SMS Tsingtau
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The SMS Tsingtau was a river gunboat of the Imperial Navy . The boat was used in China from 1904 to 1914 .
construction
Since the steam launch SMS Schamien, which was bought in 1899 and used as a makeshift, did not meet the requirements in China, two river cannon boats were ordered from the F. Schichau shipyard in Elbing in 1902 . Construction of the first boat began in the summer of 1902. On April 18, 1903, it was ready to be launched and was given the name Tsingtau , after the capital of the German leased area Kiautschou . On May 15th the boat was handed over to the Imperial Navy. In the period that followed, test drives were carried out without any official commissioning. After this was completed, the Tsingtau was dismantled by the shipyard in September and shipped to Hong Kong on the steamer Prinzess Marie . There it was reassembled at a private shipyard. This procedure was made possible by the pontoon construction of the boat, which consists of nine parts.
Working time
The Tsingtau was put into service on February 3, 1904 and assigned to the East Asia Squadron. The area of operation of the boat included the Pearl River and the West River as well as the estuary around Hong Kong and Macau . The main tasks of the Tsingtau were the representation of the German Empire, the safeguarding of German citizens and economic interests as well as the fight against piracy . For this purpose, the boat made several trips on the Pearl River and its tributaries and visited among others the cities of Wuzhou , Nanning , Shiuchow and Longtschou . Navigating the streams was a challenge for the boat and its crew because of the fluctuating water levels and the existing rapids .
In addition to the usual river trips, the crew helped put out a fire in Macau in June 1906. In August and September of the same year, the Tsingtau, together with British and French warships, took action against piracy in the area of the mouths of the West and East Rivers . In January 1911, the boat had to transfer the body of the squadron chief, Rear Admiral Erich Gühler , who died in Hong Kong on January 21 , to the steamer Bülow of Norddeutscher Lloyd . Due to the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution , the Tsingtau had to briefly put a guard for the German consulate in Canton from October 30, 1911 in order to protect it from attacks.
On July 30, 1914, the Tsingtau , which was currently on the West River at that time, received the order to return to Canton. The background to this was the political tensions in Europe in connection with the July crisis . The boat reached Canton on August 1st and was taken out of service and hung up there on the following day , in accordance with the plans for mobilization .
Whereabouts
The commander of the Tsingtau , Kapitänleutnant Erwin von Möller, went with part of the crew to Manila to set up a stage for the East Asia squadron. When trying to reach SMS Emden with the coal steamer Hoerde , the men were interned by the Netherlands . However, they managed to escape with the schooner Marboek , which was renamed Weddigen . After 82 days, the troop reached the Arab coast at the beginning of March 1915 and set out on foot towards the Turkish positions. On March 29, von Möller and his men were attacked and killed by Arabs north of Jeddah .
Most of the crew, who initially remained in Canton, went to Tsingtau by land. There she was assigned to the auxiliary cruiser SMS Cormoran . With this they were interned in Guam at the end of 1914 and after the entry of the United States into the war they became prisoners of war.
Only a small remaining crew remained on board the Tsingtau . Until March 21, 1917 the boat was in front of Canton. On that day, China entered World War I on the side of the Allies . The Tsingtau was then sunk by its crew in order to withdraw it from the grip of the new enemy. Lifting attempts made later were unsuccessful.
Commanders
| February 3, 1904 to November 1905 | Lieutenant Giebler |
| November 1905 to November 1906 | Lieutenant Brehmer |
| November 1906 to November 1907 | Lieutenant Förtsch |
| November 1907 to November 1909 | Lieutenant Roß |
| November 1909 to November 1911 | Lieutenant Nikolaus Graf zu Dohna-Schlodien |
| November 1911 to October 1912 | Lieutenant Captain Freiherr von Fircks |
| October to December 1912 | Oberleutnant zur See Freiherr von Speth-Schülzburg (deputy) |
| December 1912 to August 2, 1914 | Oberleutnant zur See / Kapitänleutnant Erwin von Möller |
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. 171 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. 246-248 .
Coordinates: 23 ° 9 ′ 0 ″ N , 113 ° 15 ′ 0 ″ E