SMS  was an aviso of the Imperial German Navy, the lead ship of her class. She had one sister ship, .  was built by the AG Weser shipyard; she was laid down in 1886, launched in August 1887, and commissioned in August 1888. She served in the active fleet through the 1890s and participated in numerous training exercises. Her career was cut short on 4 September 1901, when she collided with the old ironclad . The latter's ram bow holed  under the waterline and caused her to rapidly sink. Her crew was safely rescued, however, and there were no casualties.

Design

With the selection of General Leo von Caprivi to replace the former chief of the  (Imperial Admiralty), Albrecht von Stosch, in 1883, the navy began to experiment more seriously with torpedo-armed warships along the lines of the . Caprivi was a proponent of cheaper torpedo boats, and he directed that future avisos should forsake size and gun power in favor of higher speed and torpedo armament. The  class was the first design prepared in accordance with Caprivi's directives, and it proved to be a failure, owing to poor seakeeping as a result of its smaller size, and a gun battery that was insufficient to allow them to engage comparable vessels in other fleets.

 was  long overall and had a beam of  and a maximum draft of  forward. She displaced  as designed and up to  at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of two angled 3-cylinder triple expansion engines. Steam for the engines was provided by four coal-fired locomotive boilers. The ship's propulsion system was rated for  and provided a top speed of  and a range of approximately  at .  had a crew of 7 officers and 134 enlisted men.

As built, the ship was armed with three  K L/35 guns placed in single pivot mounts. The guns were supplied with a total of 180 rounds of ammunition.  also carried three  torpedo tubes, one mounted submerged in the bow and the other two in deck-mounted launchers on the broadside. In 1891, four  SK L/30 guns in single mounts were installed in place of the 10.5 cm guns. The ship was the first German aviso to carry armor: a  thick deck, along with  of armor plating for the conning tower.

Service history

Construction – 1892

The keel for  was laid down in August 1886 at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen. She was launched on 27 August 1887 and  (Vice Admiral) Alexander von Monts, the chief of the  (North Sea Naval Station) christened the ship. In early 1888, she was transferred to Wilhelmshaven, where her armament was installed, and she was commissioned on 9 August to begin sea trials. These concluded on 13 December in Wilhelmshaven. She was temporarily assigned to the newly created Reserve Division of the North Sea over the winter of 1888–1889 before being transferred to Kiel on 1 May to begin engine trials, after which she was assigned to the Maneuver Squadron. During training exercises with the squadron,  suffered a burst boiler tube on 20 June that forced her to return to port for repairs. In early August, she joined the squadron for a visit to Britain, arriving back in Wilhelmshaven on 31 August. The fleet then conducted its annual large-scale maneuvers. After the maneuvers ended in September,  (KK—Corvette Captain) Friedrich von Baudissin took command of the vessel.

Late in the year,  joined a squadron of four old ironclads—, , , and  that escorted Kaiser Wilhelm II and Kaiserin Augusta Victoria aboard their yacht  to Greece for the wedding of Princess Sophie, the Kaiser's sister, to Constantine, then the crown prince of the Kingdom of Greece. Prince Heinrich also cruised with the squadron aboard the protected cruiser . During the cruise, the Germans visited numerous ports in the Mediterranean, including state visits to Italy, the Ottoman Empire, followed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. While in Trieste in Austria-Hungary, the squadron was present for a naval review for the Austro-Hungarian Kaiser Franz Joseph I in Muggia.  developed boiler problems that necessitated repairs at the naval arsenal at Pola; she remained there until 29 January 1890, when she was able to get underway again. She met the rest of the squadron in Malta on 1 February, but left for home independently, arriving in Wilhelmshaven on 22 February, while the rest of the squadron remained in the Mediterranean until April.  had in the meantime been decommissioned there on 6 March.

While out of service, the ship underwent a thorough overhaul and had her gun armament replaced. On 6 October 1891, she was recommissioned for sea trials that lasted until the end of February 1892; during this period, her commander was KK Hermann da Fonseca-Wollheim. She was assigned to II Division of the Maneuver Squadron on 8 March and KK Ludwig Borckenhagen relieved Fonseca-Wollheim,  thereafter taking part in exercises in the North Sea off the coast of Norway. She was detached from the unit to escort  from 4 to 8 June while Wilhelm II visited Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Later in the year, the ship had a minor collision with the artillery training ship . Borckenhagen left the ship in September and  was decommissioned on 12 October.

1893–1901
 was recommissioned on 13 January 1893, initially serving as a training ship for engine and boiler room crews for torpedo boats.  (Captain Lieutenant) Alfred Ehrlich commanded the ship during the year. In early March, she was reassigned to serve as a flotilla leader for torpedo boats, and in mid-April, she was once again detached to escort , though this was the new yacht of that name, while it was being taken from Swinemünde to Kiel. While on the way, the vessels encountered the Flensburg-flagged merchant ship  that had run aground and  pulled her free and towed er to Kiel. Ten days later, the navy established I Torpedo-boat Flotilla, based in Kiel;  served as the flotilla leader and flagship of KK Gustav Schmidt. The unit consisted of two divisions and included twelve torpedo boats in total. The vessels conducted training maneuvers over the next two months and in early July,  cruised with the Maneuver Squadron in the North Sea. The annual fleet maneuvers were held from 20 August to 23 September in the North and Baltic Seas, and upon their conclusion, I Torpedo-boat Flotilla was dissolved for the year. On 27 September,  accompanied  on her sea trials that included visits to Gothenburg, Karlskrona, and Christiansand in Sweden–Norway.  then returned to Wilhelmshaven, where she was decommissioned on 11 October.

In 1894,  was assigned to II Division of the Maneuver Squadron; during this period, the ships conducted a lengthy cruise in the North Sea, visiting ports in Norway and the Shetland Islands from 3 April to late June. While steaming out of Kiel on 2 July,  was accidentally rammed by the ironclad .  had to enter the  (Imperial Shipyard) in Kiel for repairs that lasted until 23 July. She took part in the annual fleet maneuvers from 19 August to 21 September, after which she traded assignments with the aviso , which had been the aviso for I Division. At the same time, KK Eduard Holzhauer took command of the vessel.  did not remain in service with the unit long, owing to the poor condition of her engines, and she was decommissioned in Wilhelmshaven on 8 December for repairs.

The ship remained out of service until 18 March 1896, when she was recommissioned under the command of KK Carl Friedrich, being assigned to II Division eight days later; by this time, the Maneuver Squadron had been renamed I Squadron. The ships embarked on a cruise to the Netherlands and Norway that lasted until the end of the May. Squadron exercises followed in June and July and the fleet maneuvers were held from 9 August to 15 September. During these exercises on 5 September,  damaged her screws in a collision with the torpedo boat , forcing her to return to Kiel for repairs, though she was able to take part in the final stage of the maneuvers in the North Sea. She thereafter cruised through the Kattegat in mid-December to return to Kiel, where Friedrich left the ship.

On 1 January 1897, her crew was reduced, though it was replenished on 1 March to take the ship back to Wilhelmshaven in 1897, where on 4 May she was decommissioned again. During that brief period in commission, KK Otto Mandt commanded the vessel. While out of service, she was reclassified as a "" (small cruiser) on 27 February 1899; she was recommissioned on 6 April to replace the aviso  in II Division. While on maneuvers at the end of the month, she damaged one of her screws. Squadron exercises followed in July and in August, the annual fleet maneuvers began.  served as a fleet scout during the exercises until 12 September, when she suffered a boiler explosion that killed four men and injured another five. The ironclad  towed her to Kiel for temporary repairs before she was transferred to Wilhelmshaven. There, she was decommissioned on 27 September.

Loss
 was recommissioned on 11 August 1901 under the command of KK Hugo von Cotzhausen and was assigned to I Scouting Group six days later. The unit operated with II Squadron in the North Sea in August, and on the last day of the month, the fleet maneuvers began in the Baltic. While the ships were steaming through Danzig Bay on 4 September, the fleet commander ordered  and the small cruiser  to pass from the seaward side of the line to the other so that signals from the ships could be relayed to shore.  attempted to pass between the ironclads  and  but s helmsman misjudged the distance and passed too closely in front of .  immediately attempted to reverse course to avoid ramming the ship, but the two vessels collided. s ram bow tore a large hole in s port side, which began to slowly sink. The battleship  attempted to tow  to shallow water, but several of s internal bulkheads collapsed under the strain and the ship quickly sank. Nevertheless, her crew was taken off safely; neither ship suffered any casualties. The navy later attempted to raise the ship, which had sunk at a depth of more than , but the efforts proved fruitless. A court martial was held for Cotzhausen on 8 October, who was acquitted of any wrong-doing in the accident.

Footnotes

Notes

Citations

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Wacht-class avisos
1887 ships
Ships built in Bremen (state)
Maritime incidents in 1901
Shipwrecks of Germany