SMS Iltis (1898)
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| Construction data | ||
| Ship type | Gunboat | |
| Ship class | Polecat class | |
| Construction designation: | Replacement polecat | |
| Builder: |
Schichau-Werke in Danzig, construction no .: 230 |
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| Keel laying : | 1897 | |
| Launch : | 4th August 1898 | |
| Completion: | December 1, 1898 | |
| Building-costs: | 1.497 million marks | |
| Sister ships | ||
| SMS Jaguar , SMS Tiger , SMS Luchs , SMS Panther , SMS Eber | ||
| Ship dimensions | ||
| Measurement: | 726 BRT 449 NRT |
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| Displacement : | Construction: 894 t Maximum: 1,048 t |
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| Length of the waterline : Length over all: |
L HCS = 63.9 m L oa = 65.2 m |
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| Width: | 9.1 m | |
| Draft : | 3.59-3.63 m | |
| Side height : | 4.86 m | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Boiler system : | 4 Thornycroft coal -fired boilers |
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| Machinery: | 2 horizontal 3-cylinder triple expansion steam engines |
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| Number of propellers: | 2 three-leaf 2.6 m | |
| Shaft speed: | 156 rpm | |
| Drive power: | 1,378 PSi | |
| Speed: | 13.5 kn (test drive: 14.8 kn) |
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| Driving range: | 3,080 nm at 9 kn | |
| Fuel supply: | 120–190 tons of coal | |
| Crew: | 9 officers and 121 men | |
| Armament | ||
| Sea target guns: | 4 Sk - 8.8 cm L / 30 1124 shots, 73 hm |
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| Revolver cannons: | 6 × 3.7 cm 9000 shots |
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| Whereabouts | ||
| September 28, 1914 at task of Kiautschou in position 36 ° 3 ' N , 120 ° 16' O itself sunk |
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SMS Iltis was a gunboat of the Imperial Navy , the type ship of a class of six boats. Sister ships were SMS Jaguar , SMS Tiger , SMS Luchs , SMS Panther and SMS Eber . The boats of the class were designed for overseas service in the German colonial areas , and the polecat was used in East Asia.
Technical specifications
The polecat was launched on August 4, 1898 at the Schichau works in Danzig . With a length of 62 m, a width of 9.1 m and a draft of 3.3 m, it displaced around 900 tons. The armament consisted of four 8.8-cm rapid-fire cannons and six 3.7-cm revolver cannons , the crew of 130 men. The maximum speed was 13 knots.
history
On December 1, 1898, the polecat was put into service. She left Kiel on February 6, 1899 and never returned to Germany. Her first stop was Falmouth and in the Bay of Biscay she gave first aid to the English steamer Port Darwin , which was driving with a broken propeller shaft and which she towed to La Coruña . Via Gibraltar it ran through the Mediterranean to Port Said , through the Suez Canal and on via Aden , Colombo (Ceylon) and Penang to Singapore . Here the polecat met the imperial mail steamer Prinz Heinrich , which was heading home . On board was Princess Irene von Hessen-Darmstadt , who was returning from a visit to her husband, Prince Heinrich of Prussia , who commanded the cruiser squadron . She reached Tsingtau on May 18, 1899 . The first mission took place on June 1, 1899, to the Promontory lighthouse near Cape Shandong (Cape Shantung), where a memorial service was held for the predecessor SMS Iltis who was stranded there in 1896 with 71 deaths . Then she went to Shanghai for a quick shipyard overhaul before visiting Russian ports, such as Port Arthur , and ran back to Tsingtau from Hakodate with the East Asia Squadron . At the beginning of 1900 the polecat visited the southern Chinese ports of Hong Kong , Canton and Macau . Then it went to Japan via Amoy . The return to Tsingtau was made by Kobe .
Boxer Rebellion
During the Boxer Rebellion in China, she took part in the fighting for the Taku forts and their defeat on June 17, 1900. After an ultimatum to vacate the forts by 2:00 a.m. on June 17, 1900, the Chinese began firing at the Allied gunboats that were ready to take up battle at 0.50 a.m. They were the British Algerine , the Iltis , the Russian Bobr , the French Lion , the Russian Korejez and the Russian Giljak , who was immobilized because of a hit. Due to the failure of the command systems after a hit, the Iltis unexpectedly overtook the Algerine and, as the top ship, caught fire from the Chinese. She received a total of 21 hits. She was lucky that a severe 24 cm hit hit the boat straight through, but only exploded on the opposite bank of Peiho . There were seven dead and eleven wounded, including the commander, who was subsequently awarded the order Pour le Mérite , Corvette Captain Wilhelm Lans , whose left lower leg was smashed. In this battle - as the first officer of the entire Imperial Navy - Oberleutnant Hans Hellmann , son of the "father of the Silesian fire brigade" Johannes Hellmann from Neisse (Silesia), was fatally wounded. The future commander of the auxiliary cruiser SMS Wolf and Pour-le-Mérite carrier of the First World War, Karl August Nerger , also took part in the battle as first lieutenant at sea of the Iltis .
Repaired with on-board resources, the polecat stayed in use until August 6th and then went to Shanghai for repairs.
From October 29, 1900 to April 15, 1901, it was then on the Yangtze River in front of Hankau .
The polecat was the only ship in the German Navy to be awarded the Pour le Mérite order . By the highest cabinet order (ACO) of January 27, 1903, the replica of this order could be carried on the flagstick of the jack and the two sides of the dinghies.
Station service
The Iltis was in the following years, mostly in the northern area of the East Asian station in use. In April 1903 she brought Prince George of Bavaria to Chemulpo, now Incheon , to visit Korea and then to Japan. In 1908 she carried out extensive surveying work on the Kiautschou Bay and the coastal area along with the Yangtze River estuary. When the Chinese Revolution broke out in 1911, the Iltis was off Nanjing and ran on October 18 with the chief of the cruiser squadron on board to Hankau, where it disembarked a landing corps to protect the Germans living there and stayed until March 1912.
First World War
The ship had been in Tsingtau since June 1914 and was due to be decommissioned in 1914 when the First World War began. It was formally decommissioned in Tsingtau on August 7th. Part of the crew went on board the auxiliary cruiser Cormoran , which was equipped in Tsingtau , the rest took part on land in the defense of the German lease colony Kiautschou against Japan.
The ship itself was sunk on September 28, 1914 in the port of Tsingtau with her sister ships Luchs and Tiger and the old gunboat Cormoran .
Remarks
- ↑ Picture with the typical battering bow of the first two boats
- ↑ image of the Lion ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Image of Giljak ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Admiral's Staff of the Navy (ed.): The Imperial Navy during the turmoil in China 1900–1901. , Berlin, EM Mittler 1903 p. 266 f.
literature
- Hildebrand, Hans H .: The German warships: Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present , Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford
- Nottelmann, Dirk / Wischmeyer, Lothar: The gunboat ILTIS (II) - its predecessor and successor. A technical history documentation 150 pages with 153 illustrations, with 10 scaled down plans of the gunboat SMS ILTIS (II) plus DVD with a further 140 pages and the original plans from SMS JAGUAR. Historical Shipbuilding Working Group 2018, ISBN 978-3-00-0588419
| Commanders | |
|---|---|
| December 1898 | Kapitänleutnant Wilhelm Lans promoted to corvette captain |
| June 1900 | Oberleutnant zur See Albert Hoffmann-Lamatsch Edler von Waffenstein (1870–1939) as the eldest officer on watch as deputy |
| June 1900 | Lieutenant Captain Robert Kühne (1868–1947) Commander of landing detachments in Tientsien during the battle, acting as first officer |
| September 1900 | Lieutenant Wilhelm Sthamer (1864–1937) promoted to Corvette Captain |
| November 1902 | Corvette Captain Oskar von Platen-Hallermund |
| November 1903 | Lieutenant Captain Fritz Wilhelm, Baron von Meerscheidt-Hüllessem (1868–1934) promoted to Corvette Captain |
| November 1905 | Corvette Captain Hans Küsel (1870–1951) |
| November 1907 | Corvette Captain Max Lans (1868–1928) younger brother of the first commandant |
| November 1909 | Corvette Captain Felix Meersmann (1874-19 ??) |
| February 1912 | Corvette Captain Lothar von Gohren (1874–1923) |
| December 1913 | Corvette Captain Fritz Sachße (1875–1954) |
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