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)
"Gneisenau" left Zanzibar on 1 April, bound for Melbourne, Australia, where she was to meet the corvette in August, but "Augusta" sank in the Bab-el-Mandeb. "Gneisenau" instead proceeded on to Port Louis on the island of Mauritius. There, she met the cruiser squadron commanded by "Kommodore" Carl Paschen, which included her sister ship and the corvette , the frigate , and the supply ship "Ehrenfels". Paschen had been tasked to take his squadron to East Africa to settle disputes over the German protectorate with the Sultan of Zanzibar, Barghash bin Said, which he accomplished by mid-August. On 18 August, "Bismarck" arrived with Knorr, who replaced Paschen as the squadron commander. Knorr sent "Gneisenau" to Wituland, where Valois informed Bakari that the Sultan of Zanzibar had agreed to recognize the protectorate and stop interfering in the internal affairs of Wituland. After anchoring in Lamu on 28 August, "Gneisenau" sent a contingent ashore, led by the executive officer, Curt von Prittwitz und Gaffron, to hold a parade to celebrate the agreement. Three days later, Valois took three officers and twenty-nine enlisted men to the Witu capital to meet Bakari, returning to the ship on 4 September.