SMS Vineta (1863)

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SMS Vineta
The Prussian war corvette Vineta
The Prussian war corvette Vineta
Ship data
flag PrussiaPrussia (war flag) Prussia North German Confederation German Empire
North German ConfederationNorth German Confederation (war flag) 
German EmpireGerman Empire (Reichskriegsflagge) 
Ship type Covered corvette
class Arcona class
Shipyard Royal Shipyard , Gdansk
building-costs 576,800 thalers
Launch June 4, 1863
Commissioning March 3, 1864
Whereabouts Wrecked in 1897
Ship dimensions and crew
length
73.32 m ( Lüa )
65.5 m ( KWL )
width 12.9 m
Draft Max. 6.53 m
displacement Construction: 2,113 t
Maximum: 2,504 t
 
crew 380 men
Machine system
machine 4 suitcase boiler
2-cylinder steam engine
Machine
performance
1,580 PS (1,162 kW)
Top
speed
11.7 kn (22 km / h)
propeller 1 double-leaf ∅ 4.8 m
Rigging and rigging
Rigging Full ship
Number of masts 3
Sail area 2200 m²
Armament
  • 28 × 68 pounder guns

from 1869:

  • 17 × 15.0 cm L / 22 Rk
  • 2 × 12.5 cm L / 23 Rk

The SMS Vineta was a covered corvette of the Prussian Navy , the Navy of the North German Confederation and later the Imperial Navy .

construction

The ship belonged to the Arcona class , the first class of larger warships built in Prussia since the times of the Kurbrandenburg Navy . Together with her sister ship Hertha , it formed the second construction lot in this class. The Thetis , which England exchanged for two Radavisos in 1855 , was used as a model for the basic design . The Vineta steam engine was also procured in England. In addition to the independence from the wind, this also gave the ship the independence of the drinking water supply from land thanks to a steam-operated still. The launch took place on June 4, 1863 after three years of construction in Danzig .

Early career

In the spring of 1864, the sea ​​captain Hans Kuhn took command. Although not fully equipped, the Vineta took fire on the Danish liner Skjold off Danzig on April 30, 1864 - but did not cause any damage.

The first circumnavigation of the world by a Prussian warship

War Corvette Vineta , 1864

After commissioning in October 1864, the Vineta initially guarded the port of Kiel. The Paraguayan War broke out in South America as early as 1864 and the Prussian legation secretary in Brazil Theodor von Bunsen asked King Wilhelm for assistance and protection of the Prussian property there. King Wilhelm ordered the Vineta to be sent. The Vineta left Kiel on November 19, 1865 and reached Rio de Janeiro on January 20, 1866 , where she stayed until February 4. The Vineta then sailed to Montevideo , where it arrived on February 18.

Since it was foreseeable that the course of the war would no longer endanger Prussian interests in the region, Kuhn received a new order. Since the Spanish-South American War was just about to break out in Chile , the Vineta was supposed to protect Prussian trade interests there. The Vineta left Montevideo on March 18, 1866 and crossed the Le Maire Strait at the beginning of May because the Strait of Magellan was allegedly mined by Chile. At that time, discipline could only be maintained on board with draconian punishments, which even drove a crew member to suicide off Cape Horn. When Valparaíso was reached on May 6, 1866 , 17 men deserted there alone. Valparaíso had already been shelled on March 31 by the Spanish fleet operating in the Pacific , which then turned north and bombed Callao in Peru. The Vineta therefore came too late. It patrolled the Chilean coast in May and supplied a Peruvian convoy arriving from England with coal. When Kuhn could not find any further threat to Prussian trade interests in Chile either, he was commissioned to sail on to Callao. Since the Spanish warships still suspected here had already withdrawn, the crew received vacation and a monthly salary, which noticeably improved morale. After his stay in Peru, Kuhn followed his further order to cross the Pacific and go to China .

On September 2, 1866, the Vineta left South America. With a stopover in Hawaii , the first stop was Shanghai , where the Vineta became part of an international unit to fight Chinese pirates, then it commuted between China and Japan , where unrest raged in the run-up to the Boshin War . Despite a Japanese pilot on board, the Vineta hit a cliff in Hirado Strait on October 27, 1867, was released badly damaged and had to be repaired in Shanghai for four months. Kuhn was appointed Rear Admiral in May 1868 and returned to Kiel in October 1868. This made the Vineta the first warship in the Prussian navy that - albeit unplanned - managed to circumnavigate the world .

Further missions

After her return, the Vineta was first completely overhauled and served as a station ship in the West Indies from 1871 . At the beginning of 1872 the Vineta stayed under her commanding captain, Captain Batsch, first on the Brazilian east coast and was then ordered to Haiti to enforce a complaint by German merchants in Cap-Haïtien and Port-au-Prince . On May 23, the Vineta left Havana together with the other stationary SMS Gazelle and reached Port-au-Prince on June 11, where two gunboats were manned without a fight and the claimed payment could be forced in this way.

In 1873 the Vineta was supposed to take part in a new circumnavigation of the world as part of the Reichsgeschwader from the West Indies together with several other ships of the Imperial Navy , but was called to Europe on March 10, 1873, because the third Carlist War broke out there with the establishment of the first Spanish republic was. SMS Vineta returned to Europe with the rest of the ships with the exception of the new West India stationary Albatross . On the crossing the ship had to be partly towed by the flagship of the association, the armored frigate Friedrich Carl , due to a lack of coal until it arrived in Plymouth . Then the Vineta was ordered off the Spanish coast as part of the local German squadron.

Between 1875 and 1877 the Vineta undertook under captain of the sea Count v. Monts did one more circumnavigation of the world and then served as a cadet training ship, where she again undertook long trips abroad - for example to South America.

In 1884 she was removed from the list of warships and used as a training hulk for recruits and machinists. In 1897 the ship was scrapped in Kiel ; the figurehead is now in the Mürwik Naval School .

In Kiel- Gaarden-Ost the Vinetaplatz is named after the ship. The Vineta Heidelberg fraternity named itself after him in 1879.

literature

  • Gerhard Wiechmann: The Royal Prussian Navy in Latin America 1851 to 1867. An attempt at German gunboat policy , in: Sandra Carreras / Günther Maihold (ed.): Prussia and Latin America. In the field of tension between commerce, power and culture (Europa-Übersee vol. 12), Münster 2004, pp. 36–46, 84–173, ISBN 3-8258-6306-9 .
  • Christian Voigt: From the diary of a “Vineta” driver (1865–1868) , in: Marine-Rundschau , 33rd year (1928), pp. 362–370, 412–418.

Web links

Commons : SMS Vineta  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Gerhard Wiechmann: The Royal Prussian Navy in Latin America 1851 to 1867. An attempt at German gunboat policy , in: Sandra Carreras / Günther Maihold (ed.): Prussia and Latin America. In the field of tension between commerce, power and culture (Europa-Übersee Vol. 12). Münster 2004, p. 36.
  2. Gerhard Wiechmann: The Royal Prussian Navy in Latin America 1851 to 1867. An attempt at German gunboat policy , in: Sandra Carreras / Günther Maihold (ed.): Prussia and Latin America. In the field of tension between commerce, power and culture (Europa-Übersee Vol. 12). Münster 2004, p. 43.
  3. ^ Marine Rundschau: Zeitschrift für Seewesen, Volume 67, p. 216