SMS Leipzig (1875)
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 SMS Leipzig |
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| Ship data | |
| class | Leipzig class |
| Ship type |
Covered corvette ( from 1884: cruiser frigate ) |
| Shipyard |
AG Vulcan , Stettin Building no .: 72 |
| Building name | Covered corvette Thusnelda |
| building-costs | 4,061,000 marks |
| Launch | September 13, 1875 |
| Commissioning | June 1, 1877 |
| Whereabouts | Removed from the list of warships on August 27, 1894. Wrecked in 1921 after being used as a Hulk . |
| Technical specifications | |
| Displacement | Construction: 3,980 t Maximum: 4,626 t |
| length |
KWL : 87.0 m over all: 87.5 m |
| width | 14.0 m |
| Draft | 6.9 m |
| Rigging | Full ship |
| Sail area | 2,600 m² |
| Propulsion system |
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| Machine performance | 6,050 PSi |
| speed | 15.8 kn |
| Driving range | 2,330 nm at 10 kn |
| Armament |
from the conversion additionally:
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| crew | 425 men |
The SMS Leipzig was a covered corvette , or from 1884 cruiser frigate , of the German Imperial Navy , which was built in Stettin in 1875 and scrapped in Wilhelmshaven in 1921 . Its name did not refer to the city of Leipzig , but to the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig in 1813. It was involved in numerous German colonial policy ventures and an instrument of German gunboat policy . From 1888 to 1892 she was the flagship of the permanent cruiser squadron . Her name did not refer to the city of Leipzig, but to the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig in 1813. She was the type ship of the Leipzig class , to which the Prinz Adalbert still belonged.
After the Franco-Prussian War , the newly founded Imperial Navy started an expansion program to strengthen the fleet. The two corvettes of the Leipzig class were ordered as part of the fleet plan of 1873, which provided for a total of twenty unarmored corvettes, twelve of which were already in service or under construction. The ships were to serve as fleet reconnaissance and on extended mission trips in the overseas areas of interest of the German Empire . The keel laying of Prince Adalbert was in November 1875, in July 1876 the launch took place and in August 1878 the commissioning followed. The ship's main armament was a battery of twelve 17 cm ring cannons and a complete sailing rig to supplement the steam engine that was also available on long missions overseas. In a later renovation, four 35 cm torpedo tubes were also installed.
The Leipzig undertook throughout her career three large operational travel overseas, they led each time around the planet each. The first went from the end of 1878 to the end of 1880 as a training ship, initially to the West Indies , later west across the Pacific to Japan and from there back to Europe. On the second voyage from the end of 1882 to the end of 1884, it first went back on the western route to East Asia and then via West Africa , where the ship was involved in taking possession of the German colonies there. The third trip took place from mid-1888, first to East Africa, then via Asia east to the South Seas and to South America. From there it went again to Africa and East Asia, before the ship started its journey home to Europe by 1893.
After the Leipzig returned to Germany, it was decided that the conversion into a training ship would be too costly and the ship was only used as a Hulk and was only scrapped in 1921.
history
World tour 1877–1879
After its commissioning, the corvette was sent on a world tour as a midshipman training ship under Corvette Captain Karl Paschen . In March 1878 she was part of a German naval demonstration in Corinto / Nicaragua in the context of the Eisenstuck affair . After the affair ended, Leipzig visited Mexican and American ports. She arrived in Japan in July 1878. In April 1879 she visited Chinese ports and then returned to Kiel via Singapore , Cape Town and Plymouth on September 27, 1879 .
World tour 1882–1884
After some modifications, u. a. the installation of four torpedo tubes, the Leipzig started on October 19, 1882 on her second trip around the world. In June 1883 she was assigned to the East Asian Cruiser Squadron. At the end of 1883 she transported the German Consul General in Shanghai, Zappe, to Tschemulpo, where he signed the first German-Korean trade agreement. Associated with this was the visit of some ship officers and the music corps at the court of King Taiwen-kun in Seoul . In March 1884 Leipzig left the cruiser squadron and started the journey home. The ship ran aground off Borneo and near Sandakan and had to be repaired in Singapore for seven weeks. During this time an epidemic of fever broke out on board, so that part of the sick crew had to be disembarked.
On the further return voyage, the Leipzig was surprisingly ordered to take part in the occupation of the German colonies in West Africa ( German South West Africa , Cameroon and Togo ). On August 6, 1884, she took part in the proclamation to take possession of German South West Africa off Angra Pequeña . On August 30, 1884, she arrived in front of Fernando Poo to support the German Reich Commissioner Gustav Nachtigal and was commissioned by him to hoist the German flag in various coastal towns of Cameroon to secure German rule. This took place on September 5, 1884 before Porto Seguro and Klein-Popo in what would later become German Togo. On October 9, 1884, the ship entered Wilhelmshaven again.
modification
On November 25, 1884, the Leipzig was classified as a cruiser frigate and given a major overhaul. The ship received a new machine system and a second funnel. Since the ship was intended as the flagship of the cruiser squadron, the rooms were also changed to accommodate an admiral and his staff. After various technical difficulties that arose from the conversion work, the ship was not put back into service until April 1888.
Third mission trip
During the Arab uprising in East Africa in 1888/89
The Leipzig began her third assignment abroad on June 14, 1888 as a replacement for the flagship of the permanent cruiser squadron , the Corvette Bismarck . The new squadron commander, Rear Admiral Karl August Deinhard , was on his own way there on a passenger ship. The Leipzig stopped in Aden on July 16 , where it officially replaced Bismarck as the flagship, and went to Zanzibar , where it arrived on August 2.
As the flagship of the cruiser squadron under Deinhard, the Leipzig was involved in the suppression of the uprising of the East African coastal population (also known as the Arab uprising ) in the coastal region of what was later to be German East Africa . On May 8, 1889, a landing corps of the cruiser frigate took part in the storming of the Buschiri camp near Bagamojo . Another landing corps took part in the capture of Pangani on July 8, 1889.
After the end of the uprising, the Leipzig in Cape Town was overtaken.
East Asia 1890–1891
After a stopover in the Mediterranean, the cruiser frigate set sail for East Asia in early 1890 and from May was subordinate to the new chief of the cruiser squadron, Rear Admiral Victor Valois . During this time she provided routine service and attended a. a. also New Zealand and Samoa . Chinese ports were visited in early 1891.
Chilean Civil War
In May 1891, Admiral Valois was ordered to protect German interests in the Chilean Civil War . On the journey to Chile, the Leipzig ran out of coal so that it had to be hauled for 97 hours. When the civil war came to a head in August 1891, at the end of the month the Leipzig, together with the British HMS Champion, deployed a landing corps in Valparaíso in order to protect German and British populated areas.
South Africa
After the end of the Chilean civil war, the Leipzig visited various South American ports and was again overtaken in Cape Town. In March 1892 she anchored in Delagoa Bay , from where a delegation of visitors under the new head of the cruiser squadron, Rear Admiral Friedrich von Pawelsz , visited the President of the Boer Republic of the Transvaal , Paul Kruger .
End of active service
During another repair stay in Cape Town, it turned out that the ship had to undergo another major overhaul due to severe signs of wear, even if the cruiser squadron had to be disbanded for this. The Leipzig therefore returned to Wilhelmshaven in the spring of 1892. An investigation found that it could not be used for overseas activities, but that the hull was good enough to be used as a living hulk . She served in this capacity for another 25 years. The Navy's radiotelegraphy school was set up there. During the First World War , it served as quarters for submarine students.
On May 5, 1919, she suddenly lay on her side in the harbor basin, and nobody was harmed as there were no people on board. It was only lifted again in 1921 and then broken up.
Commanders
| June 1, 1877 to June 12, 1877 | Corvette Captain Paul Zirzow |
| September 13 to October 18, 1879 | Corvette Captain / Sea Captain Carl Paschen |
| October 3, 1882 to October 22, 1884 | Corvette captain / sea captain Otto Herbig |
| September 1 to October 20, 1886 | Corvette Captain Herbing |
| October 12 to November 12, 1887 | Corvette Captain Herbing |
| April 6 to August 1888 | Corvette Captain Eduard Hartog |
| August 1888 to February 1889 | Captain Franz Strauch |
| February to March 1889 | Captain Hermann da Fonseca-Wollheim (deputy) |
| March 1889 to November 1890 | Sea captain Max Plüddemann |
| November 1890 to October 1892 | Sea captain Fritz Rötger |
| October 16, 1892 to June 2, 1893 | Sea captain Richard Hornung |
literature
- Gröner, Erich / Dieter Jung / Martin Maass: Armored ships, ships of the line, battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, gunboats. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Munich 1982. ( The German warships 1815-1945. Vol. 1) ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 .
- Hans Hildebrand / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: Ship biographies from Kaiser to Lütjens. Mundus Verlag, Ratingen o. J. ( The German warships. Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present. Vol. 5).
- Janssen, Jens: Cruiser frigate "Leipzig" I. For the first time iron instead of wood. Munich 1959. ( SOS fates of German ships. Vol. 179.)
- Nagel, Alfred G .: Four cruisers "Leipzig". Berlin undated
- Paschen, Carl: From the age of two navies. Memories of my service in the Imperial and Royal Austrian and Imperial German Navy. Berlin 1908.
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