SMS Vineta (1897)
 SMS Vineta in 1905
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SMS Vineta was the fourth ship of the Victoria-Louise class , a class of five cruisers II. Class ( armored deck cruiser ) of the Imperial Navy .
construction
The cruiser II. Class M was stacked at the Imperial Shipyard in Danzig in the summer of 1896 . The plans of the official draft from 1895 for the class were changed slightly for the ship and the subsequent new building N and the ship was designed to be slightly larger. The construction weight increased by 225 t to 5,885 t. The cruiser was ready to be launched on December 9, 1897. As Vice Admiral Karl Ferdinand Batsch , who was originally intended to be the ship's godfather, fell ill, Admiral à la suite Friedrich von Hollmann took his place and named the ship in the name of the legendary city of Vineta .
Service as stationary
The Vineta was first put into service on September 13, 1899 to take test drives. After this was completed on March 24, 1900, the ship was equipped for a trip abroad after a short stay in the shipyard. Meanwhile, the commander of the cruiser, Captain Erich von der Groeben, succumbed to a stroke on May 19 , whereupon the test drive commander, Captain Hermann da Fonseca-Wollheim , had to take command of the ship again. On May 26, the Vineta finally left Kiel and set course for the West Indies and South America . On June 14, the ship reached St. Lucia and with it the East American station , which had been unmanned since the departure of the small cruiser SMS Geier in late 1898. In the following months, the Vineta undertook many cruises in the station area, especially off the Venezuelan coast and in the Caribbean . In January and February 1901, New Orleans and Mexican cities, then various ports of Venezuela were called. The ship later achieved a certain fame through the Vineta temporary , a temporary postage stamp, issued on April 1, 1901 by the ship 's mail. On April 6, the Vineta set out from Trinidad on a journey along the South American coast to the Río de la Plata , which lasted until August 1. That day the cruiser reached La Guaira .
The Vineta was initially to remain in Venezuela and the protection of German nationals and German trade interests during an evolving conflict between the command, Colombia to ensure and Venezuela. The small cruiser SMS Falke and the training ships SMS Stein and SMS Moltke were also sent to support them. In early October, shot a the Venezuelan coast-addressing steamer, and on October 6, two were mates of Vineta in Caracas illegally arrested. The cruiser then disembarked a landing corps in La Guaira, which freed the two mates. The incidents were finally resolved through diplomatic channels. Since the threat to German interests was less than expected, the Vineta ran from November 26 to December 17 to Newport News to have repairs carried out. During this time the falcon and the stone stayed off La Guaira. The latter finally started the journey home together with the Moltke in early 1902 , but the small cruiser SMS Gazelle arrived in the station area in February 1902.
The Vineta had to return to the Newport News shipyard on May 19 to carry out urgently needed repairs. After it was completed on September 25, the ship went to Port au Prince , where the gunboat SMS Panther had sunk the gunboat Crête-à-Pierrot , which was commanded by rebels, on September 6th ( Markomannia incident ). Since the falcon also arrived off Haiti , the Vineta continued to Venezuela.
The Venezuela crisis
There, Cipriano Castro , the President of Venezuela, imposed a blockade on the coastal cities, which was not recognized by Germany, among others. Germany and Great Britain agreed on joint action against Venezuela, for which from December 1, 1902, in addition to the Vineta , the Gazelle , the Falcon , the Panther , the Stein and the SMS Charlotte were available. The background to this development was the slowdown in the repayment of Venezuelan foreign debts, especially in Great Britain, the Netherlands and the German Empire, which has stalled since Castro's accession to government.
After Castro's ultimatum on December 7th remained unanswered, the German ships, reinforced by HMS Retribution and HMS Quail , began to seize the Venezuelan warships on December 10th. Four days later this action was completed. The arrest of the German consul in La Guaira could be prevented by a landing corps of the Vineta , to which the British put the retribution to the side without being asked . In return, the German landing corps helped protect British nationals.
Since the Venezuelan authorities detained the British steamer Topaze in Puerto Cabello , the HMS Charybdis and the Vineta called the city, destroyed the two forts securing the port entrance and freed the steamer and its crew. Under the impression of the determined action of the Germans and British, the German and British nationals held in Caracas were released. On December 16, the German ships were combined to form the East American Cruiser Division in order to ensure a more effective and tighter command. Captain Georg Scheder was appointed commodore of the division.
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On December 20th, the British government declared the blockade of the Venezuelan ports. Both Germany and Italy followed suit. Vice-Admiral Archibald Douglas on the HMS Ariadne took command of the warships involved in the three countries . On the German side, in addition to the Vineta, the Gazelle , the Falcon , the Panther , the Charlotte , the SMS Stosch and the confiscated Venezuelan gunboat Restaurador were involved. In addition, the was HAPAG -Dampfer Sibiria used as a collier. On January 4, 1903, German landing corps occupied the port of Puerto Cabello and the ships lying there in the roadstead . After the Panther was shot at from Fort San Carlos when entering Maracaibo on January 17 and had to break off the fight due to a jam on the front 10.5 cm gun, the Vineta went there four days later and shot at the fort 20 21 cm grenades and 86 15 cm caliber. There was no resistance, as the fort was quickly abandoned by its crew. After that the fort was in ruins and burned. Grenades also hit the nearby port. Deliberate or not, 25 civilians were killed in the bombing, which is why German and British citizens were arrested by Venezuelan authorities.
This was the last combat mission of the Vineta during the conflict, as a diplomatic solution had meanwhile been found. At a peace conference held in Washington, DC , Venezuela got back all seized ships, but in return pledged the revenue from the customs offices of La Guaira and Puerto Cabello to Great Britain and Germany in order to settle the outstanding debts. The aim of the military operation was thus achieved. For Germany, however, it had also led to a loss of reputation after the United States had initially agreed to the planned action by Great Britain, Italy and Germany, and especially the German Reich in the US press about land acquisition intentions and a fight against the Monroe Doctrine were accused. However, in a note officially handed over to the US government, all participating countries had declared that the planned actions should not constitute a violation of said doctrine, and they had confirmed this several times in the course of the crisis.
Further time as a stationary
After the end of the Venezuela conflict, the Vineta first visited some Caribbean ports and stayed in Halifax from June 27 to September 2, 1903 in the shipyard. In October, the ships of the East American cruiser division met off Saint Thomas , where on November 15, the captain of the sea and Commodore Ludwig Schröder became the new head of the division. In December 1903 and January 1904, the division crossed the Caribbean, visited Veracruz from February 4th to 13th and then called again at various Caribbean ports. In spring 1904 the ships of the division separated, although this officially continued to exist.
The Vineta was on Newport News from May 20 through July 11 . During this time, Commodore Schröder paid a visit to President Theodore Roosevelt . As a result, the cruiser went to Charlotte Amalie on Saint Thomas, as Denmark had offered the island of Germany for sale. However, the German Reich refused, as it had already done several times before. From the Danish West Indies , the Vineta then embarked on a journey along the South American east coast, visiting several Brazilian ports. On October 5, the ship set out from Rio de Janeiro for German South West Africa , where the Herero and Nama uprising was in progress. In addition, the Russian fleet of Admiral Sinowi Petrovich Roschestwenski, steaming to East Asia, was just in the sea area of German South West Africa, where it was stashing coal from German merchant ships in Lüderitz Bay . Initially, Vineta stayed in Angolan waters for four weeks in order to prevent suspected arms deliveries to the rebellious Herero .
On November 19, 1904, the steamer Gertrud Woermann ran up off Swakopmund and was laden with troops, horses and supplies. The Vineta ran to the wrecked ship for assistance, from which people and material could be recovered. Commodore Schröder managed the work from on board the Gertrud Woermann . However, the steamer itself could not be saved. In January 1905 the Vineta , which had been temporarily shadowed by the HMS Barrosa and the Portuguese gunboat Cacongo during its deployment in German South West Africa , started its journey home via Duala and Monrovia . The cruiser arrived in Wilhelmshaven on March 14; a day later the East American Cruiser Division was officially dissolved.
Use as a torpedo test ship
The Vineta went on to Kiel and was subjected to the torpedo inspection on March 30, 1905 . The Kaiserliche Werft Kiel undertook the conversion to the torpedo test ship, which lasted until January 3, 1906. On this day the crew was filled to full strength and the cruiser joined the torpedo test command as the second ship next to the SMS Munich . In addition to working as a test ship, the Vineta was used from March 21 to April 5, 1907 for radio-telegraphic experiments and visited Vigo during this . From April 15 to May 4, the cruiser belonged to the association of training and test ships and was used from August 25 to September 7 as a reconnaissance aircraft during the autumn maneuvers of the deep-sea fleet . From March 30 to April 25, 1908, the Vineta was again part of the Association of Training and Test Ships and was in the shipyard for repairs from July 6 to September 5. Since at the beginning of 1909 a more modern ship was available for service as a torpedo test ship with the SMS Friedrich Carl , the Vineta was decommissioned on February 26, 1909 in Danzig.
Use as a training ship
Like her sister ships, the Vineta was subsequently prepared as a training ship for midshipmen and ship boys . During the work carried out by the Imperial Shipyard in Danzig, the twelve Dürr boilers previously used were replaced by eight marine boilers, which made it possible to do without a chimney and thus significantly changed the silhouette of the ship. In addition, the armament was changed.
On March 29, 1911, the Vineta was put back into service for its new task. The ship set off on June 7th for a first training voyage in Norwegian waters, which lasted until July 25th. The first long winter training trip began on August 4th. It led into the Caribbean and ended with the return of the cruiser on March 9, 1912. After visiting Libau and Stockholm in July 1912 , the Vineta embarked on August 6th for the second major training voyage, the destination of which was the Mediterranean . After the outbreak of the First Balkan War , the Vineta, lying off Corfu , was ordered to Constantinople , where the ship arrived on November 7th and disembarked a landing corps of 126 men. On November 13, the cruiser was assigned to the newly formed Mediterranean Division under Rear Admiral Konrad Trummler (his flagship SMS Goeben arrived in Constantinople on November 15) and remained on the Bosporus until December 9 . The Vineta continued its training trip and started on January 2, 1913 from Alexandria on the journey home. The ship was back in Kiel on March 5th.
After voyages in the Baltic Sea in the summer, the Vineta began their last major international voyage on August 11th, which again led to South America and the Caribbean. Since revolutionary unrest broke out in Haiti in January 1914, the cruiser, with the consent of the USS South Carolina lying off Port au Prince , disembarked a landing corps to protect German citizens and granted the previous President Michel Oreste asylum on board the ship. Oreste later boarded the HAPAG passenger ship Prinz Eitel Friedrich , which took him into exile in Colombia . The Vineta finished her voyage on March 16, 1914 in Kiel. Another summer trip followed in the Baltic Sea, calling at Stockholm, Visby , Glücksburg and Gothenburg .
Use in the First World War
When the First World War broke out , the Vineta was in the shipyard in Wilhelmshaven . She was assigned to the V Reconnaissance Group and from August 27, 1914, she was used in the outpost service in the western Baltic Sea. On October 20, she was involved in an advance to the east of Bornholm and from October 24 to 26 in a company that led to the eastern Baltic Sea. On November 16, 1914, the V Reconnaissance Group was disbanded and the Vineta , like all her sister ships with the exception of the Freya , decommissioned.
Whereabouts
The Vineta was after their decommissioning initially unused in Kiel and served there from 1915 until the war ended as a barracks ship for submarine -Besatzungen. On December 6, 1919, the ship was struck off the list of warships and scrapped in Hamburg the following year .
Commanders
| September 1899 | Sea captain Hugo Westphal |
| September 30, 1899 to April 30, 1900 | Sea captain Hermann da Fonseca-Wollheim |
| May 1900 | Sea captain Erich von der Groeben |
| May 21, 1900 to November 12, 1901 | Sea captain Hermann da Fonseca-Wollheim |
| November 1901 to June 1902 | Sea captain Oscar stairs |
| June to August 1902 | Lieutenant Peter von Lengerke |
| August 25, 1902 to November 14, 1903 | Sea captain Georg Scheder |
| November 1903 to March 1905 | Sea captain Ludwig Schröder |
| March to September 1905 | Lieutenant Captain Gustav-Julius Maerker |
| September 1905 to January 1906 | Captain Bruno Heuberer |
| January to March 1906 | Corvette Captain Ferdinand Thyen |
| March to June 1906 | Sea captain Ernst Schaefer |
| June to July 1906 | Corvette Captain Eberhard von Mantey |
| July to October 1906 | Sea captain Ernst Schaefer |
| October 1906 to July 1908 | Frigate captain / sea captain Friedrich Schultz |
| July to September 1908 | unknown |
| September 1908 to February 26, 1909 | Sea captain Friedrich Schultz |
| March 29, 1911 to March 1913 | Sea captain Karl Sievers |
| April 1, 1913 to November 16, 1914 | Frigate captain / sea captain Wilhelm Adelung |
literature
- Erich Gröner , 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. 73-75 .
- Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . tape 8 : Ship biographies from Undine to Zieten . Mundus Verlag, Ratingen, S. 41-47 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fort San Carlos
- ^ Gerhard Wiechmann: The Prussian-German Navy in Latin America 1866 - 1914: a study of German gunboat policy. Dissertation, University of Oldenburg, 2000. Pages 351–352. ( online ).