SMS Prince Adalbert (1876)
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 SMS Prinz Adalbert by Carl Saltzmann, Berlinische Galerie |
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| Ship data | ||
| class | Leipzig class | |
| Ship type | Covered corvette | |
| Launching ( ship christening ): | 1876 as SMS Sedan | |
| Commissioning: | August 28, 1877 | |
| Renaming: |
September 1, 1878 in SMS Prinz Adalbert |
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| Builder: |
AG Vulcan Stettin construction no .: 73 |
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| Construction designation: | Covered Corvette A | |
| Crew: | approx. or 537 men | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Measurement: | 2627 BRT 1643 NRT |
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| Displacement : | Construction: 3,980 t Use: 4,626 t |
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| Length: |
KWL : 87.0 m over everything: 87.5 m |
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| Width: | 14.0 m | |
| Draft : | 6.2 - 6.9 m | |
| Machinery: |
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| Screw: | 1 double-leaf 6 m 1 four-leaf 5.8 m |
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| Machine power: | 6050 PSi | |
| Top speed: | 15.8 or 13 kn | |
| Fuel supply: | 370 tons of coal | |
| Driving range : | 2330 nm at 10 knots 1580 nm at 14 knots |
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| Rigging: | Full ship | |
| Sail area: | 2600 m² 1580 m² |
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| Armament: |
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SMS Prinz Adalbert was a covered corvette , or from 1884 cruiser frigate , of the German Imperial Navy , which was built in Stettin in 1875andscrappedin Rotterdam in 1907. Originally, after the Battle of Sedan in the Franco-German War Sedan baptized, it was after its completion in 1878 in Prince Adalbert renamed. The ship was involved in numerous German colonial policy ventures and was an instrument of German gunboat policy . In 1885 she was the flagship of the East African cruiser squadron . She was the second and last ship of the Leipzig class , to which the Leipzig stillbelonged.
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. Four 35 cm torpedo tubes were also installed.
The Prinz Adalbert undertook two mission trips overseas during her career, both of which took her around the planet. The first went to East Asia from late 1878 to late 1880 . On board was Prince Heinrich of Prussia , the grandson of the German emperor who was in office at the time, as part of his naval training. On the second voyage from the end of 1883 to the end of 1885, the route was changed several times and the Prinz Adalbert again circled the planet for missions in East Asia, South America and temporarily as the flagship of the German cruiser squadron in East Africa.
After Prince Adalbert returned to Germany, it was converted into a training ship for naval cadets, but decommissioned in 1888 due to its poor condition and used as the Hulk until 1907 . It was then sold and scrapped in Rotterdam .
history
Construction and renaming
The ship was as SMS Sedan by the AG Vulcan in Stettin built under the contract name "A" and expired on 17 May 1876 from the stack . The figurehead Nike was created by the sculptor Emil Steiner from American wood. The launch took place on June 17, 1876 and Rear Admiral Ludwig von Henk christened the ship after the Battle of Sedan in the Franco-German War. The following year the ship was completed and added to the fleet on September 1, 1877. It was then moved to Kiel for equipment and armament , which also included the installation of four torpedo tubes. The Sedan was the first large German warship to be equipped with such armament.
As it was feared that the name Sedan , which was reminiscent of the Battle of Sedan in the Franco-Prussian War , could strain German-French relations, the ship was renamed SMS Prinz Adalbert on September 1, 1878 by order of the Imperial Admiralty , after the previous bearer of the name, the armored ram Prince Adalbert , was decommissioned and scrapped. The ship was named after Prince Adalbert of Prussia (1811–1873) , the founder of the Prussian Navy and Commander in Chief of the Navy of the North German Confederation .
First mission
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The Prinz Adalbert set sail on October 14, 1878, on a two-year trip around the world under the command of Captain Archibald MacLean in Kiel. In addition to Prince Heinrich of Prussia , who served as a midshipman and was also supposed to perform representation services on the trip, there were also Lieutenant von Seckendorff , Grand Admiral Hans von Koester and the marine painter Carl Saltzmann on board . On the journey along the German coast, Prince Heinrich was accompanied on board by his brother, who later became Kaiser Wilhelm II .
The voyage led via South America through the Strait of Magellan and Hawaii until May 1879 to Japan , where Prince Adalbert joined the other naval ships Luise , Wolf and Cyclop to form a squadron over which MacLean, as the senior local captain, also took command. In East Asia, the surrounding capitals and their governments were mainly visited in order to strengthen German interests. Prince Heinrich took on the representational tasks as the representative of the German Emperor . In the spring of 1880 the squadron was relocated to Shanghai , where there was unrest among the population due to the conflict between China and Japan over the Ryūkyū Islands . Because of her deep draft, the Prinz Adalbert was unable to operate in the region and remained in Hong Kong from May to June 1880 . After the arrival of another ship, the Vineta , Prince Adalbert started the journey home. Stops on the trip were Johor , Simon's Town and the island of St. Helena , where the crew visited the place of exile of Napoleon . On September 29, 1880, the corvette returned to the Kiel Fjord , where it was welcomed by Kaiser Wilhelm I and Admiral Albrecht von Stosch , the head of the Admiralty. The ship was then taken out of service for a long time for maintenance and repair work. For services on the international voyage, MacLean was promoted to the rank of rear admiral. Seckendorff, the ship's first officer , was also promoted.
Second mission
The Prinz Adalbert remained out of service until 1883 when it was reactivated for another assignment abroad. Another trip around the world was to be carried out between 1883 and 1885. Before starting the voyage, however, the ship received orders to transport Crown Prince Friedrich from Genoa on a visit to Spain . She then left Kiel on October 20th. On November 19, Friedrich boarded the ship and was embarked for Spain accompanied by the corvette Sophie and the old Aviso Loreley . Heavy storms hit the ships on the crossing. The flotilla arrived in Spanish waters on November 24th. By December 16, the prince returned to Genoa and Prince Adalbert continued her journey to East Asia.
On April 24, 1884, the ship reached Singapore and replaced her sister ship Leipzig there . Prince Adalbert then traveled to Shanghai, where she met the flagship Stosch of the German East Asia Squadron under her commander Carl Paschen . In mid-May, an epidemic of fever broke out among the crews of the German ships, which forced Paschen to bring the ships to Japan for treatment of the crews. However, in July, Prince Adalbert and Stosch returned to Chinese waters due to mounting tensions. The following month the Sino-French War broke out and the ships stayed in Shanghai until the end of August. Prince Adalbert then went to Fuzhou , as the French squadron under Vice Admiral Amédée-Anatole Courbet was preparing an attack on the Chinese fleet there and the ship, together with warships from Great Britain and the United States , was supposed to protect the Europeans and Americans in the city. In the battle of Fuzhou that followed, the French quickly defeated Chinese forces and allowed Prince Adalbert to return to Shanghai in early September.
Shortly afterwards, the ship received orders to return to Germany. It left Shanghai and arrived in Callao , Peru via stations in Japan and Papeete on January 11, 1885 . Her return journey was interrupted here because a conflict between Colombia and Nicaragua threatened German interests in Central America and prompted the Admiralty to send the Prince Adalbert there to protect the Germans in the region. She stayed on site for two months and then sailed to Valparaíso until March 21st and after circumnavigating Cape Horn until May 7th to Montevideo . Here the commands were changed again. The ship was sent to Mauritius , where, again under Paschen on board the Stosch , a new cruiser squadron was assembled to support the conclusion of protection agreements. In August 1885, Prince Adalbert , now part of the East African Cruiser Squadron , arrived in Zanzibar . The squadron was meanwhile led by Rear Admiral Knorr . In September 1885 Paschen received the order to form an independent squadron from the cruiser frigates Stosch , Prince Adalbert and Gneisenau and to relocate it to West Africa. Since the Stosch failed from October due to repairs, Paschen, who had been promoted to Rear Admiral on October 1, used the Prinz Adalbert as his flagship. However, the political situation in West Africa had calmed down again, so that Gneisenau returned to East Africa, while Stosch and Prince Adalbert started their journey home from Freetown at the end of November . In formation, both ships went to Cape Verde to join the German training squadron that had stopped there during a dispute between Germany and Spain over the Carolines . After the arbitration ruling by Pope Leo XIII. the dispute was settled and the Prinz Adalbert was finally able to complete the return journey to Germany, where she arrived in Wilhelmshaven on December 22nd.
Service as a training ship
Shortly after her return to Wilhelmshaven, the Prinz Adalbert was assigned to the reserve with a reduced crew. The ship was reactivated for this role on April 8, 1886 with a crew of naval cadets and four-year-old volunteers on board. The ship's commanding officer at the time was Iwan Oldekop. The Prinz Adalbert began a series of short training trips in the Baltic Sea to familiarize the crew with the ship and subsequently joined the training squadron . The squadron took part in the annual fleet exercises from July 20 to August 15 and then went on the great winter training voyage to the West Indies from Wilhelmshaven on October 14 . At the beginning of 1887, the ships were in Saint Thomas, Denmark . On the way back, Prince Adalbert collided with the schooner Ellenholt, flying the Hamburg flag, and the ship went to the Kaiserliche Werft for repairs on March 30th in Wilhelmshaven .
The training plan for 1887 began for the Prinz Adalbert on May 5 with a further contingent of cadets and four-year-old volunteers again with drills in the Baltic Sea. On June 3, the ship was present at the celebration of the start of construction of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal and took part in the fleet maneuvers again in August with the training squadron . The winter training trip began on October 1st and was supposed to lead to the Mediterranean. However, an outbreak of cholera in Italy forced the squadron to limit the trip to Cape Verde and the Canary Islands and return to Wilhelmshaven on April 10, 1888. The training routine for the rest of the year was interrupted in July, because the training squadron with the maneuver squadron accompanied the newly enthroned Kaiser Wilhelm II on a visit to Scandinavian ports, which was completed by July 31. This was the last mission of the ship.
Last years of service
Due to the intensive use of the ship on the mission trips, the Prinz Adalbert retired from training on September 20 after only ten years in active service. On May 6, 1890, it was deleted from the sea register and then converted into a barracks ship based in Wilhelmshaven. Although in 1901 an armored cruiser was also given the baptismal name Prinz Adalbert , contrary to common practice, the ship was no longer renamed.
Whereabouts
The sale took place on June 7, 1907 at a price of 131,000 marks. In the same year the ship was scrapped in Rotterdam. The ship's figurehead is preserved in the Mürwik Naval School .
literature
- Berliner Auktionshaus für Philatelie GmbH (publisher): Special catalog “Imperial Navy Ship Mail and Navy Mail Before World War I” - catalog for the auction of the Jürgen Kessing collection. Berlin. October 2010. Pages 15 and 21.
- Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German Warships 1815-1945 Volume 1 . Bernard & Graefe, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 .
- Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr & Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships - biographies: a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present. Mundus publishing house. Ratingen. 1993. Volume 7. ISBN 978-3-7822-0267-1 .
- John Roberts, HC Timewell, Roger Chesneau (Eds.), Eugene M. Kolesnik (Eds.): Warships of the World 1860 to 1905 - Volume 1: Great Britain / Germany . Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz 1983, ISBN 3-7637-5402-4 .
- Georg Wislicenus , Willy Stöwer : Germany's sea power . Reprint-Verlag, Leipzig 2007, ISBN 3-8262-2313-6 , p. 73.
Web links
- Data and images, e.g. Sometimes different on deutsche-schutzgebiete.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b deutsche-schutzgebiete.de
- ↑ amtspresse.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de
- ↑ retrobibliothek.de
- ^ Georg Wislicenus , Willy Stöwer : Germany's sea power . Reprint-Verlag, Leipzig 2007, ISBN 3826223136 , p. 83.
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