the Philippines. In the capital of Jolo, she attempted to secure payment of a debt owed to a German merchant, but she was unable to do so, as the residents of the town had burned it to the ground and fled to the interior of the island during a revolt against the colonial Spanish government.
met with the East Asia Squadron in Hong Kong on 1 July and she relieved her sister ship , which then began the voyage back to Germany. On 13 July, sailed to Chefoo in company with the squadron flagship, the screw frigate , since the German ambassador feared there would be Chinese riots as a result of British activities in the area. By the end of September, the threat of unrest had passed, and so on 1 October, was able to begin a tour of several Chinese ports. At the end of January 1877, went to Shanghai to ensure that the Chinese authorities had dropped the tax on German imports in the port. She then steamed up the Yangtze to Wuhu to show the flag and conduct hydrographic surveys. sailed to Nagasaki, Japan, after her work around Wuhu was completed. There, she underwent an overhaul; during this work, the British ironclad warship accidentally collided with her, crushing three of her boats and wrecking one of the boat cranes. After repairs were completed, received the order to return to Germany; she left Nagasaki on 7 May and arrived back in Wilhelmshaven on 1 September. At the beginning of 1878, she went into the shipyard to be modernized, which included a reduction of her sailing rig.
Second deployment abroad was reactivated in late 1878 for another foreign cruise, and Otto von Diederichs, the executive officer, arrived in late August to prepare the ship to go to sea. The crew was assembled by 20 November, and over the next ten days, they made preparations for the voyage. These included repairs to the ship, remounting of her guns, and the installation of a pair of torpedo tubes for Whitehead torpedoes, which were to be tested during the cruise. On 30 November, (Rear Admiral) Carl Ferdinand Batsch came aboard to preside over her recommissioning. left Germany on 3 December under the command of (KK—Corvette Captain) Rudolf Schering. The voyage was plagued by repeated engine problems that necessitated a stop for repairs at Plymouth, United Kingdom. While passing through the Bay of Biscay, the Germans encountered a barque that was short of water and food, which the Germans provided. This time, she passed through the Suez Canal on her way to East Asian waters. On 16 January 1879, the ship's bowsprit snapped in bad weather. The ship stopped in Aden for repairs, which took several days to complete. While on the way from Aden to Bombay on 26 January 1879, she collected deep-ocean temperature and salinity samples in conjunction with scientific expeditions conducted by the German frigate and the British corvette . then stopped in Bombay and Calcutta, the first time the ports had been visited by a German warship. In Bombay, Schering and Diederichs met with local authorities and attended a reception held for Ulysses S. Grant, then on a world tour following the end of his presidency.
From Indian waters, sailed to Singapore, arriving on 11 April. She proceeded on to Hong Kong, where she arrived in early May to replace her sister . Shortly thereafter, the corvette reached Hong Kong; her captain, (Captain at Sea) Carl Paschen, had been the senior officer of the East Asia Squadron by date of rank, but he was replaced in this position by Schering. At that time, the other German warships in the region included the gunboats and . Schering had limited control over the other vessels, however, as each ship was directly controlled from the Admiralty and also subject to requests from Max von Brandt, the German ambassador to China. In June, Schering took to Japanese waters, and while on the way on 5 June, a fire broke out in her engine room. The crew suppressed the fire quickly, but the poorly ventilated engine room could not be easily cleared of smoke, so continued under sail alone. She visited a number of ports in southern Japan over the following months, including Nagasaki, Kobe, and Yokohama. In the latter port, she met the corvette , then on a training cruise, and not intended to operate with Schering's unit. The Germans again encountered Grant's entourage in Yokohama on 4 July. then toured northern Japan, including a stop at Hakodate. In August she conducted additional deep-see tests in the Korea Strait.
By 1 September, had arrived back in Chinese waters, stopping first at Chefoo. By that time, the ship was in need of repairs, and so on 20 October, she moved to Shanghai, where a British-operated dockyard was available. Once the work was done in late December, Schering decided to winter his vessel in Amoy, staying there from 30 December to 17 March 1880. A war scare between Qing China and Russia, which typically provoked anti-foreigner violence in China, prompted Brandt to request 's presence in Shanghai, which she reached on 23 March. She was joined in this task by and . Not long after, the British had intervened to defuse the situation, and the ships' presence in northern China was no longer necessary. On 24 April, she sailed south for Hong Kong in anticipation of orders that were expected to arrive soon. These did not arrive until 1 July; Schering was directed to bring his ship home by way of the Cape of Good Hope, rather than the Suez Canal; he was also to visit Madagascar to support a diplomatic mission while on the way back to Germany. The ship got underway on 3 July, sailing first for Saigon in French Indochina to take on coal.
arrived in Port Louise, Mauritius, on 9 August, and reached Madagascar soon thereafter. Anti-European sentiment was strong among the island's population in the context of French colonial ambitions, and they refused to recognize the German ambassador. stopped in the main port at Tamatave, where Schering and five officers met with Prime Minister Rainilaiarivony on 16 August. Further negotiations were not possible with the government as a result of the approach of a very strong storm that forced to leave the island immediately. She proceeded on to Simonstown to replenish her stock of coal before continuing. Two more stops, in the Cape Verde Islands and at Plymouth, saw additional coal taken on. She finally arrived in Wilhelmshaven on 9 November and after the crew completed work to deactivate the ship, she was decommissioned on 20 November. Over the course of her cruise abroad, had repeatedly conducted experiments with her torpedoes. The crew routinely found them difficult to operate effectively, and subject to frequent failures of their delicate internal components, such as gyroscopes.
Training ship
was converted into a training ship for (apprentice seamen) in early 1881, and she entered service in this role on 15 April, now under the command of KK Gustav Stempel. From 18 May to the middle of June, she conducted a training cruise in the Baltic Sea, and on 19 June she began a voyage to North, Central, and South America. She visited a number of ports, including Halifax, Canada, and Georgetown, British Guiana. She arrived back in Kiel on 4 September 1882, where she joined the fleet training exercises that were being conducted in the Baltic. She was decommissioned for the year on 25 September.
The ship had deteriorated in condition by this time, so in 1883 she was taken into the in Danzig for a thorough repair. This work lasted until February 1885, and on the 24th she was recommissioned to resume her training duties. conducted a short set of trials outside Kiel before cruising in the Baltic starting on 11 May. The ship began another overseas cruise on 1 June, again to the Americas. On the way back from the tour, she stopped in Queenstown, Ireland, and then went to Cowes to represent Germany at a Royal Navy fleet review in 1886. She left Cowes on 10 August and visited Gravesend and Leith before arriving in Wilhelmshaven on 10 September.