SMS Schwalbe (1887)
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The SMS Schwalbe was the type ship of the Schwalbe class named after her , a class of two cruisers IV class of the Imperial Navy . In 1899 the ship was reclassified as a small cruiser . The Schwalbe was the first cruiser of the Imperial Navy specially built for foreign service.
construction
The construction of the cruiser A began in April 1886 at the Imperial Shipyard in Wilhelmshaven . The new building was ready for launch on August 16, 1887 and was named Schwalbe by the chief of the North Sea naval station , Alexander von Monts .
commitment
First stay in East Africa
The Schwalbe was first put into service on May 8, 1888 for test drives. After its completion on August 8, the ship was initially transferred to the reserve, but was reactivated on November 12. Due to the so-called Arab uprising in German East Africa , several warships were needed in the sea area there. The swallow left its home waters on November 20th and anchored off Zanzibar on December 31st . From that day the ship belonged to the East African cruiser squadron under Rear Admiral Karl August Deinhard . On January 3, 1889, the cruiser fired at a rebel camp near Bagamoyo and then set out for Dar es Salaam . The following day the swallow ran aground off Kunduchi on a coral reef and was only released again on January 6th with the support of Leipzig and the British steamer Woodcock .
The cruiser returned to Bagamoyo and supported the land troops there on February 3rd with its guns. The swallow was then involved in the blockade of the coast and was initially deployed between Ras Kimbiji and Kiswere , and from March 1st between Mafia and Kilwa Kivinje . In March, land targets were fired on several times. On March 27, the landing corps of the Carola , Leipzig and the Schwalbe under the leadership of the Schwalbe commander, Corvette Captain Hirschmann, attacked Kunduchi, and also on May 8th on Bagamoyo. This was followed by further missions during the battles at Saadani on June 6 and on July 8 at Pangani .
After a recreational stay off Port Louis from July 20th to August 17th, the swallow was again involved in the blockade of the coast from the end of August. In the weeks that followed, the squadron chief stayed on board more often and used the cruiser for special tasks. From October 7th to 13th, the Schwalbe and the British gunboat Mariner carried out the geographic determination of the northern border of the German colony on the coast. In addition to other missions against the insurgents, the cruiser was involved in the reception of the Stanley expedition at the beginning of December and in the border regulation with Witu from December 27 to 29 .
In January 1890, the East African Cruiser Squadron was disbanded. However, the swallow continued to stay in East Africa. From March 3 to early April, the cruiser was in Cape Town , where repairs were being carried out. This was followed by further missions to pacify the southern coastline of the colony together with the protection force led by Hermann von Wissmann . Several guns were captured near Kilva Kivinje. One of these was brought on board the Schwalbe and passed on to the educational inspection upon its return home.
After the uprising in May 1890 was largely suppressed, the swallow took a trip along the coast of the reserve. Due to a severe malaria illness , Korvettenkapitän Hirschberg had to return to Germany early and the first officer , Kapitänleutnant von der Groeben, took over the ship until the arrival of the new commander, Korvettenkapitän Rüdiger, on July 13th. On October 9, he inaugurated a memorial in Tanga for the members of the Navy who perished during the uprising.
On July 1st, under the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty, the protection of Witu was transferred to Great Britain. This step led to the anger of the Sultan of Witu, which also spread to the population. Several resident Europeans, especially Germans, were persecuted and murdered. After a German protest, the British took several warships and a force well over 1,000 men against Sultan Fumo Bakari . The swallow went as an observer to the sea area there, where it remained until the end of October. In June 1891, the cruiser stopped off Mahé to recover the crew .
Due to his commitment to the protected area, Corvette Captain Rüdiger was proposed for the post of Deputy Governor. The naval cabinet responsible for personnel matters complied with this proposal and put Rüdiger on leave in October 1891. His successor was Korvettenkapitän Oelrichs. Under the new commanding officer, the swallow went to Bombay , where the ship remained until January 27, 1892. Subsequent unrest in the area around Moshi and Kilimanjaro forced the protection force to support. The swallow therefore stayed in front of Tanga until June. In the second half of 1892 disputes in the Sultanate of Zanzibar, which came under British protectorate, shaped the use of the ship. In January 1893 there was another rest period in Bombay. The swallow received the order to travel home in May and arrived in Kiel on August 6th . There the cruiser was decommissioned on August 25th. The ship was overhauled and modernized by the Kaiserliche Werft Kiel .
Second stay in East Africa
On April 1, 1898, the swallow was put back into service to replace the sea eagles in East Africa. The cruiser left for Zanzibar on April 20, where it arrived on June 7 and resumed station service. The ship was in Cape Town for repairs from October 10 to mid-November.
In January 1899, the steamer ran Seto of DOAL in distress and was from the Schwalbe towed to Dar es Salaam. The shipping company then made a donation to the Reichsmarineamt , which was used to finance the seaman's homes of the Imperial Navy.
With the outbreak of the Second Boer War in October 1899, British warships searched merchant ships for contraband . German ships were also affected. On December 27th, the DOAL steamer Bundesrath was attacked off Delagoa Bay by a British cruiser and brought to Durban as a prize . The same happened to the steamer Hans Wagner on January 2, 1900 . On January 4, was in front of Aden the Reichspostdampfer General , three days later the steamer Herzog - both ships were among the DOAL - in the Red Sea and the Bark Marie stopped. The ships were released again after the intervention of the Reich government and the affected shipping companies were paid appropriate compensation. The application of the German steamers contributed not insignificantly to the adoption of the Second Fleet Act .
To protect the German merchant ships, both the Schwalbe and the Condor , the second station ship in East Africa, were moved to South Africa at the beginning of 1900. The swallow was initially off Durban, then also off East London , Port Elizabeth , Cape Town and Delagoa Bay. The cruiser was back in Dar es Salaam on July 5th.
Stay in East Asia
A short time later, the swallow received the order to move to East Asia. Due to the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion, an increased military presence had become necessary there, which is why the Imperial Navy, like other navies, sent a larger number of warships into Chinese waters. The swallow was used on the Yangtze from September 1900 . After a stay in Tsingtau from February 14 to March 3, 1901, the cruiser continued to monitor the river area to reinforce the river gunboat Vorwärts until June 10. On this day, the surveillance of the Yangtze River as part of the Boxer Rebellion ended.
The swallow initially returned to Tsingtau, but had to work again briefly on the Yangtze. From September 4th to November 11th there was a longer stay in Tsingtau. The ship then went to Shanghai for overhaul . This was followed by another deployment in the Yangtze region. On April 9, 1902, the swallow was sent to Ningpo because riots had broken out in the Chekiang province . However, the cruiser had to call at Shanghai again on April 16 for repairs and stayed in Tsingtau after the work was completed.
There he received the order to travel home on July 23. The previous commander, Korvettenkapitän Jacobsen, stayed in Kiautschou and took over the newly established sailor artillery department. His successor was Corvette Captain Hilbrand. The swallow left the lease area on August 16 and reached Gdansk on December 10 . The ship was decommissioned there three days later. A major overhaul and modernization work followed. Despite this, the cruiser was not returned to active service.
Whereabouts
The Schwalbe was operated as a special ship from October 26, 1911. The intention was to make her a survey ship . Accordingly, artillery, torpedo tubes and ammunition were taken off board. This planning was abandoned, however, because a replacement of the cricket , which was used for coastal travel and as an office ship, as well as a training ship for E-measurement training was needed. A corresponding conversion was considered at the end of 1912, but was no longer implemented until the outbreak of the First World War . Since using the old cruiser, which was not designed for military service anyway, was out of the question, the Schwalbe was initially used as a barge in Kiel and from 1918 as a disk hulk. The ship was removed from the list of warships on December 6, 1919 and sold on August 7, 1920. In 1922 it was scrapped in Hamburg-Moorburg .
Commanders
| May 8 to August 8, 1888 | Corvette Captain Hirschberg |
| November 12, 1888 to May 1890 | Corvette Captain Hirschberg |
| May to July 1890 | Captain von der Groeben (deputy) |
| July 1890 to October 1891 | Corvette Captain Rüdiger |
| October 1891 | Kapitänleutnant Eduard Gercke (deputy) |
| October 1891 to August 25, 1893 | Corvette Captain Oelrichs |
| April 1, 1898 to November 1899 | Corvette Captain Otto Hoepner |
| November 1899 to August 1901 | Corvette Captain Boerner |
| August 30, 1901 to August 15, 1902 | Corvette Captain Leo Jacobson |
| August 13th to December 13th 1902 | Corvette Captain Hilbrand |
literature
- 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. 121 .
- 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. 144-147 .
- From the papers left by Corvette Captain Hirschberg. Published by his widow: Nineteen months in command of the SM cruiser "Schwalbe" during the military campaign in German East Africa in 1889/90. Lipsius & Tischer, Kiel and Leipzig 1895.