SMS Gneisenau (1879)
The crew attempted to drop the starboard anchor, but it did not catch in the stony ground. "Gneisenau" was driven into the mole repeatedly, striking it with her stern twice before being turned and pushed bow-first on the starboard side, forcing her aground. A merchant ship attempted to come to the crew's aid, but they were unable to connect a line between the two ships before "Gneisenau" began to list 35 degrees. A boat from shore also attempted to rescue the crew, but it too was forced ashore in the heavy seas. Wave action quickly smashed "Gneisenau"s hull against the mole, and part of her crew attempted to find safety by climbing the rigging. The ship rolled over onto her side, and the surviving crewmen reached shore with a line. Forty-one men were killed in the accident, including Kretschmann and the ship's first officer. "Charlotte" and the British ironclad were sent to aid the wounded. Those killed in the sinking were buried in Málaga's cemetery, and the survivors returned to Germany aboard the HAPAG steamship on 2 January 1901.
SMS Gneisenau
Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen, the former Chief of the General staff, christened the ship at her commissioning on 6 March 1908. Captain Franz von Hipper was the ship's first commanding officer; he took command of the ship the day she was commissioned. He was tasked with conducting the ship's shakedown cruise, which lasted from 26 March to the middle of July. She officially joined the fleet on 12 July. The ship then departed for Asia, though Hipper left the ship and went on to command the I Torpedo-boat Division in Kiel. "Gneisenau" was assigned to the "Ostasiengeschwader" (East Asia Squadron), where in 1910 she joined "Scharnhorst", which had been assigned to the unit the previous year. The two ships formed the core of the squadron, with "Scharnhorst" serving as the flagship. The pair were crack gunnery ships; "Gneisenau" won the Kaiser's Cup four times during her career: twice while in German waters in 1908 and 1909 and twice in Asia in 1910 and 1911, and "Scharnhorst"s finished in second place in 1913 and 1914.