SMS Sperber (1888)
 The sparrowhawks on June 29, 1911 with their home flag
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SMS Sperber was the second and last ship of the Schwalbe class , a class of two cruisers IV class of the Imperial Navy . In 1899 the ship wasreclassifiedas a small cruiser and in 1911 as a gunboat . The Sperber was specially built for foreign service and is one of the ships of the Imperial Navy with the longest uninterrupted stay abroad.
construction
Construction of the cruiser B began in September 1887 at the Kaiserliche Werft in Wilhelmshaven after the slipway of the type ship Schwalbe had become free. The launch of the new building took place on August 23, 1888, a year and a week after the Schwalbe . The ship was going from the Inspector of Marine Artillery Captain Franz Mensing , in the name Sperber baptized.
commitment
The Sparrowhawk was first put into service on April 2, 1889 for test drives. These extended to June 7th. The original plan was to send the ship to the Samoan Islands afterwards . There had been violent unrest among the population there in November 1888, and tensions between the United States , Great Britain and the German Empire over the colonial question of ownership of the islands had intensified. After the US ships USS Trenton and USS Vandalia as well as the German SMS Adler and SMS Eber were destroyed by a cyclone on March 15 and 16, 1889 in the port of Apia , the situation calmed down again and the disputes finally settled on the Berlin Samoa Conference beginning on June 14th has been settled for the time being. It was therefore no longer necessary to send the sparrowhawks and the cruiser was temporarily decommissioned after the test drives were completed.
First stay abroad
Service in East Africa
The sparrowhawk was activated again on August 20th to take over the South Sea station . The ship left Kiel on September 4th . When it reached Aden on October 13, it was ordered to first move to German East Africa . Several warships were stationed there due to the “Arab uprising” , but SMS Leipzig and SMS Pfeil were withdrawn. The Sparrowhawk reached Zanzibar on October 26th , but was not assigned to the cruiser squadron .
After the ship had first established a border in the area between the Tana and the Juba as well as several flag hoisting, the sparrowhawk was used from November 1st on operations against the insurgents. The landing corps of the cruiser was also active several times. On December 4th, the ship's commander, Corvette Captain Max Foss , welcomed the Stanley expedition in Bagamoyo on behalf of the emperor in his capacity as "the oldest sea officer of the East African station" .
Service in the South Seas
It was not until April 22nd, 1890 that the sparrowhawk continued her voyage to the South Seas. After a stopover in Melbourne , Sydney was called, where a meeting with the SMS Alexandrine took place and the necessary overhaul work was carried out. The cruiser reached Apia on July 30th. In the following weeks the sparrowhawk undertook an exploration trip through the Marshall Islands , which ended on October 5th with the return to Apia. On December 19, a meeting with the East Asia Squadron took place off Samoa .
At the beginning of January 1891 a memorial was erected and inaugurated for the German navy members who died on December 18, 1888 near Vailele in battle with Samoan troops. Then the Sparrowhawk ran to Sydney, where repairs that had become necessary were carried out from January 24th to March 21st. The return trip to Apia was not carried out directly, but with intermediate stops in various ports of the Bismarck Archipelago , the Marshall Islands and the Gilbert Islands . On Butaritari , action was taken against the local population because there had been clashes with German traders. The cruiser reached Apia on June 6 and stayed in the port there until December 15.
At the beginning of 1892, the landing corps of the Sparrowhawks on Tabiteuea took action again against locals who were responsible for attacks on German traders. Another tour through the Marshall Islands followed. The ship then called at Butaritari and Matupi, among others . An overhaul of the ship was carried out in Sydney from March 3rd to May 3rd. After its completion, the sparrowhawk was again in front of Apia from May 17th to November 1st. The lay time only had to be interrupted for a repairs that had become necessary again in Sydney. During another round trip through the colony of German New Guinea , in addition to various ports on the Marschall Islands, Nukufetau and Herbertshöhe as well as Friedrich-Wilhelms-Hafen were called at. The sparrowhawks had to leave the latter port immediately upon arrival on January 5, 1893, as an epidemic of fever was rampant on land. The ship reached Sydney again on February 6 via the Admiralty Islands and Matupi.
From April 18, the sparrowhawk was again in front of Apia. The fighting that flared up again in Samoa also threatened the resident Europeans, which is why the landing corps of the cruiser was deployed to protect them. The situation was calmed down again, to which the arrest of Mataafa Josefo contributed. This was the end of July by the Sperber after Jaluit brought, where he had been exiled.
Service in West Africa
In November the falcon was on the march from West Africa to Samoa as a replacement. Although it was originally planned that the hawk was to start the homeward march, both cruisers exchanged the station area. The sparrowhawk started its journey to Cape Town on November 6 , where a shipyard overhaul was carried out.
On May 28, 1894, the sparrowhawk arrived at the mouth of the Wuri in the colony of Cameroon . Its barre could be passed at any time due to its shallower draft compared to the falcon . Corvette Captain von Arnoldi took over the business of the station senior naval officer. For West African Station were at this time in addition to Sperber , the hyena , the Gouvernementsdampfer Nachtigal and only as Hulk used Cyclop . In the following months the cruiser made several trips in the station area. On November 10th, the Sparrowhawk set off for Cape Town, where repairs were to be carried out and the crew should be given a vacation. The journey was interrupted at Cape Cross , where a stone replacement for the Portuguese heraldic column that had been salvaged by the falcon two years earlier was erected. The original was brought to Germany. From February 5 to March 20, 1895, the ship stayed in Cape Town and then cruised again in the station area.
After another repair stay in Cape Town from February 17 to 29, 1896, the Sparrowhawk called Swakopmund on March 6 . There there was an uprising among the East Herero and Khoikhoi , which was suppressed by the protection force and the resident German population. The cruiser's landing corps was also used to secure the port city. From March 23 to April 9, the ship stayed off Mossamedes to allow the crew to recover . After further journeys in the station area along the colony of German South West Africa , the sparrowhawk started its journey home on September 22nd. On November 18, the ship reached Kiel, where it was decommissioned on December 7th. From spring to August 1898, the cruiser underwent a major overhaul, but was initially not used.
Second stay abroad
The Sparrowhawk was put back into service on December 16, 1902. It was supposed to strengthen the East American Cruiser Division, which was formed on the same day and which had to take military action against the South American state in the course of the conflict with Venezuela. The Sperber left Kiel on 5 January 1903 and met in February 3, Willemstad with the SMS Vineta together. The military actions against Venezuela were now over, which is why the cruiser only visited a few ports there. At the end of February, the sparrowhawk received the order to move to German East Africa . The voyage through the Mediterranean Sea began on March 22nd and reached Dar es Salaam on July 1st. After the cruiser had visited several ports of the German colony, it left the East African station for East Asia on October 9th.
The Sparrowhawk reached Singapore on November 23, joining the East Asia Squadron. Their area of operation was initially the Yangtze . On May 15, 1904, the ship took over the river gunboat SMS Vaterland for the Imperial Navy in Shanghai . The boat had been disassembled from the Schichau shipyard in Elbing to East Asia and was used on the Yangtze after it was assembled there. The sparrowhawk subsequently visited several Chinese ports and stayed in Tsingtau , in the Kiautschou colony , for repairs from August to December . At the beginning of 1905, the cruiser toured southern China and then received orders to relocate to West Africa.
The sparrowhawk left Tsingtau on April 24th and reached Duala on July 26th . The gunboat SMS Habicht was replaced there. In the following years, the ship took over the station service in the colonies of German West Africa . Various ports were called regularly to represent German interests. On the occasion of the opening of the Lomé – Kpalimé railway in the Togo colony , the sparrowhawk stayed in Lome on January 27, 1907 . In 1908 and 1909 the cruiser re-measured the coast of Togo. In February 1909 the ruins of the colonial fortress Groß Friedrichsburg built by Brandenburg were visited. In addition, further surveying work was carried out on the coasts of the colonies of Cameroon and German South West Africa .
On March 6, 1910, the Sperber received the order to replace the SMS Bussard as a station ship in German East Africa. On April 15, the crew of the ship, which was on its way to its new station area, was able to help extinguish a major fire in Lüderitz . On May 30, the cruiser reached East Africa and began station service there. Repairs were carried out in Cape Town from October 26th to December 3rd. During this time Corvette Captain Reinhold Schmidt and part of his staff were invited to the opening of the parliament of the South African Union which was formed on May 31st . The Sparrowhawk , classified as a gunboat since March 6, 1911, received the order to travel home in the spring of 1911 and left her station area on April 10. On June 29, the ship reached Wilhelmshaven, where it was taken out of service for the last time on July 6.
Whereabouts
The Sparrowhawk was struck off the list of warships on March 16, 1912. The fuselage was used as a disk hulk until 1918. On August 7, 1920, the ship was sold to Cuxhaven and two years later it was scrapped in Hamburg-Moorburg .
The small cruiser SMS Augsburg , launched in 1909, was built to replace the Sperber .
Commanders
| April 2 to June 7, 1889 | Lieutenant / Corvette Captain August Carl Thiele |
| August 20, 1889 to November 1891 | Corvette Captain Max Foss |
| November 1891 to May 1893 | Corvette Captain Fischer |
| May 1893 to October 1894 | Corvette Captain von Arnoldi |
| October 1894 to October 1895 | Corvette Captain Walther |
| October 1895 to December 7, 1896 | Corvette Captain Reincke |
| December 16, 1902 to June 1904 | Corvette Captain Less |
| June 1904 to November 1905 | Corvette Captain Oxé |
| November 1905 to October 1906 | Corvette Captain Wilhelm Bertram |
| October 1906 to August 1907 | Corvette Captain Ludolf von Usslar |
| August 1907 to November 1908 | Corvette Captain Friedrich Pohl |
| November 1908 to November 1909 | Corvette Captain / Frigate Captain Johannes Redlich |
| November 1909 to August 1910 | Corvette Captain Fielitz |
| August 1910 to July 6, 1911 | Corvette Captain Reinhold Schmidt |
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 .
- Hans H. Hildebrand / 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. 177-180 .
Remarks
- ↑ The SMS Seeadler held the record of a larger warship at over 13 years of age.
Web links
- Estate of Obermaschinistenmaat A. Abel et al. , Pictures and photographs from a. from the time spent on the SMS Sperber in Africa, Schleswig-Holstein State Archives