SMS Nautilus (1871)
.jpg) Etching of SMS Albatross
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 German Empire | |
| Name | SMS Nautilus |
| Builder | Kaiserliche Werft Danzig |
| Laid down | 1870 |
| Launched | 31 August 1871 |
| Commissioned | 4 June 1873 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement |
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| Length | 56.95 m (186 ft 10 in) o/a |
| Beam | 8.32 m (27 ft 4 in) |
| Draft | 3.75 m (12 ft 4 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Range | 1,270 nautical miles (2,350 km; 1,460 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement |
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| Armament |
|
SMS Nautilus was the second and final member of the Albatross class of steam gunboats built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the 1870s.
Design
[edit]In the late 1850s and early 1860s, the Prussian Navy had embarked on a construction program that included the fifteen Jäger-class gunboats and eight Camäleon-class gunboats. By 1869, the navy realized that the earliest vessels, starting with the badly rotted Crocodill, would need to be replaced. Design work started for the new class, which were intended for overseas cruising, instead of coastal defense as the earlier vessels had been.[1]
Nautilus was 56.95 meters (186 ft 10 in) long overall, with a beam of 8.32 m (27 ft 4 in) and a draft of 3.75 m (12.3 ft). She displaced 713 metric tons (702 long tons) normally and 786 t (774 long tons) at full load. The ship's crew consisted of 5 officers and 98 enlisted men. She was powered by a pair of marine steam engines that drove one 2-bladed screw propeller, with steam provided by two coal-fired fire-tube boilers, which gave her a top speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) at 496 metric horsepower (489 ihp). As built, she was equipped with a three-masted barque rig. The ship was armed with a battery of two 15 cm (5.9 in) K L/22 built-up guns and two 12 cm (4.7 in) K L/23 built-up guns.[2][3]
Service history
[edit]The contract for Nautilus was awarded on 9 November 1869; she was initially ordered as an aviso to comply with the fleet plan of 1867.[4][5] The keel for the new ship was laid down at the Königlich Werft in Danzig in 1870. She was launched on 31 August 1871, but completion of the ship was delayed while the sea trials of her sister ship Albatross were carried out. Nautilus eventually began her own trials, though not in commission, on 15 November 1872. Testing concluded on 7 December, and on 7 May 1873, she was formally reclassified as a gunboat. The ship was commissioned on 4 June 1873, under the command of Korvettenkapitän (KK—Corvette Captain) Johann-Heinrich Pirner. Nautilus initially joined the Training Squadron, based in Wilhelmshaven and led by the flagship Hertha. She took part in training maneuvers at Kiel that began on 24 June. Nautilus decommissioned on 17 September for the winter months.[2][6]
Deployment to Spain
[edit]Nautilus was recommissioned on 17 March 1874. In August, she and Albatross were ordered to Spain in response to the Cantonal rebellion and the contemporaneous Third Carlist War. The deployment was in response to attacks against Germans in the country, including the summary execution of a retired captain of the Prussian Navy on the orders of Prince Carlos, the leader of the Carlist rebellion against the First Spanish Republic. The German chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, pressed the navy to send a squadron of ironclads to Spain in response to the attacks, but Kaiser Wilhelm I and Albrecht von Stosch, the Chief of the Admiralty, preferred a smaller and less intrusive option. Therefore, Nautilus and Albatross were to be sent; they were ordered to avoid interfering in internal Spanish affairs and to act in close cooperation with Paul von Hatzfeldt, the German ambassador to Spain.[6]
On 8 August, the two gunboats departed Kiel, under the overall command of the captain of Nautilus, Kapitänleutnant (Captain Lieutenant) Zembsch, as he was the senior officer of the two captains. They arrived in Santander, Spain, on 24 August and thereafter patrolled the northern coast of Spain. Their presence prompted rumors that the Germans would intervene in the fighting in Spain, and Carlist artillery batteries opened fire on them while they cruised off Guetaria. Nautilus and Albatross returned fire and then continued on along the coast. the ships returned to Santander the fall to seek shelter from heavy storms, remaining there through October. Illegal weapon shipments from France prompted the Spanish Navy, the British Royal Navy, and the German gunboats to begin joint operations to interdict the vessels carrying guns to Spain. Nautilus, Albatross, and the British gunboat HMS Fly patrolled the area through the end of the year. On 12 December, Nautilus rescued most of the crew from the Italian barque La Pace after it sank in Santander.[7]
As weather in the area worsened as winter approached, Albatross was ordered to return to Germany on 19 December, while Nautilus departed the following day for La Plata, by way of the West Indies. But events in northern Spain would quickly see both ships recalled; the Rostock-flagged brig Gustav had put in at Guetaria due to the weather, and Carlist forces had opened fire, prompting the crew to abandon the vessel. Gustav then ran aground and was seized by the Carlist forces, who demanded payment to return the vessel and its cargo. Bismarck immediately demanded a retaliation, and both ships were ordered back to Spain. In addition, the screw corvette Augusta, which was in Curacao, was sent to join them. The three ships had assembled in Santander by 31 January 1875, and Zembsch led negotiations with the Carlists. They eventually reached an acceptable resolution, and the two sides exchanged salutes in Guetaria on 28 April, formally ending the incident. Nautilus then sailed for Gibraltar, so as to be available quickly in the event of another incident.[8]
Nautilus thereafter sailed south to visit ports in Morocco on 12 June; she cruised off the Moroccan coast through the end of September, interrupted only by a period of repair in Cadiz, Spain. The ship was then ordered back to the northern Spanish coast, as unrest there threatened German commercial interests. She arrived back in Santander on 17 October. Zembsch left the ship at that time. Nautilus remained in Spanish waters until early 1876, by which time the Carlist rebellion had been defeated. On 3 March, the ship received orders to return home, and after arriving in Kiel, she was drydocked for examination. Found to be in good condition, she received a pair of 4 cm (1.6 in) anti-balloon guns, at the insistence of her new captain, KK Victor Valois, in preparation for another deployment overseas.[9]
Deployment to China
[edit]Later career
[edit]Nautilus was struck from the naval register on 14 December 1896 and thereafter reduced to a coal storage hulk based in Kiel. She was sold to ship breakers in 1905 and dismantled in Swinemünde.[2]
Notes
[edit]- ^ Nottelmann, pp. 65–67.
- ^ a b c Gröner, p. 134.
- ^ Lyon, p. 260.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 143.
- ^ Nottelmann, p. 67.
- ^ a b Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 142–143.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 143–144.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 144–145.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 145.
References
[edit]- Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships: 1815–1945. Vol. I: Major Surface Vessels. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-790-6.
- Hildebrand, Hans H.; Röhr, Albert & Steinmetz, Hans-Otto (1993). Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe: Biographien – ein Spiegel der Marinegeschichte von 1815 bis zur Gegenwart [The German Warships: Biographies − A Reflection of Naval History from 1815 to the Present] (in German). Vol. 6. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN 3-7822-0237-6.
- Lyon, David (1979). "Germany". In Gardiner, Robert; Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M. (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 240–265. ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5.
- Nottelmann, Dirk (2022). "The Development of the Small Cruiser in the Imperial German Navy Part III: The Gunboats". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2022. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. pp. 63–79. ISBN 978-1-4728-4781-2.