SMS watch
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The SMS Wacht was the type ship of a class of Avisos of the Imperial Navy named after it, which also included hunting . From 1899 both ships were classified as small cruisers .
construction
For the new construction of the Avisos E , the keel was stretched at the Bremer Werft AG Weser in August 1886 . A year later, on August 27, 1887, the ship was launched. Vice-Admiral Alexander von Monts , at that time chief of the North Sea naval station , baptized the new building with the name Wacht . The name refers to the military attention and stands for one of the areas of activity of the Aviso, which was also intended as a reconnaissance aircraft for the fleet. In the spring of 1888 the ship was transferred to Wilhelmshaven , where the armament was installed. A novelty on the watch was the lighting of all the ship's rooms with 145 light bulbs , in addition an arc lamp with 20,000 HK was installed as a spotlight on the command tower.
Working time
The watch was first put into service for test drives on August 9, 1888. After its completion on December 13, the ship was initially transferred to the reserve during the winter. On May 1, 1889, the watch was reactivated and machine tests were carried out. The ship then took part in exercises with the maneuvering squadron, during which a pipe burst on June 20. The damage caused was repaired at the Imperial Shipyard in Gdansk . In early August, the watch took part in a fleet visit to Great Britain. Together with the training squadron, whose flagship was the Kaiser , the Aviso accompanied the imperial couple to Athens , where the wedding of Sophie of Prussia with Crown Prince Constantine took place. After a visit to Turkey and the call to Trieste on December 12th, the watch had to call at the Pola naval shipyard to be subjected to a boiler repair. In the meantime, the ship represented the German Reich on December 23rd during a naval parade in the Bay of Mulgs in front of Emperor Franz Joseph I. On January 29, 1890, the watch left Pola and three days later met again with the training squadron off Malta . After the ship reached Wilhelmshaven on February 22nd, it was decommissioned on March 6th and then underwent a major overhaul. During this time, the three 10.5 cm guns were removed and replaced by four more modern models of the 8.8 cm caliber.
The watch was put back into service on October 6, 1891 and initially carried out test drives in the Baltic Sea until the end of February 1892. From March 8th she belonged to the 2nd Division of the maneuver squadron and took part in its exercises. These extended to southern Norway. From 4 to 8 June, accompanied watch the Hohenzollern , the Wilhelm II. For a meeting with the Russian Tsar Alexander III. brought. The Aviso was decommissioned again on October 12th.
The next activation of the watch took place on January 13, 1893. Until the beginning of March, the ship of the torpedo boats division served as a training ship for stokers and machinists, after which it was prepared as a flotilla ship for torpedo boats in Kiel. In mid-April accompanied the watch for the first time in service on April 8 new Imperial Yacht Hohenzollern from Swinoujscie to Kiel, where Aviso on April 15, the in distress geratenen Flensburger steamer Electra took in tow. On April 25th, the I. Torpedo Boat Flotilla was formed in Kiel, the lead ship of which was the watch . The flotilla was under the command of Corvette Captain Gustav Schmidt and comprised a total of twelve torpedo boats. This was followed by exercises with the flotilla and at the beginning of July with the maneuver fleet in the North Sea, and from August 20 to September 23 the autumn maneuvers in the North and Baltic Seas. After its completion, the I. Torpedo Flotilla was disbanded again. The watch initially accompanied the Hohenzollerns on test drives from September 27th, which led to Sweden and Norway, and was then decommissioned from October 11th.
On April 3, 1894, the watch was put back into service and assigned to the 2nd Division of the maneuver squadron. With this the ship took trips to Norway and the Shetland Islands . During the departure from Kiel, the Aviso rammed the Deutschland on July 2nd and had to visit the Kaiserliche Werft Kiel for three weeks to repair the damage . After participating in the autumn maneuvers carried out from August 19 to September 21, the watch was assigned to the I. Division of the maneuver squadron. Due to poor engine condition, the ship was finally decommissioned on December 8th in Wilhelmshaven and an overhaul was carried out as a result.
The watch was put back into service on March 18, 1896 and assigned to the 2nd Division of the 1st Squadron - the maneuver squadron was renamed accordingly at the beginning of the year. The ship took part in a voyage to Norway and the Netherlands that lasted until the end of May. Association exercises followed in June and July and the autumn maneuvers from August 9 to September 15. The latter had to be briefly interrupted on 5 September due to a collision with the torpedo boat D 3 and the damage had to be repaired in Kiel. Towards the end of the year a trip was made through the Skagerrak , which ended in Kiel in mid-December. On May 4, 1897, the watch was finally decommissioned in Wilhelmshaven.
By a very high cabinet order on February 27, 1899, all of the Imperial Navy notices were reclassified to small cruisers. This happened on the basis of the First Fleet Act, adopted a year earlier . In this the type of the small cruiser was stipulated as automatically to be replaced after 15 years. This regulation offered a large scope for future developments. At the same time, however, the assignment of the Avisos to this type of ship was problematic, since their military value was low and they could not fulfill the tasks of a cruiser.
The watch was put back into service on April 6, 1899. The ship suffered a propeller shaft accident at the end of the month. In July the cruiser was used as a reconnaissance aircraft during exercises by the 1st Squadron, as well as during fleet exercises in August. On September 12, a severe boiler explosion occurred near Korsör , in which four men of the crew were killed and five others were injured. The watch was towed by Bavaria to Kiel, where the cruiser was makeshift repairs. The ship was finally decommissioned on September 27th in Wilhelmshaven.
The watch was not put into service for the last time until August 11, 1901 . Six days later she was integrated into the 1st reconnaissance group and took part in exercises carried out in the North Sea together with the 2nd squadron.
Downfall
The watch was also called in for the autumn maneuvers that began on August 31, 1901. On the way to the Danzig Bay , the Hela and the Wacht received the order on September 4 north of Rügen to break through to port through the steaming fleet in the keel line . This maneuver failed the watch, however. The ship came directly in front of the Saxons and was rammed amidships by them. The cruiser could not be stopped, but due to the slow sinking, the entire crew of the watch could be recovered.
Lifting attempts made later were unsuccessful. Therefore, parts of the wreck were blown off, the rest was at a depth of more than 40 m and did not pose a risk (position 54 ° 41 ′ N , 13 ° 31 ′ E, ). The last commandant of the watch , Corvette Captain Hugo von Cotzhausen , had to answer before a court martial and was acquitted on October 8, 1901. This judgment was also upheld by an appeals court.
The small cruiser Stettin , launched in 1907, was built as a replacement for the watch .
Commanders
| August 9 to November 1888 | Corvette Captain Hirschberg |
| November 13th to December 13th 1888 | Corvette Captain van Hofen |
| May 1 to September 1889 | Corvette Captain Burich |
| September 1889 to March 6, 1890 | Corvette Captain Friedrich Graf von Baudissin |
| October 6, 1891 to March 1892 | Corvette Captain Hermann da Fonseca-Wollheim |
| March to September 1892 | Corvette Captain Ludwig Borckenhagen |
| September 12th to October 12th 1892 | Lieutenant Obenheimer |
| January 13 to October 11, 1893 | Captain Alfred Ehrlich |
| April 3 to September 1894 | Corvette Captain Johann Friedrich Meuss |
| September 8th to December 8th, 1894 | Corvette Captain Eduard Holzhauer |
| March 18 to December 1896 | Corvette Captain Carl Friedrich |
| January to February 1897 | Lieutenant Lothar Persius |
| March 4th to May 4th 1897 | Corvette Captain Otto Mandt |
| April 6 to September 27, 1899 | Captain Lieutenant / Corvette Captain von Oppeln-Bronikowski |
| August 11 to September 4, 1901 | Corvette Captain Hugo von Cotzhausen |
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. 122 f .
- Hildebrand, Hans H. / 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. 59-61 .