SMS S 90

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SMS S 90 NH 45589.jpg
Overview
Type Large torpedo boat 1898
Shipyard

Schichau-Werke , Elbing , BauNr. 644

Keel laying 1898
Launch July 26, 1899
delivery October 24, 1899
period of service

1899-1914

home port from 1900 Tsingtau
Whereabouts sunk on October 17, 1914 near Tsingtau;
Occupation interned in China
Technical specifications
displacement

Construction: 310 t
Maximum: 394 t

length

63 m

width

7.0 m

Draft

up to 2.83 m

crew

57 men

drive

Schichau-Thornycroft water tube boiler
2 triple steam engines
5900 HP
2 screws

speed

27 kn

Armament

3 × 5.0 cm torpedo boat cannon L / 40
3 torpedo tubes 45 cm

Bunker quantity

93 tons of coal

Radius of action

1180 nm at 17 knots

or.

  690 nm at 20 knots

The torpedo boat S 90 was the first large torpedo boat of the Imperial Navy built at the Schichau Works in Danzig . It was ordered from the Schichau shipyard in Elbing, East Prussia , as part of the budget year 1898 by the Reichsmarineamt, together with eleven other sister boats. S 90 was used as part of the East Asian cruiser squadron from 1900 to 1914 as part of the German gunboat policy on the Chinese coast and on the inner-Chinese rivers and was lost in 1914 due to self-sinking.

Big torpedo boats

Division boat D 7

Since the mid-1890s, the Imperial Navy had been aware that their torpedo boats, which were very seaworthy and larger than those of foreign navies, could represent a powerful weapon in a possible sea war, however, with the introduction of the then new torpedo boat destroyer on the British side, this advantage threatened to be lost. After intensive technical and tactical considerations, the preference was now given to a larger boat that could continue to take offense against the new type of destroyer. Essential for this, however, was a significant increase in the size of the boats as well as the simultaneous departure from the previous doctrine of single-shaft drive and the requirement that a single officer had to be sufficient to guide the boat. Compared to the last series of small boats, the displacement was more than doubled and the speed increased to 27 knots. At the same time, seaworthiness and sea ​​endurance increased .

The class had a slightly weaker gun armament than the same age British torpedo boat destroyers , but carried one more torpedo tube. The boats of this type were superior to the French torpedo boat destroyers of the same age in all respects.

commitment

In the course of strengthening the German and international forces off the Chinese coast due to the Boxer Rebellion , the Imperial Navy also sent three modern torpedo boats to East Asia. On 26 July 1900, as a hospital ship ran East Asian Expeditionary Force provided Gera of the North German Lloyd and the torpedo boats S 90 , S 91 and S 92 from East Asia. On October 6th, the small association reached Shanghai . The torpedo boats supported the Liner Division and the East Asian Cruiser Squadron in monitoring the Chinese coast and the estuaries. After the situation in China had calmed down, the S 91 and S 92 were withdrawn again from East Asia and started their journey home on March 6, 1902 with the large cruiser SMS Kaiserin Augusta .

SMS Taku , Forward , S 90 (right) in the dock

In addition to the former Chinese destroyer SMS  Taku, which was also built near Schichau, the torpedo boat S 90 was used as a security ship for the Tsingtau base ( Qingdao ) and also in station service. The ships were mainly used in the Chinese coastal waters but also on the Yangtze . In 1913 the Taku was badly damaged by a bottoming out in Kiautschou Bay and the S 90 was also largely used up. The two old boats were therefore to be replaced by three new torpedo boats in 1914.

Final fate

When the war broke out in Tsingtau, S 90 remained in service for the security service of the base, which it provided together with the gunboat SMS Iltis . It secured the departure of the ships that left Tsingtau for the cruiser squadron as supply ships or reinforcements (the small cruiser SMS Emden , the auxiliary cruisers Prinz Eitel Friedrich and Cormoran ). From mid-August, ships from the British China Station monitored the exits from Tsingtau more closely and brought up several ships. On the evening of August 22, 1914, the British destroyer HMS Kennet discovered the S 90 patrolling and securing the Lauting mine- layer and tried to intercept it. S 90 returned fire and lured the Kennet into the fire area of ​​a 105 mm land battery, which immediately scored hits. When SMS  Jaguar also left , the Kennet turned away, with 3 dead and 7 wounded on board and whose starboard twelve-pounder was destroyed.

The takachiho

When the end of the colony's defensive capabilities became apparent, the torpedo boat attempted to break through the surveillance ring of the Allied ships on October 17, 1914 during a night surveillance voyage. The old Japanese cruiser Takachiho was sunk by a torpedo. The cruiser sank with 271 dead - Japan's biggest loss by enemy action of the First World War .

Since a successful escape did not seem likely due to lack of fuel, the commander , Lieutenant Captain Paul Brunner, sank the boat near Tsingtau himself and went to Chinese internment with his crew.

literature

  • Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships. Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . Ratingen o. J. (One-volume reprint of the seven-volume original edition, Herford 1979ff.)
  • Cord Eberspächer: The German Yangtze Patrol. German Gunboat Policy in China in the Age of Imperialism 1900–1914 . Bochum 2004.

Web links

Commons : S 90  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Naval review 1915 p. 151f.
  2. ^ Report in the NYTimes