SMS Rhein (1872)

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Rhine
River monitor SMS RHEIN. Location and date of recording unknown.jpg
Ship data
flag German EmpireGerman Empire (Reichskriegsflagge) German Empire
Ship type monitor
class Rhine class
Shipyard AG Weser , Bremen
Build number 23
building-costs 94,500 thalers
Launch 1872
Commissioning April 25, 1874
Whereabouts Sold in 1884
Ship dimensions and crew
length
49.6 m ( Lüa )
47.85 m ( KWL )
width 7.85 m
Draft Max. 1.07 m
displacement Construction: 200 t
Maximum: 283 t
 
crew 23 men
Machine system
machine 2 steam locomotive boilers
2 × 2-cylinder steam engine
indicated
performanceTemplate: Infobox ship / maintenance / service format 		320 hp (235 kW)
Top
speed 		8.25 kn (15 km / h)
propeller 2 three-winged ø 0.95 m
Armament
Armor
  • Citadel: 16–55 mm on 150–200 mm teak
  • Tower: 16–55 mm on 150–200 mm teak
  • Command tower: 16–40 mm

The SMS Rhein was a river monitor of the German Imperial Navy . She was the type ship of the Rhine class , to which the sister ship Mosel also belonged. Launched in 1872, the Rhine was only in use for a short time and was sold in 1884.

history

The river cannon boats Rhine (left) and Mosel on the Rhine in 1875
Drawing of the Rhine

The Rhine and its sister ship the Mosel were specially designed for use as artillery carriers on the Rhine . The models were the two Danube monitors from the Austro-Hungarian Navy Leitha and Maros . The task of the river monitors was to secure the fixed Rhine bridges , especially at Rheinhausen , in the event of a French invasion of Germany.

The Rhine was established in July 1872 by the Bremen shipyard AG Weser placed on Kiel . The monitors were ready for launch that same year . Completion dragged on until the spring of 1874. On April 25, 1874, both ships were put into service for the first time for the transfer into the Rhine. The journey led via Rotterdam . The monitors probably got their guns in the fortress Wesel . On April 7, 1875 the second commissioning took place. In the period that followed, the two ships sailed up the Rhine up to Strasbourg for an initial test voyage . On April 20, the boats were inspected at Biebrich by Kaiser Wilhelm I , who undertook a brief demonstration trip on board the Rhine .

The Rhine and her sister ship came under the orders of the 7th fortress inspection of the VIII Army Corps in Koblenz on May 17, 1875 . Together with two French river cannon boats captured in the Franco-Prussian War , it formed the “Rhine River Cannon Boat Flotilla ” with the port of Koblenz. However, no other uses are known. The Rhine and the Moselle were sold for 3,500 marks in December 1884  .

literature

  • Gardiner, Robert (Ed.): Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905 . Conway Maritime Press, London 1979, ISBN 0-85177-133-5 , pp. 261 .
  • Gröner, Erich / Dieter Jung / Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945 . tape 1 : Armored ships, ships of the line, battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, gunboats . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 , p. 163 f .
  • Hildebrand, Hans H. / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . tape 7 : Ship biographies from Prussian eagle to Ulan . Mundus Verlag, Ratingen, S. 68–70 (Approved licensed edition Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg, approx. 1990).

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b c Hildebrand / Röhr / Steinmetz: The German warships. Volume 7, p. 69.
  2. ↑ a b The Rhine cannon boats . In: Illustrirte Zeitung . JJ Weber, Leipzig 3rd July 1875.
  3. ↑ Gröner / Jung / Maass: The German warships. Volume 1, p. 164.