SMS Undine (1902)
 The sister ship Frauenlob
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The SMS Undine was a Gazelle- class small cruiser of the Imperial Navy . The cruiser was named after the water spirit Undine , like the brig Undine, which was in service from 1871 to 1884 .
In 1915 the Undine was sunk in the Baltic Sea by a British submarine.
history
The Undine was the tenth and last ship of the Gazelle class and belonged to the third group of this class like the Arcona and Frauenlob . They were slightly larger in size than their previous seven sister ships.
The Undine was the first modern warship that the Howaldtswerke in Kiel built for the Imperial Navy. For the first time a gyro compass was installed on a ship of the Imperial Navy , which came from the company Anschütz-Kaempfe , but was not yet completely satisfactory.
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The German Navy League took over the sponsorship of the cruiser New J . Its president, Otto zu Salm-Horstmar , gave the baptismal address and his wife Rosa named the new building Undine on December 11, 1902, after the school brig, which was stranded in Jammerbucht in 1884 .
Artillery training ship
When it was put into service on January 5, 1905, the Undine took over the function of an artillery training ship from the old cruiser Carola .
On November 17, 1905, in this capacity, there was a serious shipwreck off Bülk . The torpedo boats S 126 to S 130 and the Undine took part in a night maneuver in which an attack on a cruiser was to be practiced. As a result of poor visibility due to heavy snowfall, S 126 lost sight of the Undine and appeared close to its bow. The torpedo boat was cut in half. In a very short time the boiler room was full of water, which led to a boiler explosion. The boat sank with the loss of 33 men. 17 sailors could be saved. In May 1906, the torpedo boat could be lifted and then repaired, the S 127 , which was also damaged , was towed to the next port by the Undine .
From July 1, 1908, the cruiser moved to the artillery school in Sønderborg . From there he was detached to the annual maneuvers of the deep-sea fleet. On May 5, 1910, on the way to Sonderburg in heavy seas , the Undine was able to tow the steamer Nordstern, which had been in distress due to engine damage, with 300 passengers on board and tow it safely to Kiel. In September / October 1910 she had to be completely overhauled in the Imperial Shipyard in Danzig due to severe signs of wear. Then they were reassigned to the training squadron. In January and February 1912, like other ships in the fleet, she was used in the ice emergency service, as heavy icing also occurred in the western Baltic Sea.
On July 12, 1912, the Undine was decommissioned in Danzig. The function of an artillery training ship was taken over by the Kleine Kreuzer Augsburg , on which the Undine's crew also stepped over with the change . The Undine received a major overhaul in the Imperial Shipyard in Danzig and was then placed in the II Reserve Reserve.
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 western Baltic Sea and on the Møn - Dornbusch line
- 3rd-9th September 1914: Participation in the advance to the Gulf of Finland, with the machine collapsing on September 8, 1914, then repair in Danzig.
- From October 18, 1914: Security service on the Saßnitz - Trelleborg ferry line
- 13-18 April 1915: Bombardment of Russian positions on the Courland coast near Budendiekhof and Memel
- Resumption of patrols from April 19, 1915 in the western Baltic Sea
Downfall
On November 7, 1915, the Undine accompanied the Prussian ferry on the way from Trelleborg to Saßnitz. The cruiser was taken from the British submarine E19 under Lt. Cdr. Francis Cromie to 13:08 on the position of 54 ° 59 ' N , 13 ° 51' O with two torpedoes about 18 nm NNO before Kap Arkona hit and sank very fast. With the exception of 24 men, the crew was rescued by the torpedo boat V 154, which was in operation, and the ferry to be secured.
Four Undine crew members who died in the sinking are buried in a communal grave in Kiel's north cemetery , field N, no. 112.
The wreck was discovered by accident in 1999 during a maneuver by the Swedish Navy. It is 48 meters deep north of Rügen in the Kadetrinne .
Commanders
| January 5 to March 7, 1904 | Corvette Captain Carl Schaumann |
| March 23-30, 1904 | First Lieutenant for the Sea Georg Hoffmann |
| January 10 to September 30, 1905 | Corvette / frigate captain Georg Scheidt |
| September 30, 1905 to October 3, 1907 | Corvette / frigate captain Berthold Stechow |
| October 1907 to March 31, 1909 | Corvette / frigate captain Wilhelm Freiherr von Meerscheidt-Hüllessem |
| April 1, 1909 to September 1910 | Corvette / frigate captain Ulrich Lübbert |
| September 15, 1910 to May 5, 1912 | Corvette / Frigate Captain Victor Reclam |
| May 10 to July 12, 1912 | Frigate Captain Andreas Fischer |
| August 4 to September 1914 | Frigate Captain Max Loesch |
| September 1914 to November 7, 1915 | Corvette / frigate captain Karl Windmüller |
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
- Page to the cruiser on deutsche-schutzgebiete.de
- Report on the wreck
- Data Gazelle class on worldwar1.co.uk (Engl.)
- SMS Undine on battleships-cruisers.co.uk (Engl.)
- Gazelle class on historyofwar.org (Engl.)
Footnotes
- ^ Naval and war memorials in the north cemetery - SMS "Undine". Retrieved April 22, 2014 .