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.
Bismarck-class corvette
In 1887, "Gneisenau" began her service as a training ship, a role she held for more than a decade. During this period, she was generally occupied with training cruises and individual, squadron, and fleet training. Long-distance cruises frequently alternated between the West Indies and the Mediterranean Sea. During fleet maneuvers in 1895, "Gneisenau" accidentally collided with a Danish schooner, sinking the schooner and killing most of her crew. While on a training cruise, she stopped outside Málaga to conduct gunnery training on 16 December 1900. A strong storm surprised the crew, who, through a communication problem between the commander and engine room crew, raised anchor and tried to get the vessel underway. They were unable to get sufficient steam up in the boilers before she was driven into the mole by heavy winds and destroyed. Most of her crew survived, but 41 officers and men were killed in the sinking, including her commanding officer. Her wreck proved impossible to salvage, and so she was sold for scrap shortly after the accident.