SMS Nymph (1863)
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| Construction data | ||
| Ship type | Smooth deck corvette | |
| Ship class | Nymph class | |
| Builder: | Royal Shipyard , Gdansk | |
| Launch : | April 19, 1863 | |
| in service: | February 20, 1864 | |
| painted: | July 21, 1887 | |
| Sister ships | SMS Medusa | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Displacement : | Construction: t Maximum: 1,202 t |
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| Length: |
KWL : m over everything: 64.9 m |
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| Width: | 10.2 m | |
| Draft : | 4.4 m | |
| Machinery: |
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| Number of screws: | 1 double-leaf (Ø 3.64 m) | |
| Power: | PSi | |
| Top speed: | 12 kn | |
| Range: | 3420 nm at 10 kn | |
| Fuel supply: | 218 t | |
| Rig | ||
| Rigging : | Full ship | |
| Masts: | 3 | |
| Sail area: | 1500 m² | |
| Crew size: | approx. 190 men | |
| Armament | ||
| originally: | 10 × smooth 36-pounders 6 × rifled 12-pounders |
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| 1869: | 17 × 12 cm L23 ring cannons , from 1875 only nine Rk | |
| Whereabouts | ||
| Wrecked in 1891 | ||
SMS Nymphe was a smooth deck corvette of the Prussian Navy and the Imperial Navy. She was the first ship after the official draft of 1861 ( nymph class) that was procured for foreign service. In 1864 she was involved in the naval battle near Jasmund . A deployment in the Mediterranean followed in 1865/66, followed by a battle with French units in front of Danzig in 1870. From 1871 to 1874 the corvette was primarily in the Pacific. From 1874 to 1885 there were further assignments as a ship boy training ship for the Imperial Navy. In 1887 the training ship Nymphe was deleted from the fleet list. The hull was used in Kiel as a training ship for machinists until 1891 and then scrapped.
Story of the nymph
SMS Nymphe was launched on April 15, 1863 at the Royal Shipyard in Danzig . She was the first of the two smooth-decked corvettes of the Nymphe class. Her sister ship SMS Medusa was also launched at the Danzig shipyard in 1864. The decision to build the smaller corvettes was made in 1861, when the procurement of the five larger Arcona- class screw frigates had not yet been completed. The Danzig shipyard was to carry out the construction, except for the propulsion system, from building materials and parts produced domestically.
The ships were named after characters from Greek mythology. The nymphs were female nature deities. The new corvettes with wooden hulls displaced 1202 t when fully equipped, were 64.9 m long and 10.2 m wide. They had an expansion steam engine for a speed of 12 knots (kn) and were rigged as a full ship with a sail area of 1500 m². The nymph was initially armed with 10 smooth 36-pounders and six rifled 12-pounders.
The nymph , which was completed in autumn 1863, carried out a number of test drives from November 1863 to January 1864, during which mainly technicians and stokers from British manufacturers had to operate the engine. The new ship was then moved to Swinoujscie in order to be able to be used more quickly against Denmark if necessary .
First missions
The first commissioning took place on February 20, 1864. The new corvette joined the squadron formed under Captain Jachmann . His advance with the corvettes Arcona and Nymphe , the Aviso Loreley and five steam gunboats led to the naval battle at Jasmund on March 17th . In the battle with the Danish ship of the line Skold , the frigates Själland and Tordenskjold and the corvettes Heimdal and Thor , the nymph received 19 hits in the hull and around 50 in the rigging. Two men died and another four were seriously injured. The damage could be repaired quickly and the corvette remained operational until the end of the war and took part in several advances without enemy contact.
After training trips in the Baltic Sea, the corvette Nymphe escorted the gunboat Delphin to the eastern Mediterranean on August 6, 1865 . The Delphin was intended as a station ship for Constantinople . The corvette transported the 15 cm gun of the gunboat and at times towed it during the journey. In the Aegean Sea, nymph returned the gun to the dolphin on September 22nd . During this trip, the Santorini eruption was observed. Because of the increasing tensions with Austria, the two ships started their return voyage in March 1866 and arrived in Geestemünde in mid-July and joined the North Sea flotilla. On January 31, 1867, the nymph was decommissioned in the new Geestemünde marine depot. In April the ship moved to the Baltic Sea, visited Kiel and Danzig and was taken out of service again on August 5, 1868 due to the poor condition of the boiler and urgent repairs.
During the mobilization on the occasion of the Franco-Prussian War , the nymph was put back into service on July 21, 1870 to defend Danzig. On August 22nd, a French formation with three Alma- class armored corvettes and an Aviso appeared in the Bay of Danzig. The commander of the nymph decided to carry out a surprise attack on the French at night and from close range shot at the Thetis armored corvette , which returned fire. Neither side scored and the nymph was able to withdraw in time. The French withdrew because they saw little use for their deep-going ships. For a conceivable use in the cruiser war against France, the nymph did not appear suitable because of the low speed and was therefore decommissioned on August 25, 1870. The crew took over the Augusta at the end of October .
Use on the East Asian station
On June 1, 1871, SMS Nymphe was put into service. The corvette was supposed to replace her sister ship Medusa in East Asia and left Kiel on July 20. Via Brazil, where the onward journey was delayed by 14 days in Rio de Janeiro because of the arrest of some sailors, the journey went to Cape Town until November 4th . While the extended stay in Rio almost triggered the deployment of a naval unit against Brazil because of the imprisoned sailors, the nymph left Cape Town on November 22nd to prevent further crew losses, as nine crew members, including a midshipman, had deserted. The corvette ran via Australian ports to Levuka , the then main port of the Fiji Islands . At the beginning of March 1872, the commandant negotiated with chiefs of the natives and resident Germans about the protection of the Reich, which the Chancellor refused. On March 15, the corvette then entered Apia . Marines were deployed on various islands of Samoas to settle disputes and enforce German claims .
End of March, the ship continued its journey to Japan continued and ran into on April 20, Yokohama and dissolved the Hertha on site. By the end of the year, the new station ship had visited several Japanese and Russian ports and arrived in Hong Kong for Christmas .
In spring the nymph went on the usual southward journey. On March 14, 1873, most of the crew fell ill with an infection after visiting Singapore. The ship then called on Borneo to enforce financial claims from a German company. We went on to Jolo in the Sulu Archipelago , which formally belonged to Spain. The sultan there is said to have been interested in a German protectorate. The commandant von Blanc conveyed the request to Berlin; the Reich government refused. The corvette sailed back to Singapore on April 11th and then to the Paknam roadstead off Bangkok . The commander drove to the capital with escort officers and a landing corps to hand over the Order of the Black Eagle to Chulalongkorn , King of Siam , on behalf of the Emperor . On May 16, the journey was continued to find a place for a coal station for German East Asia traffic. Neither the Anambas Islands northeast of Singapore, the Chinese island of Hainan , nor the islands of the Tschusan archipelago off Hangzhou Bay proved to be suitable. While looking for a suitable place, the nymph ran into a coral reef, but was released again under its own power. On October 10, 1873, the corvette returned to Japan. The return journey to Germany took place across the Pacific to San Francisco and along the American west coast. On February 11, 1874, the nymph passed Cape Horn . Shortly before the home port, the nymph got on a rock before Langeland , from which she was released again with the help of the training ships Arminius and Nautilus and entered Kiel on May 12, where she was decommissioned on May 20, 1874. The Nymph was the first warship of the Imperial Navy to complete a circumnavigation of the world and after the Vineta the second ship of the Royal Prussian Navy to do so.
Use as a training ship
As early as June 1, 1874, the corvette was put back into service as a ship boy training ship. She crossed the Baltic Sea with the Briggs Undine and Musquito in order to be available to the Prussian Field Marshal Prince Friedrich Karl on state visits to Copenhagen and Stockholm . After taking part in a naval parade in front of the emperor, the nymph was taken out of service on October 15, 1874 in Danzig for major repairs. This work took all of 1875 to complete.
On April 1, 1876, the nymph was put back into service as a training ship for cabin boys. The big training trip led to South America as far as Montevideo , where at the end of October a memorial was erected in Paysandú on the Río Uruguay for a German consul who had been murdered a few years earlier. The training ship ran north along the east coast of the continent to Halifax and returned to Kiel on September 10, 1877, and was decommissioned there on the 27th.
On April 1, 1878, SMS Nymphe came back into service as a young ship's training ship and stayed in the Baltic Sea until mid-July, when she began her long journey abroad, which led in the south to Rio de Janeiro. From January 1879 the corvette was in use off the Venezuelan coast to give support to Germans living there during the revolutionary unrest. Mediation was also made between the civil war parties and the ship transported a government delegation from Puerto Cabello to La Guaira to negotiate with the rebels. After the arrival of the Hansa armored corvette , the nymph resumed her training. Finally, the training ship for cabin boys returned to Kiel via US ports and Halifax, where she arrived on September 12, 1879. During the inspection by the head of the Admiralty, von Stosch , the nymph was thrown onto the beach by a sudden gust in the Wiker Bay near the Kiel marine port. Two tugs were able to remove the corvette again, it moved to Danzig and was taken out of service on September 30, 1879, in order to carry out the renovation of the boiler system in the Imperial Shipyard.
On April 3, 1880, SMS Nymphe came into service again as a ship boy training ship and only stayed in the Baltic Sea. On July 12th she started her big trip abroad. Your first stop was Copenhagen, where the training ship was inspected by Danish specialist officers. The school trip took place particularly in the Caribbean. In Puerto Cabello the ship was inspected by the President of Venezuela Antonio Guzmán Blanco . On the return trip, the family of American President James A. Garfield , who was seriously injured in an assassination, and Vice President Chester A. Arthur took place in Hampton Roads . On October 3, 1881, the returned ship was decommissioned in Danzig.
On April 1, 1882, SMS Nymphe came back into service as a ship boy training ship and on July 15 began her long trip abroad to the Mediterranean. Given the troubled situation in Egypt, the active naval units should have another ship available. After visiting a number of Levantine ports, the ship remained for a long time in Souda Bay in northern Crete near Chania . Because of a typhus epidemic, the ship has to call at Malta twice. After the second outbreak, the commander had the ship completely evacuated at the end of December 1882 and the ship disinfected. The training ship was not ready for use again until February 26th. It still visited Greek ports. In Piraeus it received a royal visit through a tour of the Greek King George I. In Lisbon , King Luiz I , another king, visited the nymph , who reached Kiel on September 6 and was decommissioned on September 29, 1882.
On April 1, 1884, SMS Nymphe came to the Imperial Navy for the last time. As a ship boy training ship and now classified as a cruiser corvette , she made short trips on the Baltic Sea again and on July 16 began a long trip abroad to the West Indies. From late February to late March 1885, the nymph lay in front of Sabanilla on the Caribbean coast during a revolution in Colombia. At the beginning of September, the training ship arrived back home and took part in maneuvers of the training squadron. On October 7, 1885, the ship was taken out of service. Another use of the old ship almost meant a new building.
SMS Nymphe was finally struck off the list of warships on July 21, 1887, almost six years after the younger sister ship Medusa . The hull was used for machinist training by the 1st Sailor Division until 1891, then auctioned and sold for demolition.
Commanders
| February - September 1864 | KL / KK Reinhold Werner | 1825-1909 | last vice admiral |
| September 1864 - July 1865 | KL Franz Kinderling | 1820-1895 | Vice admiral |
| July 1865 - October 1866 | KK Ludwig von Henk | 1820-1894 | Vice admiral |
| October 1866 - January 1867 | KK Aneker show | 1813-1872 | KzS |
| April - August 1867 | KL / KK Franz Kinderling | ||
| July - October 1870 | KK Johannes Weickhmann | 1819-1897 | KzS |
| June 1871 - May 1874 | KK Louis from Blanc | 1832-1903 | admiral |
| June - September 1874 | KK Johann Heinrich Pirner | 1834-1908 | Vice admiral |
| September / October 1874 | KL Max Plüddemann (i. V.) | 1846-1910 | Rear admiral |
| April 1876 - September 1877 | KK Philipp von Kall | 1840-1899 | Vice admiral |
| April 1878 - September 1879 | KK Victor Sattig | 1843-1883 | KzS |
| April 1880 - October 1881 | KK / KzS Wilhelm Schröder | 1842-1908 | Vice admiral |
| April 1882 - September 1883 | KK Conrad Dietert | 1844-1906 | Rear admiral |
| April 1884 - October 1885 | KK / KzS Ernst von Reiche | 1840-1912 | Vice admiral |
literature
- Ernst Gröner: All German warships from 1815–1936 . Books on Demand , 2010, ISBN 3-86195-391-9 .
- Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships: Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford, seven volumes
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Hildebrand u. a .: The German Warships , Volume 5, p. 25
- ↑ Groener: All German Warships , p. 44
- ↑ Bernhard Graser: Northern Germany's Maritime Power: Your Organization, Your Ships, Your Ports and Your Manning , revised reprint of the original edition from 1870, Books on Demand , 2013, p. 94
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Hildebrand u. a., Volume 5, p. 26
- ↑ Hildebrand et al. a .: The German Warships , Volume 5, p. 10
- ↑ deutsche-schutzgebiete.de SMS Nymphe (No. 1)
- ↑ a b c d Hildebrand u. a., Volume 5, p. 27
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