SMS Gneisenau
SMS "Gneisenau" was an armored cruiser of the German navy, part of the two-ship . She was named after August von Gneisenau, a Prussian general of the Napoleonic Wars. The ship was laid down in 1904 at the AG Weser dockyard in Bremen, launched in June 1906, and completed in March 1908, at a cost of over 19 million goldmarks. She was armed with a main battery of eight guns, had a top speed of , and displaced at full combat load.
SMS Gneisenau (1879)
The new corvette, ordered under the contract name "D", was laid down in June 1877 at the "Kaiserliche Werft" (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig (Gdańsk). She was launched on 4 September 1879, and was christened with the name "Gneisenau", after the veteran of the Napoleonic Wars and Prussian military reformer "Generalfeldmarschall" (Field Marshal) August von Gneisenau, during the launching ceremony by Admiral Albrecht von Stosch, the head of the "Kaiserliche Admiralität" (Imperial Admiralty). She was commissioned on 3 October 1880 before work on the ship actually finished in order to transfer her to the "Kaiserliche Werft" in Kiel, where her guns were installed. Sea trials were then conducted, lasting from the end of December to 12 February 1881, after which she was decommissioned and placed in reserve. Her commander during this period was "Kapitän zur See" ("KzS"—Captain at Sea) Bartholomäus von Werner. At the time, Stosch had implemented a plan whereby Germany's colonies would be protected by gunboats, while larger warships would generally be kept in reserve, with a handful assigned to a flying squadron that could respond to crises quickly.