SMS Stein
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SMS Stein was a covered corvette of the Bismarck class that was built for the Imperial Navy in the late 1870s . It was named after the Prussian Minister of State Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein (1757–1831). She was the last of six ships in the class.
The Bismarck- class corvettes were ordered in the early 1870s as part of a large naval construction program. They were supposed to serve as a fleet scout and on extended missions in the overseas areas of interest of the German Empire . The keel of the Bismarck was laid in 1878, the launch took place in September 1879 and the commissioning followed in October 1880. As the main armament, the ship had a battery of twelve 15 cm ring cannons and a complete sailing rig to supplement the steam engine that was also available on long missions overseas.
The stone served as a training ship for most of her career . Her only job outside of training missions was at the beginning of her career when she carried a replacement team for her sister ship SMS Stosch into Chinese waters in 1883 and 1884 . She spent the rest of their time, cadets , midshipmen and cabin boys train. One of the better-known naval cadets was the later head of the Foreign / Defense Office , Admiral Wilhelm Canaris , and another Georg von Hase . She also took part in the regular maneuvers of the training squadron and the fleet , which also included regular long-distance training trips overseas, typically either to the Mediterranean or the West Indies . On these voyages, Stein, also in association with the other training ships, visited foreign ports for representation purposes, but also to protect German interests by means of power projections in the sense of a gunboat policy . The ship served in this role from 1885 to 1908, then was struck off the register and used as the Hulk . She also served in this capacity throughout the First World War and was scrapped in 1920.
history
Construction and commissioning
The keel for stone was laid on the keel at AG Vulcan in Stettin under the contract name "Ersatz Hertha ", since it was to come into service as a replacement for this ship. It was on 14 September 1879 by Emperor I. Wilhelm on the name Stone baptized. While she was being towed from Stettin to Kiel , she ran onto a previously unknown reef off Prerow , but remained undamaged. From May 23, 1880, work on equipping and arming the ship began at the Kaiserliche Werft in Kiel , and sea trials were carried out from October 21, but these were temporarily suspended on December 23 because of the winter. From March 15, 1881, the sea trials were continued, which lasted until April 30. The ship was then assigned to the reserve and moved to Wilhelmshaven on May 23, 1882.
Years of service 1883–1888
Although the Stein was intended as a training ship, it was activated on July 1, 1883 to bring replacement crews to German warships stationed abroad. The usual practice at the time of chartering civilian ships for this purpose could not be followed because no such ships were available. The Stein consequently left Wilhelmshaven on July 16 for Hong Kong , where it met her sister ship Stosch on November 4 . After the crews had been exchanged, she began her return journey on November 10 and arrived in Wilhelmshaven on January 6, 1884, where she was decommissioned eleven days later. On April 14, 1885, she was put back into service as a training ship for four-year-old volunteers and was commissioned with training trips in the North and Baltic Seas until mid-July. At this time, she joined the so-called training squadron of the Imperial Navy as the flagship of Rear Admiral Louis von Blanc . She took part in the annual fleet maneuvers in August and September, during which simulated attacks on the bases in Kiel and Wilhelmshaven were carried out.
After a series of accidents during the summer maneuvers, the German Navy decided, instead of deactivating its ships in the winter months as usual, to hold exercises in the winter months and again put a squadron, again with Stein as the flagship, her sister ship Moltke and the corvettes Marie and Ariadne , up. The four ships left Wilhelmshaven on October 11 for the West Indies, but stopped in Cape Verde on November 13 , where they stayed for two weeks due to the tension with Spain over the Caroline question . The conflict with Spain was resolved by November 30, and the ships continued their voyage to the Caribbean , where they traveled to ports in the region. At the beginning of 1886 they returned to Wilhelmshaven by March 27, where the squadron was disbanded three days later.
Stein then went to the shipyard for repairs before the individual training trips were resumed on May 3, 1886. The training squadron was reactivated on July 19 and the Stein was again the flagship. The other ships were the Moltke and the corvettes Sophie and Prinz Adalbert as well as the ironclad Hansa . The unit conducted exercises in the Baltic Sea, followed by annual maneuvers with the rest of the fleet in August and September. The winter training trip to the West Indies began on October 14th without the Hansa . On the way to Lisbon , the Sophie was posted to West Africa , instead the new corvette Nixe joined the association after arriving in the Caribbean . Tensions with France forced the squadron to return home early on February 3, 1887. When the squadron reached the coast of Ireland on March 11, the situation had calmed down, but the order to return was retained. While in Southampton , the crews attended the official celebrations for William I's 90th birthday on March 22nd. The ships reached Wilhelmshaven on March 30th and the squadron was disbanded again on April 4th.
The rest of 1887 followed a similar pattern as in previous years and after completing the usual maintenance, the training squadron was reactivated under the command of Rear Admiral Philipp von Kall with Stein as the flagship and including her sister ships Gneisenau , Moltke and also Prinz Adalbert . The exercises were interrupted by participation in the ceremony to mark the start of construction on the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal in June. The winter training trip to the Mediterranean began on October 1st. During the stay in Naples on November 19, a fire broke out on board the Stein that was quickly extinguished with the help of the crews of Prince Adalbert and the Italian corvette Vittorio Emanuele . The stone had to be repaired, however, and from November 19 to January 8, 1888, Kall used the Gneisenau as its flagship. The return journey to Germany began on March 13, via Madeira and São Vicente, until arriving in Wilhelmshaven on April 10. Five days later the squadron was disbanded again.
Years of service 1888–1897
In the summer of 1888 the training program was interrupted by a visit by the newly enthroned Emperor Wilhelm II to Saint Petersburg , Stockholm and Copenhagen , whom the ships of the training squadron accompanied for representation purposes, and then in August to join the rest of the fleet for the annual autumn maneuvers. On September 20, the stone was taken out of service for a major renovation, in which the boiler, the crew rooms and the armament were modernized. The ship could now accommodate up to 50 cadets and 210 cabin boys. It was only at this point that the ship was officially included in the list of training ships. The work was completed on April 27, 1893 and the ship ran into the Baltic Sea, where she ran aground off Ekensund on May 26 and then visited Stockholm with the Stosch , where she was met by the Swedish King Oskar II and Ludwig III. was visited by Bavaria . At the end of July, the ship with the Gneisenau took part in the Cowes Regatta as an accompaniment for Kaiser Wilhelm II.
For the remainder of 1893, as well as 1894 and 1895, the Stein followed the usual routine of autumn maneuvers and winter training trips. During the fleet maneuvers, the ship served again as the flagship of the training division.
In June 1895 the corvette was present as part of the IV. Division under the command of Rear Admiral Otto von Diederichs at the opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal. Training trips and participation in the autumn maneuvers and the winter training trip to the West Indies followed again. After a visit to Havana , he was then deployed to Caracas in early 1896 to support the German ambassador in negotiations with the Venezuelan government in terms of classic gunboat diplomacy in order to pay for a railway line opened in Venezuela in December 1893. Stein reached Kiel on February 18.
In the summer of that year, Stein and Stosch carried out exercises together in the Baltic Sea and between July 8th and 15th visited Kronstadt and Saint Petersburg, where Tsar Nicholas II received the officers of both ships. After the naval maneuvers, the training squadron ran into the Mediterranean this year to respond to unrest in the Ottoman Empire . After Stein had visited Alexandria in several ports in the Levant and with Moltke and Gneisenau , the return journey to Kiel took place until March 25, 1897.
Years of service 1897–1920
After the naval maneuvers in 1897, during which the Stein was part of the reconnaissance group of the main fleet, Admiral Hans von Koester , the chief of the Baltic Sea station , came on board the ship on September 19 to meet Wilhelm II at the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the throne of To represent Oscar II of Sweden. The winter training drive therefore started late on November 2nd to the West Indies, where the Stein and SMS Charlotte were deployed in Haiti to enforce a German complaint . On the way back, she stopped in Antwerp , where the crew took part in the celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of Leopold II's accession to the throne , before the Stein reached Kiel on March 27, 1898, where it was decommissioned on April 19.
When Gneisenau was destroyed in a storm off Málaga on December 16, 1900 , the stone was reactivated to take its place in the training squadron. On January 28, 1901, she started her first training trip towards Lisbon and Gibraltar . She returned to Kiel on April 1 and took part in further maneuvers from May 30 to August 1, visited Riga to take part in the celebrations for the 700th anniversary of the city's founding, and toured several ports in the North Sea. She then began another training trip to the West Indies. During a stopover in San Sebastián , the Spanish King Alfonso XIII visited. the ship. Stein reached Port of Spain on October 18, joining the East American Cruiser Division , but returned to Germany on January 6, 1902. On March 17, she moved back to Kiel and held again exercises in the Baltic Sea and North Sea.
On July 29th, Stein started another practice trip with a stopover in the Azores . She visited Constantinople on November 10th, where Sultan Abdul Hamid II received the ship's commander and the other senior officers. Stein then went to Piraeus , where the station ship Loreley detained a German seaman who had been charged with murder. Stein took the man on board to take him back to Germany for decision. On the way back, Stein was the first German warship to pass the Corinth Canal . The ship reached Kiel on March 18, 1903 and, after an overhaul, undertook further training trips from May 15, first in the North and Baltic Seas, later that year the winter voyage to the West Indies and North America until March 22, 1904. The following years passed in a similar way. 1905 with training trips in the North Sea and Iceland and the winter training trip in the Mediterranean, where the ship celebrated its 25th anniversary of service on October 21st on Corfu . Return on March 18, 1906. In 1906 there were training trips in the Baltic Sea and an overseas trip to the West Indies, return on March 20, 1907 and 1907, finally, on July 17, her last overseas trip via Funchal into the Mediterranean. On March 21, 1908 she returned to Kiel and then went to Wilhelmshaven, where she was decommissioned for the last time on April 3. She was removed from the maritime registry on May 21st and used as the Hulk. The ship held this function during the First World War and was sold after the end of the war and scrapped in 1920.
literature
- Gröner, Erich / Dieter Jung / Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945 . tape 1 : Armored ships, ships of the line, battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, gunboats . Bernard & Graefe, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 , p. 70 f .
- Hildebrand, Hans H. / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . tape 7 : Ship biographies from Prussian eagle to Ulan . Mundus Verlag, Ratingen.
- Rheder: The military enterprise SMS "Charlotte" and "Stein" against Haiti in December 1897 , in: Marine-Rundschau , 41st year, 1937, pp. 761–765.