SMS was an aviso of the Prussian Navy built in France in the mid-1850s as part of a naval expansion program directed by Prince Adalbert of Prussia, who saw the need for a stronger fleet. She was authorized in 1855 in the aftermath of the First Schleswig War, which had demonstrated the weakness of the Prussian fleet. was the first screw propeller-driven steamship to be built for Prussia; all earlier steam-powered vessels had been paddle steamers.
Initially operated without armament, she received a battery of two guns in 1864 during the Second Schleswig War; during that conflict, she participated in three minor skirmishes with the Danish blockade squadron in the Baltic Sea. She was disarmed after the war for use as a royal yacht, frequently carrying Crown Prince Friedrich and his family on cruises abroad, including on a trip to represent the North German Confederation at the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. was rearmed and saw action again in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War, briefly skirmishing with a French squadron and in the process disrupting their planned attack on Swinemünde.
She returned to yacht duties after the war before being replaced by the new yacht in 1879. was reclassified as an aviso, serving with the main fleet through the 1880s. Later in the decade, she took on additional roles, including as a survey vessel and as a training ship. The 1890s passed largely uneventfully for , and beginning in 1902, she began to serve as a headquarters ship and a tender for the fleet. She remained in service through July 1914, when she was decommissioned weeks before the outbreak of World War I. In 1915, she was reactivated to serve as a tender for the training cruiser , a role she filled until the end of the war. Decommissioned in December 1918, she was struck from the naval register in January 1920 and later broken up for scrap. With an active career that spanned sixty-two years, she was the longest-serving vessel in the Prussian and later German fleet.
Design The Prussian Navy had been a chronically neglected force until the late 1840s, when a combination of public pressure over the navy's inability to protect German merchant shipping during the First Schleswig War against Denmark and advocacy from Prince Adalbert of Prussia for a stronger fleet led to a new shipbuilding program. In 1850, the paddle steamers , , and were authorized. The frigate and the paddle steamer were acquired when the (Imperial Fleet) collapsed in 1852, and Adalbert continued to push for expansion of the fleet into the mid-1850s. In 1855, he secured royal approval for a new fleet plan. was designed in 1856 by her builder, Chantiers et Ateliers Augustin Normand, of Le Havre, France; her name was chosen by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, after the play (The Cricket) by Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer. She was the first steamship of the Prussian Navy to incorporate a screw propeller rather than the paddle wheels of earlier vessels.
General characteristics was long at the waterline and long overall. She had a beam of and a draft of forward and aft. As designed, she displaced and at full load, displacement increased to . The hull was carvel built and constructed with transverse mahogany frames, though the rear and side walls of the stokeholds were iron. It was divided into three watertight compartments and was sheathed in copper to protect it from biofouling. had a flush deck and a minimal superstructure, featuring a small deck house forward and a larger one aft. During a refit in 1889, the forward deck house was removed and a smaller structure was erected further aft, behind the fore mast.
The ship's crew initially consisted of five officers and sixty-five enlisted men; this later increased to six and seventy-two, respectively, and finally seven officers and sixty-eight enlisted. The vessel carried four smaller boats: two yawls and two dinghies. was a good sea boat; it had a gentle motion, though it rolled quickly. She was very maneuverable and maintained her speed in a head sea or in turns. Steering was controlled by a single rudder. Between 1880 and 1902, she carried a searchlight atop the aft deck house.
Machinery was propelled by a horizontal, single-expansion, 2-cylinder marine steam engine that was manufactured by J. Penn & Sons of London; the engine drove a single 3-bladed screw propeller that was in diameter. Steam was provided by two coal-fired Scotch marine boilers, also built by J. Penn & Sons. The boilers were ducted into a single funnel located amidships. The machinery was rated at for a top speed of ; on speed trials, she reached for . To supplement the steam engine, she was fitted with a three-masted schooner rig that had a total sail area of . Fuel storage and cruising range figures for her original power plant have not survived.
In 1886, the original engine was replaced with a horizontal, 2-cylinder double-expansion steam engine manufactured by AG Vulcan, Stettin, along with new coal-fired fire-tube boilers also built by AG Vulcan. A shorter funnel, moved further forward, replaced the original one. The new machinery increased her maximum power to and her top speed to . After this refit, she was capable of storing of coal; at a speed of , the ship had a cruising radius of . When cruising at , her range fell to . She was modernized again in 1897–1898, receiving new boilers from Borsig. Her sailing rig was cut down to auxiliary sails only. At various points in her career, she received electric generators that produced .
Armament The ship initially carried no armament, but following the outbreak of the Second Schleswig War in 1864, she had two long-barreled 12-pound guns installed. She was disarmed after the war, only to have the guns reinstalled during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870–1871. was once again disarmed after the war, remaining so until 1879. At that time, she received one 23-caliber (cal.) breechloading hoop gun that was supplied with 140 shells. It had a range of . In addition, she received a pair of 23-cal. guns. Three Hotchkiss revolving cannon were added in 1882, with three more being installed in 1898; the larger guns were removed at this time. In her final configuration, from around 1900 or 1901, she carried just two of the Hotchkiss guns.
Service history
Early career was laid down in 1856 and was launched on 9 September 1857. The French emperor, Napoleon III, sent Prince Jérôme Bonaparte to the launching ceremony to honor King Friedrich Wilhlem IV. The training ship carried the new crew to Le Havre while fitting-out work was being completed. was commissioned on 3 June 1858. The ship steamed to the Baltic Sea to her home port at Dänholm to begin sea trials that lasted until 22 October when she was decommissioned.
The ship was recommissioned in early May 1859 due to increased tensions between Denmark and Prussia over the disputed ownership of Schleswig and Holstein, though the war scare passed quickly. Her commander during this period, from May to June, was (LzS—Lieutenant at Sea) Heinrich Köhler, and only conducted a tour of the Prussian coast with Prince Adalbert aboard before being decommissioned. She was briefly reactivated a second time that year, from August to October; apart from her commander having been (KL—Lieutenant Captain) Ludwig von Henk, nothing is known about this period in commission. The ship was recommissioned in June 1860, commanded by (KK—Corvette Captain) Hans Kuhn, with the intention to send the vessel on a cruise in the Mediterranean Sea, but the ship was still without armament and the plan was abandoned. Kuhn left the ship in August, being replaced by LzS Hermann Przewisinski, though the ship was once again decommissioned in October. She remained out of service for the next two years and on 16 January 1862, she was re-designated as a royal yacht. was recommissioned under the command of LzS Franz Kinderling in July 1863 for use by Crown Prince Friedrich and his family to make short trips.
Second Schleswig War
With tensions again on the rise between Prussia and Denmark by the end of the year, was allocated as the flagship for Prince Adalbert, the commander of the Prussian fleet. Following the outbreak of war in February 1864, she was activated for this purpose on 10 March, by which time a pair of 12-pound guns had been fitted. remained in port when Eduard von Jachmann took several vessels to sea to attack the Danish blockade, resulting in the Battle of Jasmund in March. Adalbert came aboard the vessel on 29 March at Stralsund, and on 6 April, he observed training exercises with the gunboats in the Bay of Greifswald. sortied on 14 April with Adalbert aboard for a sweep into the Bay of Pomerania that resulted in an encounter with the Danish ship of the line and the steam frigate . opened fire at long range, leading to an indecisive two-and-a-half-hour battle in which easily outran the more powerful Danish vessels. She fled back to Swinemünde, where the gunboats of the 1st Flotilla and Jachmann's squadron covered her approach. As it was nearing dark, the Danish commander, Admiral Edvard van Dockum, chose to break off the pursuit.
, now accompanied by the gunboats of the Reserve Division, sortied again on 24 April. For this operation, served as the flagship of now (Captain at Sea) Kuhn, who was the commander of the gunboat division. Off Hiddensee, the ships encountered the Danish steam frigate , resulting in a 90-minute battle. initially remained outside the range of the Danish guns, but after she hit 's rigging several times, the Danish frigate closed the distance, prompting the Prussian vessels to break off the engagement and return to port. embarked on another sweep off Hiddensee two days later, but she encountered the combined Danish squadron: , , , and the armed schooner , prompting the Prussians to withdraw without engaging. She conducted one last operation on 6 May under Jachmann's direction; in company with the screw corvette , I Flotilla, and the Reserve Division, sortied to attack the blockade squadron, but as and the ironclad warship arrived on the scene, Jachmann aborted the operation and returned to port. The armistice that ended the war took effect six days later. King Wilhelm I and Crown Prince Friedrich boarded the ship for a naval review in the mouth of the Oder river on 6 June.
With the war over, joined the main Prussian squadron that visited a number of ports in the newly-acquired provinces in the western Baltic in August. While cruising in the Trave, she accidentally ran aground on 24 August. The gunboats and assisted the stranded aviso, which was ultimately re-floated after considerable lightening of the ship. proceeded to the Schweffel & Howaldt shipyard in Kiel for repairs before resuming the tour with the Prussian squadron, which concluded on 18 September in Kiel. Prince Adalbert held another naval review there in October; he observed the fleet from . The aviso thereafter returned to Dänholm on 1 December, where she was decommissioned and disarmed to return to yacht duties.
Royal yacht