SMS was the third and final member of the of steam gunboats built for the German (Imperial Navy) in the 1870s. The ship was ordered as part of a construction program intended to begin replacing the old s that had been built a decade earlier. Unlike the older ships, was intended to serve abroad to protect German economic interests overseas. The ship was armed with a battery of two medium-caliber guns and five lighter weapons, and had a top speed of .
was sent on a deployment to East Asia in 1880 that lasted until 1886. The ship spent much of this time patrolling the coast of China, ready to protect German nationals in the country if need be. This included retaliating against pirates in the Pescadores Islands in 1882 and guarding Germans in Guangzhou, China, in 1883. She was sent to the central Pacific in 1885 during an unsuccessful attempt to wrest control of the Caroline Islands from Spain. After returning home in 1886, she was overhauled and modernized.
The ship was recommissioned in 1887 for another voyage to East Asian waters that lasted for nine years. She observed naval events during the First Sino-Japanese War, and took part in the rescue of Chinese sailors and soldiers after the Battle of Pungdo, and she was present when the main Japanese and Chinese fleets clashed at the Battle of the Yalu River. In 1896, a typhoon drove aground en route to Qingdao, breaking her hull in half. Seventy-one men were killed in the sinking.
Design
German economic activity in Qing China in the 1870s faced significant threats from piracy and resistance from local officials, so the German (Imperial Navy) stationed warships in East Asia to protect its trade interests. At the same time, the old s that had been ordered in 1859 needed to be replaced. The two s and the rebuilt were too few for the task of patrolling the Far East, so another three vessels were ordered according to the fleet plan that had been approved in 1872. The design for the new ships was completed in 1876, and it called for reusing the engines from three of the s that had also been ordered in the 1859 plan. These three ships became the s. They were to be used extensively abroad to support the fleet's larger cruising screw corvettes and screw frigates.
was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of . She displaced as designed and at full load. The ship's crew consisted of 5 officers and 80 enlisted men. She was powered by a marine steam engine that drove a 2-bladed screw propeller, with steam provided by two coal-fired trunk fire-tube boilers. Her propulsion system was rated to produce a top speed of at , but she reached in service. At a cruising speed of , she could steam for . To supplement the steam engine on long voyages, the ships were fitted with a barque sailing rig.
The ship was armed with a pair of K L/23 built-up guns, which were supplied with a total of 270 rounds of ammunition. She carried an additional pair of K L/24 built up guns and three Hotchkiss revolver cannon.
Service history The contract for , which was named after the polecat, was awarded to the (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig on 26 May 1877, and she was laid down in June that year under the provisional name " ". She was launched on 18 September 1878, and (Captain at Sea) Otto Livonius, who was the director of the shipyard, gave a speech at the launching ceremony. Work on the ship was delayed to allow the navy to gain experience with the rebuilt gunboat . was commissioned and manned with shipyard personnel on 2 March 1880 to move the ship to Kiel. She was decommissioned on 15 March, and then reactivated on 9 April to transfer the ship to Wilhelmshaven. During that period, the ship was initially commanded by (Captain Lieutenant) Wilhelm Büchsel, but he was replaced by KL Oscar Klausa later in April. The ship was then decommissioned again on 22 May.
First overseas deployment, 1880–1886
was recommissioned on 1 July, again under Klausa's command, for a deployment to East Asia, where she was to replace in the East Asia Cruiser Squadron. She arrived in the region on 19 September, allowing to return home. In late January 1881, , the screw corvette , and several Chinese gunboats unsuccessfully searched Mirs Bay for pirates who had attacked the German barque . Beginning on 20 March, began a tour of the Philippines, steaming as far south as the Sulu Archipelago. She returned to Chinese waters on 24 April, and visited several southern Chinese ports in June before returning to northern China at the end of the month. On 28 July, she stopped in Yantai. There, she took part in training exercises on 3 September with the screw frigate and the corvette . Over the following month and a half, she cruised in northern Chinese waters, at times with the other two vessels and at times alone. She steamed up the Hai River in late October to visit Tianjin.
In early January 1882, sailed for southern Chinese waters once again. She was sent to relieve her sister ship in early May, which had been conducting surveys in the Paracel Islands but had been ordered elsewhere. then took over survey operations in the area, with the probable intention of searching for a suitable location to establish a coaling station. Later that year, returned north, but on 28 August, she was ordered south again; the Anglo-Egyptian War had broken out in July, and was to be transferred to the Mediterranean Sea to protect German interests. But the move proved to be unnecessary, and the ship was instead diverted to the Pescadores Islands, where the German brig had run aground and her crew had been robbed by pirates. A landing party was sent ashore, and with assistance from the Chinese army, they recovered most of the stolen cargo. Civil unrest against foreigners broke out in China later in 1882, and spent much of the rest of the year patrolling the coast, ready to intervene if necessary. In late November, was caught in a hurricane and lost her foremast. She proceeded to Shanghai for repairs, which were completed by the end of December.
In early 1883, returned to the south China coast, and resumed survey work in the Paracel Islands. On 30 April, she departed to sail to Nagasaki, Japan, where she underwent periodic repairs. In June, she resumed cruising in the East China Sea and South China Sea for the next two months. KL Fritz Rötger arrived in August to replace Klausa as the ship's captain. In September, when the squadron commander ordered to proceed to Guangzhou, China. French colonial activities in Tonkin, which would eventually lead to the Sino-French War, caused riots in China directed against Europeans, who had fled Guangzhou to Shamian island in the Pearl River. did not need to intervene in the situation, however. In mid-January 1884, she returned to Shanghai for an overhaul that lasted until mid-April. By that time, the cruiser squadron had been strengthened, and now consisted of the frigate , the corvettes , , and , and and . After the outbreak of war between France and China later that year, unrest against Europeans spread along the Chinese coast, prompting the ships of the squadron to be deployed to protect Germans throughout the country. also conducted surveys in the Paracel Islands, and from June to July, was in Nagasaki for maintenance. In mid-December, she sailed to Incheon, Korea, to protect German interests there during a period of domestic unrest.
In 1885, the cruiser squadron was disbanded, and most of the ships were sent elsewhere, leaving only , , and , though the last vessel was also transferred to eastern African waters in June. The Sino-French War had ended by then, which reduced the need for German vessels in the region. In early August, was sent to the south Pacific to protect German economic interests in Palau and the Caroline Islands, particularly against Spanish claims to the islands. Germany and Britain disputed Spain's claim to own the islands, arguing that the Spanish had never exercised control. On 25 July, the German government informed its Spanish counterpart that it intended to raise the German flag over the main islands in the chain, and was dispatched to carry out the operation. In August, KL Paul Hofmeier took command of the ship, and on 25 August, her crew raised the German flag at Yap. The following day, Hofmeier demanded the Spanish flag be lowered at another location on the island, which the local Spanish authority did. The Spanish government nevertheless protested the move, which culminated in an agreement mediated by Pope Leo XIII that saw the islands restored to Spanish control on 17 December.
had, meanwhile, left Yap on 31 August and stopped in Manila in the Philippines to report on her actions in the south Pacific; there, she received orders to return home. She passed through Singapore on 18 September, where her orders were cancelled owing to an increase in attacks against foreigners in China in response to the Chinese defeat in the Sino-French War. Because was the only German warship available in the region, she was sent back north to protect German nationals in the country. She spent more than half of a year patrolling the coast, until 17 April 1886, when she was able to depart from Hong Kong, bound for Germany. On the way home, dysentery broke out among the crew, forcing the ship to stop in Malta on 14 July, where twelve sailors were sent ashore to recuperate. resumed the voyage home on 27 July, eventually arriving back in Wilhelmshaven, where she was decommissioned on 3 September for an extensive overhaul and modernization.
Second overseas deployment, 1887–1896
Work on the ship was completed by April 1887, and was recommissioned on 13 April, under the command of KL Rudolf von Eickstedt. She got underway for another tour in East Asian waters on 25 April, and she arrived in Hong Kong on 22 July. There, she replaced on the station. She sailed to Guangzhou in late October where clashes had broken out between Chinese and European customs officials, and her intervention prevented the conflict from spreading to the settlement on Shamian. In early January 1888, the East Asia Cruiser Squadron was reformed, but already in May, the unit was disbanded and the larger vessels were sent to East Africa. spent the rest of the year touring Chinese ports, and after stopping in Yantai her crew contracted cholera from an outbreak in the city. For the winter of 1888–1889, she sailed to Tianjin; her rigging was removed over the winter, and a protective upper deck was installed temporarily.
In March 1889, the ship began cruising in northern East Asian waters, sailing as far north as Vladivostok, Russia. These activities were interrupted by a lengthy repair period in Shanghai. In June, KL Karl Ascher arrived to replace Eickstedt as the ship's captain. By early 1890, the East Asia Squadron had been reformed again, and in April, she sailed in company with other vessels of the unit. Cholera proved to be a more significant threat over the summer months that year, as outbreaks ravaged numerous Chinese ports. returned to Incheon in September, where Ascher conducted commercial negotiations with the Korean government. Captain Constantin von Hanneken, a German artillerist advising the Chinese government, invited to observe shooting practice in Weihaiwei in October. She then returned to Tianjin for the winter months.