Bismarck class (1877)
 SMS Stein at anchor (1893)
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The Bismarck- class was a class of six covered corvettes that were built for the German Imperial Navy in the 1870s . The six ships were SMS Bismarck , SMS Blücher , SMS Stosch , SMS Moltke , SMS Gneisenau and SMS Stein . The corvettes of the class were ordered at the beginning of the 1870s as part of a large naval construction program and were intended to serve as naval reconnaissance aircraft and on extended missions in overseas areas of interest of the German Empire. The ships had a battery of ten to sixteen 15 cm ring cannons as their main armament and were equipped with a full range of sailing equipment to supplement the steam engine that was also available on long missions overseas. One class ship, SMS Blücher , was converted into a torpedo test and training ship shortly after its completion , the weapons of which were replaced by various torpedo launchers. In 1884 the ships were reclassified as cruiser frigates.
Most of the ships of the class were deployed overseas for several years during their entire service, often also in order to protect German interests by means of power projection as part of a gunboat policy and to promote the expansion of the German colonial empire from the 1880s onwards. SMS Moltke supported one of the German expeditions for the International Polar Year in 1882 . SMS Bismarck was involved in the conquest of the Cameroon colony in 1884 and SMS Gneisenau visited the Witu area claimed by the German Empire in 1885 . Furthermore, ships of the class were used as stationary in Central and South America in order to protect German interests there, especially during local wars there. Some of the ships were also part of the mostly temporary cruiser squadrons of the Imperial Navy .
SMS Blücher and SMS Stein served as training ships during their entire service, initially for training on the torpedo weapon that was just being developed. Most of the German crews on these two ships were trained on guns. Later, from around 1900, naval cadets and cabin boys were trained on the ships . SMS Gneisenau , SMS Moltke and SMS Stosch were also used as school ships in their later years of service. The educational nature of the ships earned them the nickname "floating high schools". In this role, too, the ships went on extended mission trips, mainly to the West Indies and the Mediterranean , in order to represent German interests there in addition to training and to support German stationers. SMS Bismarck was the first ship of the class to be decommissioned and used as a residential ship in 1891 . SMS Gneisenau was lost in a storm off Málaga . SMS Blücher was badly damaged by a boiler explosion in 1907 and then sold. SMS Stosch was sold for scrapping in the same year. In 1908 SMS Stein was also converted into a residential ship. SMS Moltke , which was in service until 1910, suffered the same fate in 1911, whereby it was also renamed Acheron . was in service until 1910 when she was retired. the next year it was also converted into a barracks ship. The other members of the class were decommissioned in 1920 after the end of the First World War .
Construction dates of the ships
| ship | Shipyard | Keel laying | Launch | completion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SMS Bismarck | Norddeutsche Schiffbau AG , Kiel | November 1875 | July 25, 1877 | August 27, 1878 |
| SMS Blücher | March 1876 | March 20, 1877 | December 21, 1878 | |
| SMS Stosch | AG Vulcan , Szczecin | November 1875 | October 8, 1877 | March 10, 1878 |
| SMS Moltke | Imperial Shipyard , Danzig | July 1875 | October 18, 1877 | April 16, 1878 |
| SMS Gneisenau | June 1877 | September 4, 1879 | October 3, 1880 | |
| SMS Stein | AG Vulcan, Szczecin | 1878 | September 14, 1879 | October 3, 1880 |
Development history and design
After the Franco-Prussian War , the Imperial Navy started a general expansion program, the so-called Fleet Plan of 1873 , to strengthen and modernize the fleet, mainly in order to be prepared for a possible renewed conflict with France . At the same time, however, German trade interests also expanded in the overseas markets in Asia, Central and South America and the Pacific, while other European powers began to exclude German companies from activities in their overseas areas of interest. In order to better protect these German interests and to further project power overseas, a need for warships for long journeys and overseas stays was identified. The previous capacities of the conventional sailing corvettes of the Imperial Navy were too small for this and also outdated. Accordingly, the naval command decided that modern steam corvettes were required for reconnaissance purposes and for service overseas. The technical innovation of steam power in shipping was only available for a short time and had already replaced the sails of the armored ships of the modern navy. The long trips abroad, which were necessary to safeguard German economic interests, on the one hand required a much larger radius of action than that of the armored ships, and on the other hand steam engines were not yet reliable and efficient enough to rely on them alone. For the intended task, the German naval command therefore decided that traditional sailing systems had to be retained.
Accordingly, the six ships of the Bismarck class were ordered in the early 1870s as part of this program to modernize the fleet. The design was created between 1873 and 1875 and was similar to the previous Leipzig class , although the Bismarck class ships were slightly smaller.
properties
The ships of the Bismarck class varied slightly in their dimensions. At the waterline, the ships were a total of 72.18 to 72.2 meters (m) and a total of 82 to 82.5 m long. They had a width of 13.7 m and a draft of 5.2 to 5.68 m forward and 6.18 to 6.3 m aft. They normally displaced 2,756 to 2,856 t and at full load up to 2,994 to 3,386 t. The hulls were constructed with transverse iron frames and a layer of wooden boards that were coated with zinc to prevent bio-corrosion during longer missions overseas, where shipyard facilities were not readily available. To protect the engine room, the ships were also equipped with a double floor underneath.
The ship's crew consisted of 18 officers and 386 men . However, these numbers could vary greatly during service times as training ships. A typical crew in this role were 20 officers and 449 seamen, of whom 50 were naval cadets and 210 cabin boys. SMS Gneisenau typically had a crew of 17 officers and 443 seamen, of whom 20 were cadets and 220 were cabin boys. The crew size of the torpedo training ship SMS Blücher varied between 14 and 34 officers and 287 and 494 seamen. Each ship was equipped with a number of smaller boats, including a guard boat, two (later six) cutters , two dinghies and two dinghies . SMS Blücher had six guard boats, two barges , a pinasse , two dinghies and two dinghies, the last of which were removed later.
drive
The ships were equipped with a single 3-cylinder ship's steam engine that powered a 2-blade screw propeller with a retractable shaft with four coal-fired boilers . Only SMS Blücher had a 3-blade screw. The ships had a top speed of 12.5 to 13.9 knots (23.2 to 25.7 km / h) at 2,334 to 2,989 hp (2,302 to 2,948 ihp). The coal storage ranged from 270 to 326 t . They had a travel radius of 2,480 nautical miles (4,410 km) at a speed of 9 knots (17 km / h). At 10 knots the cruising radius fell to 1,940 NM.
According to the specifications, the ships of the Bismarck class were equipped with a complete sailing rig to supplement the steam engine for operations overseas. However, this was later reduced and, for example, at SMS Blücher , the rigging was later completely removed. The steering was controlled by a single rudder. The ships were good sea boats, but had a significant drift even in moderate winds and were difficult to maneuver. They lost a considerable amount of speed in rough seas and had limited performance under sail.
Armament
The ships of the Bismarck class were armed with a battery of Rk 15.0 cm L / 22 ring cannons. SMS Bismarck had sixteen of these cannons, Stosch and Moltke ten each, Stein twelve, Gneisenau fourteen and Blücher was only equipped with the main battery weapons until it was converted into a training ship. Bismarck had 1660 grenades for this armament on board. The allocation for the other ships is not known. Furthermore, the ships were each equipped with two 8.8 cm L / 30 Sk weapons (SMS Blücher four) and six Hotchkiss 3.7 cm revolver cannons each.
After her conversion to a torpedo training ship, Blücher was armed with torpedo tubes, the number of which ranged from four to seven. They were 35 cm pipes that were placed at various points in the ship above and below the waterline. SMS Bismarck also had two of these 35 cm torpedo tubes, which were attached in the bow above the waterline. The other ships did not have this weapon.
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 . 10 volumes. Mundus Verlag, Ratingen (licensed edition by Koehler's Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg, approx. 1990).
Footnotes
- ↑ H. Merleker: Ships also have nicknames in Die Seekiste No. 2 1951, p. 82/83