SMS Gazelle (1898)
 Artist's impression of the SMS Gazelle
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SMS Gazelle was a small cruiser of the Imperial Navy and a lead ship of the ten-unit Gazelle- class .
The ship was initially planned as a cost-effective replica of the unarmored Bussard class , but then completely redesigned as an official draft in 1895/96 taking into account previous experience with SMS Gefion and SMS Hela . The shape of the hull and other structural features were adopted from the Hela . According to the design conditions, the ship should be able to serve both as a fleet reconnaissance and as an overseas cruiser, while other navies built their own classes of ships for such tasks.
history
After being launched on March 31, 1898, the Gazelle was put into service for the usual test drives on November 23, 1898. However, technical difficulties with the installed Niclausse boilers already led to decommissioning and revision on April 6, 1899, which lasted until October 6, 1900. Shortly afterwards, on November 14, 1900, due to the same problems, another decommissioning had to be carried out by June 15, 1901. The final commissioning could only take place on this date, as the problems with the boilers had been satisfactorily resolved. Nevertheless, these were exchanged for new and reliable marine boilers as early as 1905 .
In early October 1901, the Gazelle was detached to the East Asia Squadron, but the order was revoked shortly afterwards and the cruiser was replaced by the sister ship SMS Thetis . In January 1902, the ship was still assigned to the cruiser squadron, but was initially sent to the West Indian station (February 1902) to go on patrols along the Venezuelan coast in cooperation with SMS Vineta and SMS Falke during the Venezuela crisis . In the fall of 1902, the ship was also formally released from the East Asia Squadron and assigned to the newly formed East American Cruiser Division . A conflict between Germany, Great Britain and Italy on the one hand and Venezuela on the other led to the blockade of the Venezuelan coast. The old gunboat Restaurador lying in the port of Guanta was boarded by the gazelle on December 11, 1902. The gunboat was towed into the roadstead and put into German service as an SMS restaurador by the first officer of the Gazelle , Kapitänleutnant Titus Türk , with crew members . It was returned to Venezuela as early as February 23, 1903, although the repair work carried out meant that the ship was in a much better condition than when it was taken away.
Throughout 1903 the Gazelle was tasked with safeguarding German interests and protecting German citizens in the Caribbean (as in Santo Domingo and Port-au-Prince ). In the following year, the cruiser made numerous visits along the Central American coast (Mexico, British Honduras), with Newport News being launched in the United States in June and the commander, together with division chief Ludwig von Schröder, being received by American President Theodore Roosevelt . This was followed by the march back to Kiel, which started on July 18, 1904. There the ship was immediately taken out of service at the Imperial Shipyard Danzig on August 3, 1904 for conversion. The trouble-prone Niclausse boilers were replaced by new Schultz marine water tube boilers and the bridge was rebuilt. After that the gazelle belonged to the II. Readiness until the outbreak of war.
First World War
At the beginning of the war in 1914, the gazelle was reactivated and assigned to the coastal protection division of the Baltic Sea. From August 18, 1914, he was assigned to the "Detached Admiral" of the Baltic Sea for offensive missions. During an operation by the IV. Squadron against the Gulf of Finland from August 24th to 29th, the cruiser occupied an outpost line between the island of Gotland and the coast of Courland . In another venture from September 4th to 9th, the Gazelle had to remain in Gdansk for the time being with a machine failure in order to be able to continue with this advance to the Aaland Sea after the repair. Then came the return to the Coast Guard Division, where it temporarily acted as a flagship. The main task was to protect the Øresund and the Langeland Belt against invading British submarines.
The cruiser received a mine hit on the stern on January 25, 1915 north-northwest of Cape Arkona . This resulted in the loss of both screws. The damaged vessel was brought into Swinoujscie on the following day by the accompanying torpedo boats G 132 and G 134 . The investigation of the damage at the Stettiner Oderwerke in Stettin- Redow showed that the repair costs for the now 17-year-old ship were too high, so the Gazelle was decommissioned on February 22, 1915 and the crew was distributed to other warships.
The cruiser served as a mine storage hulk in Cuxhaven from 1916 until the end of the war and was finally struck off the list of warships on August 28, 1920 and scrapped in Wilhelmshaven .
Commanders
| November 23, 1898 to April 6, 1899 | Corvette Captain Adolf Josephi |
| October 6 to November 14, 1900 | Corvette Captain Heinrich Bredow |
| June 15 to October 1901 | Corvette Captain Leo Neitzke |
| October 1901 to October 1903 | Frigate Captain Joachim von Oriola |
| October 1903 to August 3, 1904 | Frigate Captain Heinrich Saß |
| August 4, 1914 to February 22, 1915 | Frigate Captain Ernst Mysing |
literature
- Lutz Bengelsdorf: The naval war in the Baltic Sea 1914-1918. Hauschild, Herford 2008, ISBN 978-3897574045 .
- Erich Gröner : The German warships 1815-1945. Volume 1. Armored ships, ships of the line, battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, gunboats. Bonn: Bernard & Graefe 1998 ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 .
- Hans H. Hildebrandt, Albert Röhr and Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships. Volume 2, Herford: Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH 1985 ISBN 3-7822-0287-2 .
- Robert Gardiner: Conway's All the world's fighting ships 1860-1905. London: Conway Maritime Press 1979 ISBN 0-8517-7133-5 .