SMS Arcona (1858)
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SMS Arcona , named after the northernmost cape of the island of Rügen , was a covered corvette of the Prussian Navy , the Navy of the North German Confederation and later the Imperial Navy . She was the type ship of the Arcona class named after her and, together with her sister ship Gazelle, formed the first construction lot of this class.
The launch took place on May 19, 1858 at the Royal Shipyard in Danzig .
Technical specifications
The ship, which weighed 2,391 tons when fully equipped, was 71.95 meters long, 13.0 meters wide and had a draft of 6.35 meters. The strength of the crew was 380 men.
Construction
The Arcona was a transverse frame construction with crawler planking and made entirely of oak. The underwater hull was shod with copper plates to protect against shipworms .
drive
The main drive for the Arcona was a horizontally installed two-cylinder single expansion steam engine , which was supplied with the necessary operating pressure by four coal-fired steam boilers . The steam engine developed 1,365 PSi at 165 / min on a drive shaft , which enabled the ship to reach a top speed of 12 knots .
In order to save coal on long voyages, the Arcona had a complete full-ship rigging , which made it possible to maneuver the ship using only sails.
Range
With its fuel supply of around 220 tons of coal, the Arcona had a range of 1,150 nautical miles at a cruising speed of eleven knots .
Armament
Originally, the Arcona was equipped with 28 68-pounder cannons. In the course of a modernization in 1869 these were dismantled. In their place were 17 ring cannons of caliber 15.0 cm L / 22 and two ring cannons of caliber 12.5 cm L / 23. The new ring cannons had a greater range and precision than the previous armament.
period of service
During her service time, the Arcona made several long journeys.
After the launch, some test drives took place and on October 23, 1859, the Arcona was put into service under its commander, Captain Henrik Ludvig Sundevall . The equipment at the naval shipyard in Danzig was delayed due to bad weather, so that the Arcona could not set off for England until December 11, 1859. On the way there, the ship got into a severe storm, which made a long repair stay in Southampton necessary. As a result, the Arcona was only able to meet the Frauenlob and the Thetis in Rio de Janeiro on May 24, 1860 . The squadron then left Rio on June 5th. Until October 5, 1862, the Arcona was the flagship with the other two ships on an almost three-year trip to East Asia , during which on September 2, 1860 off Yokohama in a typhoon the war schooner Frauenlob and all 47 crew members were lost. Besides Japan , China , Siam , Singapore and the Mekong Delta were other stops on the trip. In 1862 the Arcona was replaced as a station ship in East Asia by its sister ship the Gazelle . In 1864 the screw corvette proved itself in the German-Danish war . In the naval battle near Jasmund , the Arcona was the flagship of Captain Eduard von Jachmann .
In March 1869 Korvettenkapitän Georg von Schleinitz became the commandant of SMS Arcona . At the celebrations for the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the Arcona , with the Prussian Crown Prince on board, represented the Kingdom of Prussia . After that she was used as a training ship in the sea areas around the West Indies and North America until 1870. When the Franco-German War broke out in 1870, the Arcona was on its way back from New York and stopped in Horta (Portugal) on the Azores . There a Prussian army member informed Schleinitz of the outbreak of war. The Arcona then initially left Horta, but was traced back to Horta by the French ironclad Montcalm . A short time later, the French frigate Bellone arrived there on November 16, and since both ships were about the same strength, a battle was arranged for November 20. However, both ships got into a severe storm on November 20, which forced the Bellone to call at Cádiz as a port of refuge. The Arcona escaped in the direction of the English Channel and crossed there to track down French merchant ships, but was unsuccessful. On January 14, 1871, she called at Lisbon and was blocked in the port until the armistice by the French frigates Magnanime and Mangellan .
From October 1, 1873 to December 18, 1875 she completed a circumnavigation of the world as a midshipman training ship. This trip served as preparation for the expedition of the Gazelle to observe the Venus transit of 1874. The Arcona had the task in advance of exploring a suitable observation point for the passage of Venus ( Kerguelen Islands).
After all, she was stationed in Kiel from 1876 and served there as a training ship for stokers and machinists.
Whereabouts
On March 18, 1884, the Arcona was removed from the list of warships of the Imperial Navy. After that she was used as a target ship for some time and was broken up in the same year at the Kaiserliche Werft in Kiel.
literature
- Friedrich zu Eulenburg and Philipp zu Eulenburg-Hertefeld (eds.): East Asia 1860-1862 in letters from Count Fritz zu Eulenburg. Ernst Siegfried Mittler & Son - Royal Court Bookshop, Berlin 1900.
- Mirko Graetz: Prince Adalbert's forgotten fleet. The North German Federal Navy 1867–1871. Lulu Enterprises Inc. Morrisville, NC (USA) 2008, ISBN 978-1-4092-2509-6 , pp. 49 and pp. 62-63.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Friedrich zu Eulenburg and Philipp zu Eulenburg-Hertefeld (eds.): East Asia 1860-1862 in letters from Count Fritz zu Eulenburg. Ernst Siegfried Mittler & Sohn - Royal Court Bookshop, Berlin 1900, page 22.
- ↑ FL Herbig (ed.), 1867: Die Grenzboten (magazine for politics and literature) , 26th year, part 3, 1867, page 242.