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 |
|
| 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 keel for Nautilus was laid down at the Königlich Werft in Danzig in 1870. She was launched on 31 August 1871, and was commissioned on 4 June 1873.[2]
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]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.