SMS Cyclop (1860)
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The SMS Cyclop was the third ship of the Camaeleon class , a class of eight steam cannon boats 1st class of the Royal Prussian and Imperial Navy .
Construction and service time
The Cyclop was laid down by the Royal Shipyard in Danzig on September 8, 1859 and was launched exactly one year later. After completion, the otherwise usual long test drives were not necessary due to limited financial resources and the ship was only subjected to individual tests during the transfer from Danzig to Dänholm .
On February 21, 1864 the Cyclop was put into service because the German-Danish War had broken out and was assigned to the 2nd Flotilla Division. An early commissioning planned in December 1863 did not take place due to bad weather and a lack of crews. In April the Reserve Division was formed from all ships of the Camaeleon class, to which the Cyclop also belonged from then on. On April 24 and May 6, the gunboat was involved in combat operations against Danish warships, in which it sustained no damage. Participation in a naval parade in front of King Wilhelm I was followed by a squadron trip along the Schleswig-Holstein Baltic coast in August and September . On September 15, 1864, the Cyclop reached the new naval port of Kiel and spent the winter, still in service, as a guard ship of the Eider Canal .
Despite the assignment to the naval station of the Baltic Sea , the Cyclop was used in the North Sea during the German-German War . After the ship when translating infantry on the Elbe in Altona had helped and his landing party on the neutralization of the beach batteries near Brunshausen was involved, it should be the batteries near Abbenfleth off and then together with the SMS Loreley the army during the conquest of Stade support . Then the two ships rendered Hanoverian coastal batteries in the Emsmüdungbis harmless without a fight . The actions were completed by June 22nd. The Cyclop remained in the North Sea until mid-July and then served as a tender for the SMS Gefion until it was decommissioned on October 14, 1866 .
On March 22, 1869, the Cyclop was put back into service. After being used as a station ship in Kiel, it was used for measurements near the island of Alsen . After participating in maneuvers, the ship remained in service with a reduced crew throughout the winter. In 1870 it helped to drag the SMS Friedrich Carl , which had got stuck near Langeland on May 15th, to Kiel, and accompanied her on the way to the necessary repairs in Portsmouth to Cape Skagen . After the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War , the Cyclop was used to guard the mouth of the Elbe , but was not involved in combat operations.
After the end of the war, the Cyclop was used again as a station ship in Kiel and at times also served as a control point at Langeland, with which the Imperial Navy wanted to avoid the recurring difficulties with Danish pilots . In August 1871, the ship of the SMS Pommerania , which had returned from a scientific expedition and on whose board cholera had broken out, served as a land connection. On November 11th, it was decommissioned in Gdansk for a major overhaul.
Whereabouts
Since the examinations of the Cyclop showed that further use was not possible due to the condition of the ship, the ship was deleted from the list of warships on March 19, 1872. Parts that were still usable (including the machinery) were removed and preserved for use in a new gunboat, which was also named Cyclop , and the hull was scrapped.
Commanders
| February 21 to April 1864 | Leutnant zur See 1st class / Kapitänleutnant Arendt |
| April to September 1864 | Lieutenant Paul von Reibnitz |
| September 1864 to June 1865 | Lieutenant to the Sea Karl von Eisendecher |
| June 1865 to May 1866 | Lieutenant Captain von Schwarzburg-Sondershausen |
| May 14th to October 14th 1866 | Lieutenant Ulffers |
| March 22 to September 1869 | Captain Wilhelm Ditmar |
| September 1869 to November 11, 1871 | Lieutenant Captain von Nostitz |
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 Verlag, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 , p. 161 f .
- Hildebrand, Hans H. / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . tape 2 : Ship biographies from Baden to Eber . Mundus Verlag, Ratingen, S. 199-201 .
Remarks
- ^ Mirko Graetz: From Helgoland to Agadir - Combat missions of Prussian and German warships before 1914 , 2nd exp. Edition, Lulu Enterprises Inc., Morrisville, 2008, ISBN 978-1-4092-2130-2 , page 44.
- ↑ The designation of the lower officer ranks was set or changed in the years 1849, 1854 and 1864. On January 1, 1900, the names Fähnrich zur See, Leutnant zur See, Oberleutnant zur See and Kapitänleutnant, which are still in use today, were introduced.
- ↑ The rank corresponds to a lieutenant commander.
- ↑ a b The rank corresponds to a first lieutenant at sea.