SMS Gazelle (1859)

For the later light cruiser, see SMS Gazelle.
History
Prussia
NameSMS Gazelle
BuilderKönigliche Werft, Danzig
Laid down1855
Launched19 December 1859
Completed22 May 1861
Commissioned15 May 1862
Stricken8 January 1884
FateSold for scrap, 1906
General characteristics
Class and typeArcona-class frigate
Displacement2,391 t (2,353 long tons)
Length71.95 m (236 ft 1 in)
Beam13 m (42 ft 8 in)
Draft5.55 m (18 ft 3 in)
Installed power
Propulsion
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Speed12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Range1,150 nmi (2,130 km; 1,320 mi) at 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph)
Complement
  • 35 officers
  • 345 enlisted men
Armament
  • 6 × 68-pounder guns
  • 20 × 36 pounder guns

SMS Gazelle was an Arcona-class screw-driven frigate of the Prussian Navy built in the 1850s.

Design

Gazelle was 71.95 meters (236 ft 1 in) long overall and had a beam of 13 m (42 ft 8 in) and a draft of 5.55 m (18 ft 3 in) forward. She displaced 1,928 metric tons (1,898 long tons) as designed and 2,391 t (2,353 long tons) at full load. The ship had short forecastle and sterncastle decks straight stem. Her superstructure consisted primarily of a small deckhouse aft. She had a crew of 35 officers and 345 enlisted men.[1]

Her propulsion system consisted of a single horizontal single-expansion steam engine driving a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by four coal-burning fire-tube boilers. Exhaust was vented through a single funnel located amidships. Gazelle was rated to steam at a top speed of 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph), but she significantly exceeded this speed, reaching 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) from 1,320 metric horsepower (1,300 ihp). The ship had a cruising radius of about 1,150 nautical miles (2,130 km; 1,320 mi) at a speed of 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph). To supplement the steam engine on long voyages abroad, she carried a full-ship rig with a total surface area of 2,200 m2 (24,000 sq ft).[1] The screw could be retracted while cruising under sail.[2]

Gazelle was armed with a battery of six 68-pounder guns and twenty 36-pounder guns. By 1870, she had been rearmed with a uniform battery of seventeen 15 cm (5.9 in) K L/22 guns; later in her career, the number of these guns was reduced to eight.[1]

Service history

The Flying Squadron in 1872; Gazelle is second from the left

The ship was laid down in 1855 at the Royal Dockyard in Danzig, launched on 19 December 1859, completed on 22 May 1861, and commissioned into the Navy almost a year later on 15 May 1862.[3][2]

Gazelle was built in Danzig and launched in 1855, but engine problems led to her being put into service only in 1862. She undertook a voyage into East Asia under Arthur von Bothwell to replace her sister ship Arcona in Shanghai. In 1866, Gazelle was sent to the island of Lesbos to provide assistance following the earthquake. In 1872 she was stationed with Vineta in the West Indies to protect German interest in Haiti. From June 21, 1874 to April 28, 1876 it was sent on a research expedition to the southern hemisphere under Georg Freiherr von Schleinitz. Researchers aboard included the zoologist Theophil Studer, Friedrich Carl Naumann and Carl Hüesker. The astronomical side was handled by Karl Börgen and Ladislaus Weinek, with the aim of studying the transit of Venus on December 9, 1874 at Kerguelen.[4] The Gazelle Harbor in Bougainville was named after the ship.

She served on overseas duties for the majority of her career, in 1864 she sailed to Japan.[5] On 8 January 1884, when she was stricken from the naval register. She was used as a barracks ship in Wilhelmshaven thereafter, until she was sold for scrap in 1906 for 36,000 gold marks and broken up.[6]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Gröner, p. 42.
  2. ^ a b Lyon, p. 250.
  3. ^ Gröner, pp. 42–43.
  4. ^ Gould, W. John (2022-09-22). "HMS Challenger and SMS Gazelle – their 19th century voyages compared". History of Geo- and Space Sciences. 13 (2): 171–204. Bibcode:2022HGSS...13..171G. doi:10.5194/hgss-13-171-2022. ISSN 2190-5010.
  5. ^ von Tirpitz, Alfred (1919). My Memoirs (Volumes I & II) Kindle Edition. Dodd Mead & Company. p. 171. ASIN B083QPBBJK.
  6. ^ Gröner, p. 43.

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. 3. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7822-0211-4.
  • Lyon, Hugh (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. ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5.
  • Nottelmann, Dirk (2022). Wright, Christopher C. (ed.). "From "Wooden Walls" to "New-Testament Ships": The Development of the German Armored Cruiser 1854–1918, Part I: "Humble Beginnings"". Warship International. LIX (2): 102–129. ISSN 0043-0374.
  • Sondhaus, Lawrence (1997). Preparing for Weltpolitik: German Sea Power Before the Tirpitz Era. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-745-7.