SMS Thetis (1900)
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The SMS Thetis was a Gazelle- class small cruiser of the Imperial Navy . The cruiser was named after the sea nymph Thetis .
The first Thetis was a former British sailing frigate , which was acquired by Prussia on January 12, 1855 and then served in the Prussian Navy . On November 28, 1871, the first Thetis was removed from the list of warships.
The Thetis was also still in service with the Reichsmarine from 1922 to 1924 .
Foreign service from 1901 to 1906
The cruiser Thetis , like the Niobe , Nymphe , Ariadne , Amazone and Medusa, also belonged to the second group of small cruisers of the Gazelle class. Compared to the type ship Gazelle, they had an engine system that was increased to 8,000 PSi .
After commissioning, testing and equipment for overseas use, the small cruiser ran from Kiel to East Asia on December 1, 1901 and was subordinated to the East Asia Squadron. The commander had been given the highly confidential order from the Naval Staff, on the trip to the south of the Red Sea to the west coast of the Arabian peninsula lying Farasan Islands (the Ottoman Empire to run belonging) to determine whether there is a coaling station could be created. There had already been a guarded naval coal depot on one of the islands since September 1900, but as it was strategically unfavorable for the German navy, the German Reich gave up its claim to the islands in October 1902. Via Aden , Colombo and Madras the ship moved on to Calcutta , where the officer corps of the cruiser together with that of the Austro-Hungarian cruiser Zenta and the Asian explorer Sven Hedin were received by the Governor General and Viceroy of India , George Curzon, Baron Curzon of Kedleston .
After arriving in Tsingtau , the Thetis performed the usual station duty and traveled the Chinese and Japanese waters. From April 28, 1902, the ship sailed the Yangtze with the squadron chief, Vice Admiral Richard von Geißler on board, via Nanking to Hankau to fly the flag. On May 15th the Thetis was back in Tsingtau.
During the Russo-Japanese War 1904/05, the Thetis was used off the Korean coast to observe the conflicting parties and to evacuate German citizens from the endangered areas. From October to December 1904 she made another trip to the Yangtze.
On the occasion of the Maji-Maji uprising that broke out in July 1905 , the cruiser was detached together with the old cruiser Seeadler to the East African station in Dar es Salaam . The Thetis left Hong Kong on August 28, 1905 and arrived in Dar es Salaam on September 26, when the height of the crisis had already passed. Nevertheless, the ship remained in these waters until March 29, 1906 and was then ordered back to Germany at the suggestion of the commander. There the Thetis was taken out of service for a major overhaul on June 18, 1906 in Danzig and remained in reserve status until the outbreak of World War I.
Operations in the First World War
- August 4, 1914: Commissioned with the coastal defense division of the Baltic Sea (Rear Admiral Robert Mischke ); Takeover of the security service in the Little Belt
- Sent to the eastern Baltic Sea from October 18, 1914 and placed under the command of Detached Admiral Ehler Behring
- from October 24 to 26, 1914 advance to Gotska Sandön
- then defense of Memel and shelling of Russian positions on the Courland coast, at times a landing corps of 74 men in action
- Relocated from Memel to Danzig on November 6, 1914, resulting in a brief skirmish with Russian destroyers, including the modern large destroyer Novik . Since the commander, Frigate Captain Paul Nippe, did not report this, he was relieved of his command. On November 17, 1914, the great cruiser Friedrich Carl sank on one of 140 mines laid by the Russian destroyers off Memel
- from December 15 to 18, 1914 advance to the Åland Islands , while securing position on the island of Utö against Russian naval advances from the Gulf of Finland. On the march back, the unrecognized aid ship Senator Strand was shot at and sunk
- from 13th to 17th April 1915 mining operation off Dagö
- On May 1, 1915, advance to Irbenstrasse and cover for torpedo boats V 107 and V 108 in a coup against the island of Raumö
- attacked twice unsuccessfully by a Russian submarine near Bogskär on May 12, 1915
- from June 3 to 6, 1915 mining operation together with other ships and the aircraft mother ship Glyndwr against the southern exit of Moon Sound , the latter running on a mine off Windau and being badly damaged.
- then march to the west coast of Gotland , as a cover for charring torpedo boats. The British submarine E9 managed to torpedo the torpedo boat S 148 and sink the coal steamer Dora Hugo Stinnes .
- From September 1915 involved in the advance into the Riga Bay , on September 8, 1915 at 5:38 am, a mine hit off Lyser Ort . Introduced to Libau, transferred to Kiel via Danzig on September 21, and decommissioned there.
- Re-commissioning only on October 19, 1917 as the second artillery training ship next to the great cruiser Kaiserin Augusta
- Decommissioned on December 19, 1918
Imperial Navy
The Thetis remained due to the restrictive requirements of the Versailles Treaty of the Reichsmarine and was - only slightly modernized - put back into service on April 2, 1922 and assigned to the naval station of the Baltic Sea . In this function she made several trips abroad to various Baltic Sea countries. On November 30, 1924, the Thetis was decommissioned in Wilhelmshaven and was initially used as a barge until 1929 . It was deleted from the list of warships on March 27, 1929, followed by sale and scrapping at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg .
Commanders
| September 14 to October 1901 | Frigate Captain Karl Deubel |
| October 1901 to December 1902 | Corvette Captain / Frigate Captain Ernst van Semmern |
| December 1902 to December 1903 | Frigate Captain Karl Dick |
| December 1903 to June 1905 | Corvette Captain / Frigate Captain Walter Voit |
| June 1905 to May 1906 | Frigate Captain Ludwig Glatzel |
| May 8th to June 8th 1906 | Captain Alfred Wurmbach |
| August 4 to November 1914 | Frigate Captain Paul Nippe |
| November 1914 | Corvette Captain Franz Halm |
| November 1914 to September 3, 1915 | Corvette Captain / Frigate Captain Walter Hildebrand |
| October 19, 1917 to December 19, 1918 | Corvette Captain / Frigate Captain Walter Mönch |
| April 2, 1922 to September 30, 1923 | Frigate Captain Walther Kinzel |
| October 1, 1923 to November 30, 1924 | Sea captain Ernst Bindseil |
additional
- The well-known doctor Otto Werner worked as a ship's doctor during the First World War. The so-called Werner Syndrome was named after Werner .
literature
- Lutz Bengelsdorf: The naval war in the Baltic Sea 1914-1918. Hauschild, Herford 2008, ISBN 978-3897574045 .
- Erich Gröner : The German warships 1815-1945. Volume 1. Armored ships, ships of the line, battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, gunboats. Bonn: Bernard & Graefe 1998 ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 .
- Hans H. Hildebrandt, Albert Röhr and Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships. Volume 6, Herford: Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH 1983 ISBN 3-7822-0497-2 .
- Robert Gardiner: Conway's All the world's fighting ships 1860-1905. London: Conway Maritime Press 1979 ISBN 0-8517-7133-5 .
Web links
- SMS Thetis on deutsche-schutzgebiete.de
- Data Gazelle class on worldwar1.co.uk (Engl.)
- SMS Thetis on battleships-cruisers.co.uk (engl.)
- The Gazelle class on historyofwar.org (Engl.)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Willi A. Boelcke: This is how the sea came to us. Ullstein, Frankfurt / Main-Berlin-Vienna 1981, pages 207, 225-227.