SMS Habicht was the lead ship of her class of steam gunboats built for the German (Imperial Navy). The ship was built in the late 1870s and completed in early 1880. Intended to serve abroad, the ship was ordered as part of a construction program intended to modernize Germany's fleet of cruising vessels in the mid-1870s. The Habicht class was armed with a battery of five guns, and was the first class of German gunboat to use compound steam engines. The ship had a top speed of .
Habicht spent her whole career on cruises abroad. After entering service in 1880, she was deployed to the South Pacific to protect German economic interests in the region, particularly in Samoa, the Marshall Islands, and the Solomon Islands. During her return to Germany in 1882, she was diverted to Egypt in response to the Anglo-Egyptian War to protect Germans in the country. After an overhaul and period in reserve, Habicht was reactivated in 1885 for another deployment overseas, this time to patrol in the recently acquired colonies in German West Africa. Habicht spent the next seven years conducting mapping work and aiding in the suppression of unrest against German rule. She returned to Germany in 1892.
A third and final overseas voyage began in 1896, which saw the ship return to West African waters. This deployment lasted until 1905, and passed relatively uneventfully, until the outbreak of the Herero Wars in German South West Africa in 1904. Habicht was the first unit to arrive to reinforce the in the colony, and her captain initially assumed command of the units fighting in the colony. The ship's landing parties saw repeated combat until being relieved as more significant forces arrived in the colony. Habicht was recalled to Germany in 1905, where she was quickly struck from the naval register and sold to ship breakers in 1906.
Design
By the mid-1870s, the large screw frigates and screw corvettes that formed the backbone of the German cruiser force were beginning to need to be replaced. Some of these ships had been in service for twenty years, and in that time spent considerable periods on deployments overseas. To replace these older vessels, the ordered the six s and three Habicht-class steam gunboats. The three gunboats were the first vessels of the type to use compound steam engines, which increased speed and engine efficiency.
Habicht was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced as designed and at full load. The ship's crew consisted of 6–7 officers and 121–126 enlisted men. She was powered by a double-expansion steam engine that drove a 2-bladed screw propeller, with steam provided by two coal-fired Scotch marine 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 schooner sailing rig. While cruising under sail, the screw could be raised.
The ship was armed with a single RK L/22 built-up gun, which was supplied from a magazine with 115 shells. She also carried four K L/23 built-up guns, which were supplied with a total of 440 rounds of ammunition. In 1882, the ship's armament was standardized on a uniform battery of five K L/23 built-up guns and five Hotchkiss revolver cannon.
Service history The keel for Habicht was laid down at the Schichau-Werke shipyard in Elbing in 1878 under the provisional name "B". Her completed hull was launched on 13 May 1879. (KAdm—Rear Admiral) Otto Livonius gave a speech at the launching ceremony. The ship was thereafter moved to Schichau-Werke's second yard at Danzig for fitting out work. After work on the ship was completed, she was commissioned on 18 March 1880 to be transferred to Kiel. After arriving, she was decommissioned again on 8 April. Habicht was recommissioned on 29 June to begin sea trials that lasted until 31 July, when she was decommissioned again. These tests were carried out in the Baltic and North Seas, and concluded in Wilhelmshaven.
First overseas cruise, 1880–1882 Habicht returned to service on 1 October for the first overseas cruise. She was to sail to Australia and patrol the South Pacific to protect German economic interests in the region. The ship departed Wilhelmshaven on 13 October and passed through Cape Town, South Africa, on 1 January 1881. There, she met her sister ship , and the two ships continued on together to Australia, sailing from Cape Town on 10 January. They anchored in Melbourne, Australia, on 27 February. They met the screw frigate , and the three ships represented Germany at the Melbourne International Exhibition, which was taking place at the time. Habicht left Melbourne on 27 March, bound for Apia in Samoa, which she reached on 19 April. The other two ships and the gunboat joined her there soon thereafter. On 11 May, Habicht sailed from Apia with the German general consul, Otto Zembsch, on board for a tour of the region, including a voyage through the Marshall Islands that lasted from 29 May to 24 June. While in the Marshalls, the ship made maps of Majuro. She then sailed south to Matupi Harbor on the island of New Georgia, arriving there on 15 July. At that time, German trading companies were frequent targets of attacks by local residents, and Habicht spent the next month and a half conducting reprisals, particularly on the islands of Nusa and Utuan, the latter having been the site of the murders of four Germans. The ship sent her landing party ashore to capture the murderers. During this period, the ship also conducted surveys while cruising along the coast.
In late August, Habicht left the area to visit the Caroline Islands, where she surveyed the harbors on Yap. She thereafter sailed to the Marshalls, where she surveyed Jaluit. On 12 October, the ship arrived back in Apia and relieved Möwe as the station vessel. Later that year, Habicht received orders to return to Germany. She sailed from Apia on 1 December and stopped initially in Auckland, New Zealand, for repairs that lasted from 22 December to 26 February 1882. She then resumed her voyage home, and passed through the Suez Canal in March before stopping in Malta on 1 April. While there, she received orders to sail back to Egypt to protect German and Austro-Hungarian citizens and economic interests in the country during the Urabi revolt. There, she was joined by Möwe, which was also returning home, and the screw corvette . On 10 July, the day before the British bombardment of Alexandria, Habicht embarked Germans in the city and took them to the outer roadstead during the attack. Alexandria then devolved into chaos as the government collapsed, so the British and neutral warships in the harbor, including Habicht, sent landing parties into the city to restore order. The aviso arrived on 29 September to replace Habicht, allowing her to resume her voyage home. The ship reached Wilhelmshaven on 27 October, and she was decommissioned there on 6 November for a refit and modernization that lasted until mid-1884. Work included replacing her armament and modifying her sailing rig. She briefly conducted sea trials from 5 August to 6 September before being placed in reserve.
Second overseas cruise, 1885–1892
In 1884, Germany acquired the colony of Kamerun in Central Africa, which required warships to be permanently stationed there to maintain German control. Habicht was recommissioned for this purpose on 19 January 1885, under the command of (KK—Corvette Captain) Hugo von Schuckmann. She sailed from Wilhelmshaven on 27 January and stopped in São Vicente, Cape Verde, on 1 March, where she met the screw corvette , which was returning to Germany. Ariadne transferred her extra rifle ammunition and tropical equipment to Habicht, as she no longer needed it. The latter vessel then departed and arrived in Kamerun on 23 March, where she joined the West African Squadron, led by the corvette . By 9 November, the new commander of the squadron, KAdm Carl Heinrich Theodor Paschen, arrived aboard his flagship, the corvette . Paschen transferred to Habicht to enter the shallow waters at Douala to visit the colonial governor there. From 16 to 26 November, Habicht toured ports in southern Kamerun, before sailing north and west to visit the German colony of Togoland, along with ports between there and Kamerun from 29 November to 20 December.
Prior to Habichts second cruise, the German navy had historically recalled ships after two years in tropical conditions, owing to the difficulty for the crews in the unfamiliar climate. Beginning in 1886, they began the practice of sending replacement crews to the ships while on station. Additionally, the ships would be repaired in foreign shipyards as practicable. For Habicht, this meant travel to Cape Town for an annual overhaul; the first of these began on 23 March. Work was completed by 6 April, when she departed to return to Kamerun, arriving on 10 May. On 5 July, she and the gunboat were present in Douala for the cornerstone ceremony for the new government building being built there. The government steamship arrived on 5 August, and the ships thereafter began extensive surveys and cartographic work in the colony. Habicht departed for a cruise to visit the British colony at Ascension Island in October to give the crew a break from the tropical climate. In November, KK Walther Koch replaced Schuckmann as the ship's captain.
In February 1887, Habicht sailed south for another overhaul in Cape Town that lasted until May. After arriving back in Kamerun, she sent a landing party of 63 men ashore in response to repeated attacks by tribes living inland against trade caravans. The Germans traveled inland on several small boats via the Wouri River, before attacking and subduing the residents of three villages in the area. In 1887, thirty-six men of the crew contracted malaria, of whom two died. Habicht cruised in cooler areas along the coast from September to early November to help the crewmen recover. KK Oscar von Schuckmann arrived in November to relieve Koch. On 8 January 1888, Habicht sent a contingent of men ashore to serve as the honor guard at the funeral for the German explorer Gustav Nachtigal in Douala. In February, she departed for her annual overhaul at Cape Town, but was diverted to German South West Africa to suppress unrest against German rule in the Walvis Bay area. The situation had calmed by the time she arrived, allowing Habicht to continue on south. Work in Cape Town lasted until mid-June, when she returned to Kamerun. From 23 August to 20 October, Habicht cruised south in the cooler bay near Benguela, Portuguese Angola, to rest the crew. On 28 October, a replacement crew for the ship arrived aboard a passenger ship operated by the Woermann-Linie shipping company. The following month, KK Rudolf Rittmeyer replaced Schuckmann. On 24 December, Hyäne arrived to replace Cyclop as the second gunboat on the West Africa station.