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	Drawing of SMS Adler by Rear Admiral L.A. Kimberly, U.S. Navy
History
Name	SMS Adler
Namesake	German word for "eagle"
Builder	Kaiserliche Werft Kiel
Laid down	1882
Launched	3 November 1883
Commissioned	27 May 1885
Fate	Wrecked, 16 March 1889
General characteristics
Class and type	Habicht-class gunboat
Displacement	Full load: 1,005 t (989 long tons)
Length	59.2 m (194 ft 3 in)
Beam	8.9 m (29 ft 2 in)
Draft	3.52 m (11 ft 7 in)
Installed power	2 × fire-tube boilers; 600 PS (590 ihp);
Propulsion	1 × double-expansion steam engine; 1 × screw propeller;
Speed	11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph)
Range	2,010 nmi (3,720 km; 2,310 mi) at 9 kn (17 km/h; 10 mph)
Complement	6–7 officers; 121 enlisted men;
Armament	1 × 15 cm (5.9 in) gun; 4 × 12 cm (4.7 in) guns;

SMS Adler was a gunboat of the Imperial German Navy. She was launched 3 November 1883 in the Imperial shipyard in Kiel. On 5 September 1888, she shelled Manono Island and Apolima, Samoa, which were strongholds of Malietoa’s forces. She was wrecked together with the German gunboat SMS Eber, the German corvette SMS Olga, the United States Navy gunboat USS Nipsic, the U.S. Navy screw steamer USS Trenton, and the U.S. Navy sloop-of-war USS Vandalia on 16 March 1889 in a hurricane at Apia, Samoa, during the Samoan crisis.^[1]^[2] Twenty crew members lost their lives.

Design

By the mid-1870s, the large screw frigates and screw corvettes that formed the backbone of the German cruiser force were beginning to need to be replaced. Some of these ships had been in service for twenty years, and in that time spent considerable periods on deployments overseas. To replace these older vessels, the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) ordered the six Carola-class corvettes and three Habicht-class gunboats.^[3] The three gunboats were the first vessels of the type to use compound steam engines, which increased speed and engine efficiency.^[4]

Adler was 59.2 meters (194 ft 3 in) long overall, with a beam of 8.9 m (29 ft 2 in) and a draft of 3.52 m (11 ft 7 in) forward. She displaced 840 metric tons (830 long tons) as designed and 1,005 t (989 long tons) at full load. The ship's crew consisted of 6–7 officers and 121–126 enlisted men. She was powered by a double-expansion steam engine that drove a 2-bladed screw propeller, with steam provided by four coal-fired, cylindrical fire-tube boilers. Her propulsion system was rated to produce a top speed of 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) at 700 metric horsepower (690 ihp), but she reached 11.3 knots (20.9 km/h; 13.0 mph) in service. At a cruising speed of 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph), she could steam for 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km; 2,300 mi). To supplement the steam engine on long voyages, the ships were fitted with a schooner sailing rig.^[5] While cruising under sail, the screw could be raised.^[6]

The ship was armed with a single 15 cm (5.9 in) K L/22 built-up gun, which supplied from a magazine with 115 shells. She also carried four 12 cm (4.7 in) K L/23 built-up guns, which were supplied with a total of 440 rounds of ammunition. By 1882, the ship's armament had been standardized on a uniform battery of five 12.5 cm (4.9 in) K L/23 built up guns and five 37 mm (1.5 in) Hotchkiss revolver cannon.^[7]

Service history

Adler, the last member of the Habicht class, was laid down in 1882 at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Kiel. She was launched on 3 November 1883. Fitting out work proceeded slowly, and the ship was commissioned on 27 May 1885.^[8]

Wreck of SMS Adler
The wrecked ship
Rigging
The wreck about 1938

Notes

^ "Six War Vessels Sunk; Wrecked in a Hurricane at Samoa" (PDF). The New York Times. 30 March 1889.
^ "SMS Adler (Gunboat, 1885-1889)". Naval Historical Center. Archived from the original on 14 January 2012.
^ Sondhaus, pp. 136–137.
^ Nottelmann, p. 70.
^ Gröner, pp. 139–140.
^ Lyon, p. 260.
^ Gröner, p. 139.
^ Gröner, p. 140.

References

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. 1. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7822-0237-4.
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.
Sondhaus, Lawrence (1997). Preparing for Weltpolitik: German Sea Power Before the Tirpitz Era. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-745-7.