This began a three and a half year stint serving as watch officer aboard several ships,[2] including the corvettes Stosch and Stein, the armored frigate Friedrich der Grosse, and the aviso Wacht.[6] Hipper attended the Torpedo Officer Course aboard the corvette Blücher from October 1890 to January 1891.[4] He was then designated as a torpedo specialist; he returned to Friedrich der Grosse as a torpedo officer in October 1891.