SMS was the lead ship of the of steam corvettes, the first ship of that type to be built for the Prussian Navy. She had one sister ship, , and the vessels were wooden-hulled ships armed with a battery of sixteen guns. She was ordered as part of a naval expansion program to counter the Danish Navy over the disputed ownership of Schleswig and Holstein. was laid down in January 1862, was launched in April 1863, and was completed in October that year.
saw action during the Second Schleswig War against Denmark in 1864 at the Battle of Jasmund. She was heavily engaged by a Danish frigate in the battle; she received around 70 hits, mostly to her rigging, though she was not seriously damaged. The ship, which had been on a cruise in the Mediterranean Sea, was in the process of being recalled to Germany during the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, and as a result, saw no action during the conflict. During the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, a French squadron of ironclads had anchored off Danzig, and launched a surprise night attack on the idle vessels, though she inflicted no serious damage on the armored French ships. Her attack nevertheless convinced the French admiral that his heavy ships were not useful in a close blockade of German ports, and so they left.
In 1871, embarked on a major overseas deployment to the Pacific Ocean and East Asia, where her captain conducted negotiations with various governments and she visited numerous cities. She remained abroad until mid-1874, after which she was converted into a training ship for apprentice seamen. She served in that capacity for the next decade, during which she conducted training cruises, usually to the Americas, though in 1882 she toured the Mediterranean Sea. In poor condition and in need of a complete reconstruction by 1885, she was stricken from the naval register in July 1887 and hulked. was ultimately sold in 1891 and broken up in Hamburg.
Design
The two -class corvettes were ordered in the early 1860s as part of a program to strengthen the Prussian Navy when the likelihood of a conflict with Denmark over the Schleswig–Holstein question became increasingly likely. The design for the class was completed in 1861 and work began on both ships the next year.
was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced at full load. The ship's crew consisted of 14 officers and 176 enlisted men. She was powered by a single marine steam engine that drove a two-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 . was equipped with a full ship rig to supplement her steam engine.
was armed with a battery of ten 36-pounder guns and six 12-pounder guns, all smoothbores mounted on the broadside. In 1869, these guns were replaced with seventeen, and later nineteen, rifled 23-caliber guns. Later in her career, these were reduced to nine guns.
Service history
was ordered on 23 July 1861, the first of the wooden steam corvettes to be built for the Prussian Navy. Her keel was laid down on 25 January 1862 at the (Royal Shipyard) in Danzig, and on 23 July her name was decided by an order from the Prussian Navy Department. The completed hull was launched on 15 April 1863 and she was completed for sea trials by late October. During the trials, it was discovered that the Prussian crew members did not have sufficient experience to operate the steam machinery, and so technicians from J Penn & Sons, the British manufacturer of the ship's engines, had to remain aboard to assist them. transferred on 25 November to spend the winter months in Swinemünde, since the port would not remain frozen over as long as Danzig. In addition, as tensions rose between Denmark and Prussia over the Schleswig-Holstein Question, the move west would allow to cooperate with the gunboats based in Stralsund.
Second Schleswig War was commissioned for the first time on 20 February 1864, shortly after the outbreak of the Second Schleswig War against Denmark. She joined the squadron commanded by (KzS—Captain at Sea) Eduard von Jachmann, whose flagship was the frigate . s commander was (captain lieutenant) Reinhold von Werner. The Danish fleet, which was much more powerful than the Prussian fleet, immediately proclaimed a blockade of the Baltic and North Sea ports of Prussia and the other German states. The Danes began seizing Prussian merchant ships in the area, prompting Admiral Prince Adalbert of Prussia, the commander of the Prussian Navy, to begin plans for an operation against the blockade using Jachmann's squadron. By mid-March, the Prussian ships were ready for action and the ice had receded far enough that Prince Adalbert ordered Jachmann to conduct a reconnaissance of the blockading force on 16 March. Two days before, a Danish squadron consisting of one ship of the line, one screw frigate, and two screw corvettes and commanded by Rear Admiral Edvard van Dockum had arrived off Swinemünde. and patrolled off Greifswald, but the weather was poor, with snow showers hampering visibility. The Prussian gunboats, led by the paddle steamer , remained closer to Swinemünde. Jachmann spotted three vessels at around 15:30, but there was not enough time before dark to catch them. Instead, Jachmann turned back to Swinemünde, intending to try again the following day.
Battle of Jasmund
The next morning, at 07:30, Jachmann took his ships out of the mouth of the Oder, initially steaming east. Unable to locate any Danish warships, the Prussians turned west and, as they approached the island of Greifswalder Oie, lookouts aboard the ships spotted smoke to the northwest at about 13:15. The Prussians continued on toward the island of Rügen; off the Jasmund Peninsula, Jachmann's ships encountered Dockum's squadron. There, with and in the lead, Jachmann turned to engage the Danes; increased speed to join the two corvettes while Jachmann sent the gunboats to the coast of Rügen, where they could be used to cover his withdrawal. From further north, Dockum was awaiting the arrival of the steam frigate .
At 14:30, opened fire, targeting the frigate ; a few minutes later, after closed to , Dockum turned his flagship to starboard and began firing broadsides at . Jachmann turned to starboard as well, having realized the strength of the Danish squadron. He failed to inform the captains of and of his decision to withdraw, and they continued to steam east for several minutes before they conformed to his maneuver. At this time, Dockum shifted fire to and scored several hits, including damage to her funnel that reduced her speed temporarily. Dockum attempted to overtake and cut off and from , but s crew was able to quickly repair the damage she had sustained, allowing her to increase speed, though she continued to take hits.
and came under heavy fire from the pursuing Danish squadron; at 16:00 broke off to the west toward Stralsund and Dockum allowed her to leave, preferring to continue after Jachmann's corvettes. Both sides continued to score hits on each other until they checked fire at around 16:45 as the range grew too long. By 18:00, Dockum ended the chase and steamed off to the east, allowing Jachmann to return to Swinemünde. In the course of the battle, had received 19 hits in the hull and around 50 to her rigging, and her gig was shot away. Though she was the most heavily damaged vessel on either side of the battle, she was never in serious danger, and her crew suffered just two dead and four wounded.
Jachmann made several more sorties into the Baltic without encountering any Danish vessels on 19 March, 9 and 14 April, and 6 May. On 6 June, participated in a naval review held for King William I in Swinemünde. Jachmann's squadron steamed from there to Pillau on 12 June, remaining there for ten days before returning. On 24 September, she went into the shipyard in Danzig for periodic maintenance, and in mid-November, she moved to the newly-acquired naval base in Kiel to spend the winter.
Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars In early 1865, the Prussian Navy decided to send and the gunboat to the Mediterranean Sea. The two ships began a short training cruise to Sonderburg and Wismar, and on 6 August, took the gun from on board in preparation for the voyage to the Mediterranean to improve the gunboat's seakeeping. Once they arrived in the Aegean Sea on 22 September, transferred the gun back to . The cruise was cut short in March 1866, as both vessels were ordered to return to Prussia as tensions with the Austrian Empire began to mount. The ships arrived in the new naval depot in Geestemünde in mid-July, by which time the Austro-Prussian War had broken out and had been decided at the Battle of Königgrätz. joined the North Sea Flotilla, but with the war all but over she saw no action. The flotilla was dissolved on 29 September and went to Geestemünde, where she was decommissioned on 31 March 1867. On 16 April, the ship was moved to the Baltic, visiting Kiel and Danzig, where she entered the for extensive repairs to her boilers.
} remained out of service until the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in July 1870, when she returned to service as part of the general mobilization of what was now the North German Federal Navy. On 21 July, she was assigned to the defenses of Neufahrwasser that protected Danzig. The following month, a French squadron consisting of three ironclads and an aviso under Admiral Édouard Bouët-Willaumez arrived off Danzig and anchored in the Putziger Wiek at around 18:00 on 21 August, on the western end of the Danziger Bucht. s commander, (KK—Corvette Captain) Weickhmann, decided to make a surprise attack the next morning. At midnight on 22 August, he sortied and began a slow approach to the French squadron, which remained at anchor overnight. At 01:15, came within sight of the French ships, and at a distance of , she turned to port and engaged the French squadron. Accounts differ on the details of the action; the historians Hildebrand, Röhr, and Steinmetz state that she fired a broadside at the French ironclad before turning to starboard to fire another broadside, inflicting no damage. But Alfred Stenzel, who was an officer in the North German Federal Navy at the time, reported in an 1899 account that fired two broadsides at Bouët-Willaumez's flagship, the ironclad , before turning to flee with in pursuit. Regardless, escaped and the French vessels could not get underway quickly enough to catch her. By 03:00, was safely behind the coastal fortifications at Neufahrwasser.
Bouët-Willaumez decided that the attack demonstrated that the large ironclads could not be effectively used close to shore, and that smaller, shallower-draft vessels would be necessary. He therefore took his ships away from Danzig, which confirmed by a reconnaissance to Rixhöft. At this point, the North German naval command decided to embark on a commerce raiding strategy to attack French merchant shipping in the Atlantic Ocean. was deemed to be too slow for the task, and so she was decommissioned on 25 August so her crew could be transferred to the faster corvette , which entered service in late October.
Overseas deployment