SMS Alexandrine
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SMS Arcona was a cruiser corvette and type ship of the Alexandrine class that was built for the Imperial Navy inthe late 1880s. It was named after Princess Alexandrine of Prussia . The only sister ship was SMS Arcona .
The ships of the Alexandrine class were commissioned in the mid-1880s to expand the German foreign cruiser fleet and were supposed to serve as fleet scouts and on extended missions in overseas areas of interest of the German Empire . The ship's main armament was a battery of ten 15 cm ring cannons and a complete sailing rig to supplement the steam engine that was also available on long missions overseas.
To accomplish her task, the Alexandrine completed a six-year trip abroad, which took her around the globe. It was first activated for use in the Central Pacific in 1889, where there were tensions between several colonial powers over competing claims on Samoa . The ship then patrolled German New Guinea and in 1891 joined the cruiser squadron of the Imperial Navy , which was deployed on site during the Chilean Civil War of 1891 to protect German nationals. The squadron then cruised in East Asia in 1892 and in German East Africa at the end of the year . In 1893 she was sent to Brazil , where insurgents threatened German interests there. The ships were then sent back to East Asia to monitor the conflicting parties in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 .
The last use of the ship was in March 1895 off Morocco . After her return to Germany it was found that she was in poor condition after the intensive years of service overseas and so she was decommissioned in June 1895 as not repairable. In 1907 the ship was scrapped.
history
Construction and commissioning
The Alexandrine was established in February 1882 the contract name "G" on the Imperial Shipyard in Kiel set to Kiel and from the 7 February 1885 left stack . The ship was christened by the later Kaiser Wilhelm II , at that time still Crown Prince . The completed ship began test drives in October 1886, which lasted until January 1887. The ship was then decommissioned, initially in Wilhelmshaven , because at that time the defensive strategy of General Leo von Caprivi , the head of the Imperial Admiralty , was to protect the German colonies with smaller gunboats while the larger warships were held in reserve. some were assigned to a so-called "permanent cruiser squadron" for crisis management.
The ship remained out of service until 1889. However, when a large cyclone hit Samoa on March 16 and destroyed the two German stationary riders , the gunboats Adler and Eber , the Alexandrine was put into service for this area to protect German interests on site and the competing claims to power of the USA and the UK to face. For this purpose, the smooth-deck corvette Sophie and the gunboat Wolf , which were located in East African and East Asian waters, were ordered to the area. Alexandrine left Wilhelmshaven on April 15th . Also on board was Kaiser Wilhelm II, who left the ship during a stopover on Wangerooge . The ship then went to Port Said with a stop in Gibraltar , crossed the Suez Canal and finally reached Sydney on July 6, 1889 , after stops in Aden and Albany .
Use in the Pacific
At this point, however, the situation in Samoa had calmed down and the Alexandrine was ordered to travel through the German possessions and areas of interest in the South Seas from July 24th. Stops on the trip were the northern Solomon Islands , Matupi in New Pomerania , Finschhafen in German New Guinea and the Hermit Islands . On the island of Kapsu off Neu-Mecklenburg , the Alexandrine landed a landing force to punish residents for the murder of two German citizens. On November 1, the ship returned to Sydney, where it stayed for a month for repairs. In March 1890, the Alexandrine met a steamer in Auckland with her replacement crew . After the crew change, the ship then went to Apia , where it stayed until the beginning of May, before she was ordered on an inspection trip to the Marshall Islands with the local Reich Commissioner on board . On the way she stopped in the Gilbert Islands to settle disputes between Germans and locals. Back in Apia in June, the ship's crew attended the ceremony in which Malietoa Laupepa was installed as local ruler.
Use in the permanent cruiser squadron
The Alexandrine then sailed back to Sydney for maintenance, where she was assigned to the Permanent Cruiser Squadron under Rear Admiral Victor Valois in July . After visits to Melbourne and Adelaide , Alexandrine joined the other corvettes , the flagship Leipzig and the Sophie , in Apia on September 16 . On January 6, 1891, Alexandrine visited several of the Samoan islands before sailing with the rest of the squadron to East Asia. Another crew change was made in Shanghai in April . In the meantime, the Chilean civil war of 1891 had broken out, prompting the German high command to send Valois' ships there on May 3rd to protect German nationals in the country. When crossing the Pacific, however, the Leipzig ran out of coal and the ship had to be towed for part of the voyage. The ships did not arrive off the coast of Chile until July 9th and Valois concluded an agreement with the authorities in Valparaíso to send landing troops from the ships to secure the European quarter of the city.
After the end of the war in December, the cruiser squadron left Chile and went through the Strait of Magellan into the South Atlantic. They stopped in Cape Town , where Rear Admiral Friedrich von Pawelsz took command of the squadron on February 23, 1892. The three corvettes continued their journey to German East Africa, where Sophie left the association. Alexandrine and Leipzig drove on to East Asia. During her stay in Colombo , Alexandrine received a new crew again, and also took the replacement for the gunboats Iltis and Wolf , the East Asian stationary, on board. Alexandrine then returned to Chinese waters and stopped at Chemulpo , where the ship's captain received an audience with King Gojong . During the onward journey, several crew members fell ill in the Gulf of Pechili and forced the Alexandrine to go to the German naval hospital in Yokohama . The ship stayed in Yokohama until October 23 and then met the Leipzig on November 4 in Hong Kong .
Together the ships continued their voyage to East Africa, where it was feared that after the death of Sultan Ali ibn Said of Zanzibar in March 1893, unrest could break out on the island. However, the succession passed peacefully to his nephew Hamad bin Thuwaini and the crisis was averted. The Arcona , the Alexandrine's sister ship, joined the association in Zanzibar . The squadron was ordered to Cape Town and disbanded there on April 6th.
Use in South America
After overhaul work in Cape Town's dry dock, the Alexandrine continued her voyage to South America on May 20th. She had reached Brazil in mid-June and then visited Buenos Aires and Montevideo .
On July 27, she met her sister ship Arcona again in São Francisco do Sul . On September 18, 1893, the two ships from Buenos Aires arrived in Rio de Janeiro again, where insurgent marines in the so-called Revolta da Armada ( revolt of the fleet ) put on a coup against the Brazilian President Floriano Peixoto . The ships stayed in the city until January to protect foreign citizens and properties from the insurgents and to provide humanitarian aid. For example, the ships secured the release of the seized by the rebels on November 3, Hamburg Süd - steamer SS Santos and evacuated on 9 December German passengers from the Argentine steamer Paranahiva , who was shot at the expiry of the rebels and applied. Due to an outbreak of yellow fever and to give the crews much-needed vacation, the Alexandrine returned to Buenos Aires on January 31, 1894. She and Arcona were accompanied there by Corvette Marie , who had meanwhile arrived . The three ships sailed back to Rio de Janeiro on April 22nd and then on to Cabo Frio .
When tensions between China and Japan over Korea increased at the beginning of 1894 , the ships were relocated to East Asia as the "successors" of the permanent cruiser squadron as the so-called East Asian Cruiser Division . On March 7th, they circled Cape Horn and reached the Pacific Ocean . After repairs due to storm damage, the three corvettes only met again on July 13 outside Callao . The three ships remained there until August 15, while the war between China and Japan had broken out in the meantime to protect German interests during the riots that continued in Peru due to Andrés Avelino Cáceres' presidency . The ships only crossed the Pacific after this mission was completed and did not reach Yokohama until September 26th.
Late missions and whereabouts
Alexandrine drove to Nagasaki for maintenance work and then on to the north coast of China to represent German interests in the region. The ship's service in the East Asia Division did not last long. As early as March 2, 1895, it received the order to return to Germany and left Singapore and with it the East Asia Division on March 22. During their stay in Port Said, the ship received orders to go to Morocco in order to assist German negotiators through their presence in demanding compensation for the murder of two Germans in the country. After completing this activity, the ship drove on to Wilhelmshaven and arrived there on May 25th. A week later, on June 1st, the Alexandrine was taken out of service. During the subsequent examination of the ship it turned out that her hull was badly damaged and unsuitable for further use overseas. The ship was then towed to Danzig , where it was decommissioned. From May 3, 1904, it was used as a floating battery. On May 27, 1907, it was finally deleted from the sea register and sold for 148,000 marks . The buyer briefly used the ship as a floating workshop before it was scrapped in Gdansk later that year.
Commanders
| April 1889 to October 1890 | Corvette Captain Curt von Prittwitz and Gaffron |
| October 1890 to November 1890 | Sea captain Fritz Rötger |
| November 1890 to February 1891 | Corvette Captain Hermann Schneider |
| February 1891 to January 1893 | Corvette captain / sea captain Ernst von Frantzius |
| January 15 to July 23, 1893 | Corvette Captain Max Galster |
| August 1893 to October 1893 | Captain Johannes Stein (deputy) |
| October 1893 to June 1895 | Corvette captain / sea captain Gustav Schmidt |
| July 9 to July 17, 1895 | Corvette Captain Louis Fischer (overpass) |
Individual evidence
- ^ Gerhard Wiechmann: The Royal Prussian Navy in Latin America 1851 to 1867. An attempt at German gunboat policy , in: Sandra Carreras / Günther Maihold (eds.): Prussia and Latin America. In the field of tension between commerce, power and culture (Europa-Übersee Vol. 12), Münster 2004, pp. 203–204, ISBN 3-8258-6306-9 .
- ^ Gerhard Wiechmann: The Royal Prussian Navy in Latin America 1851 to 1867. An attempt at German gunboat policy , in: Sandra Carreras / Günther Maihold (eds.): Prussia and Latin America. In the field of tension between commerce, power and culture (Europa-Übersee vol. 12), Münster 2004, p. 209, ISBN 3-8258-6306-9 .
- ^ Gerhard Wiechmann: The Royal Prussian Navy in Latin America 1851 to 1867. An attempt at German gunboat policy , in: Sandra Carreras / Günther Maihold (eds.): Prussia and Latin America. In the field of tension between commerce, power and culture (Europa-Übersee vol. 12), Münster 2004, pp. 213, 84–173, ISBN 3-8258-6306-9 .
literature
- Hans Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships. A mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present day . Biographies, Volume 1. Mundus Verlag. Ratingen. 1993. ISBN 978 3 7822 0237 4 .
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