SMS Leipzig (1875)

SMS"SMS" stands for '' Seiner Majestät Schiff'', or "His Majesty's Ship" in German. ''Leipzig'' was a German flush-deck steam corvette, the lead ship of the , named after the 1813 Battle of Leipzig. She was built for the '' Kaiserliche Marine'' (Imperial Navy) in the 1870s, being laid down in early 1875, launched in September that year, and commissioned into the fleet in May 1877. She had one sister ship, . Intended for long cruises abroad, the ship was fitted with a full ship rig to supplement her steam engine if coal was unavailable. She carried a battery of twelve guns.

''Leipzig'' went on two overseas cruises as a training ship for naval cadets early in her career. The first, in 1877–1878, went to Central America and East Asia; while in Central American waters, she was involved in an international dispute between Germany and Nicaragua. The second cruise, which took place from 1882 to 1884, also went to East Asia. While on the way back to Germany, she stopped in the newly-proclaimed colony of German Southwest Africa, where she participated in the flag-raising ceremony. From 1885 to 1888, ''Leipzig'' was extensively modernized and reconstructed for use as a squadron flagship overseas.

In 1888, ''Leipzig'' embarked on a major overseas deployment, first to German East Africa, which was in the midst of the Abushiri revolt. ''Leipzig'' and several other warships formed a cruiser squadron that bombarded rebel troops and sent landing parties ashore to suppress the rebellion, which was defeated by 1890. ''Leipzig'' and the rest of the squadron went to East Asia, but in 1891 they were reassigned to Chilean waters to protect German interests during the Civil War of 1891. After the fighting subsided, ''Leipzig'' alternated between East Africa and East Asia before being recalled to Germany in 1893 after a refit in Cape Town revealed a significant deterioration in her condition. Found to be not worth repairing, she was converted into a barracks ship and training hulk, a role she filled until 1919, when she sank unexpectedly. She was raised in 1921 and subsequently broken up in 1921.

Design

After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, the newly formed '' Kaiserliche Marine'' (Imperial Navy) began an expansion program to strengthen the fleet. The naval command determined that modern steam corvettes were necessary for scouting purposes, as well as overseas cruising duties to protect German interests abroad. The two ''Leipzig''-class corvettes were ordered as part of the fleet plan of 1873, which called for a total of twenty unarmored corvettes, twelve of which were already either in service or under construction. ''Leipzig'' was the first iron-hulled corvette of the German fleet; originally designed with a forecastle, the ship was completed with a flush deck instead.

''Leipzig'' was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced at full load. The ship's crew consisted of 39 officers and 386 enlisted men. She was powered by a single marine steam engine that drove one 2-bladed screw propeller, with steam provided by ten coal-fired fire-tube boilers, which gave her a top speed of at . She had a cruising radius of at a speed of . ''Leipzig'' was equipped with a full ship rig to supplement her steam engines on long-distance cruises.

''Leipzig'' was armed with a battery of twelve breech-loading guns, two of which were 25-caliber (cal.); the other ten were shorter 20-cal. weapons. Two of the guns were in the bow as chase guns, with the rest on the broadside. Later in her career, she had four Hotchkiss revolver cannon installed, along with four torpedo tubes. These were all above-water launchers, with two in the bow and one on each side.

Service history

''Leipzig'' was laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin in 1875. Her completed hull was launched on 13 September 1875, and her launching ceremony was attended by the Chief of the ''Kaiserliche Admiralität'' (Imperial Admiralty), General Albrecht von Stosch, who christened the ship ''Leipzig'' after the 1813 Battle of Leipzig. After fitting-out work was completed, she was towed from Stettin to Swinemünde on 31 May 1877 and was commissioned into the fleet the following day, though she had not yet had her armament installed. The Oberburgermeister of Leipzig, Otto Robert Georgi, and Field Marshal Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia attended the commissioning ceremony; Georgi gave the ship its flags as a gift from the city of Leipzig. ''Leipzig'' then began initial sea trials that lasted until 12 June. The ship then had her guns installed, after which she began further trials starting on 13 September under the command of ''Korvettenkapitän'' (''KK''—Corvette Captain) Carl Paschen. A week later, she accidentally ran aground off Kleverberg outside Kiel and had to have some of ballast removed before she could be refloated. She was then towed to the ''Kaiserliche Werft'' (Imperial Shipyard) in Kiel by the shipyard tugboat ''Notus''. Sea trials were completed on 5 October, and the following day, ''Leipzig'' was ordered to begin her first overseas cruise.

First overseas cruise

Still under Paschen's command, ''Leipzig'' was to be employed as a training ship for naval cadets. She embarked men from the Crew of 1876, which included the future admirals Erich Gühler, Wilhelm Schack, and Adolph von Bassewitz. Paschen's orders instructed him to proceed to East Asia, where he would serve as the commander of German warships in the region. On 17 November, ''Leipzig'' departed Germany and crossed the Atlantic Ocean, stopping first in Central American waters. While there, she was temporarily assigned to a German squadron tasked with protecting German interests in Nicaragua during the so-called "Eisenstuck Affair". A pair of German merchants, Paul and Christian Eisenstuck, were reportedly attacked in the country and the Nicaraguan government did not investigate the incident quickly enough for German satisfaction, and so Bernhard Ernst von Bülow, the foreign minister, ordered a flotilla of warships to enforce German demands for an indemnity. In early 1878, ''Leipzig'' and five other vessels that had gathered off the coast landed men at Corinto to seize weapons in the event that Nicaragua chose to resist German demands, though the government quickly acceded.

On 11 April, ''Leipzig'' resumed her voyage to East Asia. After rounding the southern tip of South America and entering the Pacific Ocean, she stopped in Honolulu in the Hawaiian Islands, where she was visited by King Kalākaua. She then visited several ports in Mexico and the United States, before proceeding across the Pacific. She arrived in Yokohama, Japan on 5 July, where she relieved the corvette , which then departed for Germany. At the time, the East Asia Squadron also included the gunboats and , though ''Albatross'' was soon replaced by , and the corvette joined them later. On 7 October, Paschen was promoted to the rank of '' Kapitän zur See'' (''KzS''—Captain at Sea); at that time, all four ships of the squadron rendezvoused in Nagasaki, Japan. Over the following five months, ''Leipzig'' remained in Japanese waters. In April 1879, she sailed to China, where she met her sister ship and the corvette , which had been sent to replace ''Leipzig'' and ''Freya'', respectively. On 28 May, ''Leipzig'' departed Shanghai and began the voyage back to Germany, stopping in Singapore, Anjer in the Dutch East Indies, Mauritius, Cape Town, South Africa, and Plymouth, Great Britain, before arriving in Kiel on 27 September. There, she was decommissioned.

Second overseas cruise

''Leipzig'' remained out of service until late 1882, and during this period she underwent an extensive overhaul that included moving the bridge further aft, replacing the rudder with a more effective one, and installing the four 35 cm torpedo tubes. On returning to service in October 1882 under the command of ''KK'' Otto Herbig, she embarked the 1881 Crew, which included Franz von Hipper. The ship departed Germany on 19 October and after encountering severe storms in the North Sea, stopped in Plymouth and Yarmouth to wait for the weather to improve. She thereafter followed the same route to East Asia as she had in 1877, though she did not stop in Central America while en route. She reached East Asia in June 1883, where she joined the corvette , the flagship of '' Konteradmiral'' (''KAdm''—Rear Admiral) Louis von Blanc. In August, ''Leipzig'' visited Vladivostok, Russia, and in October, she carried the German Consul General from Shanghai to Chemulpo, so he could sign a trade agreement between Germany and the Kingdom of Korea. Poor weather conditions compelled ''Leipzig'' to stay in Korea through December, and during this period Herbig, four officers, and the ship's band went to visit King Gojong of Korea in Seoul. On 15 December, Herbig was promoted to the rank of ''Kapitän zur See''.

In early March 1884, ''Leipzig'' received orders to begin the voyage back to Germany. The ship stopped first in Manila in the Philippines before sailing through the Sulu Sea to northern Borneo, where she stopped in Sandakan. From there, she sailed to Singapore for repairs that lasted from 19 April to 10 June. During this stay, a major outbreak of fever rendered 6 officers and 230 sailors seriously ill, and they had to be transported home, with a replacement crew sent to bring ''Leipzig'' back to Germany. While in Cape Town, Herbig received new orders directing him to take ''Leipzig'' to German South West Africa, which had recently been declared a German protectorate. ''Leipzig'' sailed to Lüderitz Bay on 18 July, where she was joined by the screw frigate on 6 August. ''Elisabeth''s captain read the formal proclamation announcing the German protectorate, and ''Leipzig'' remained in the area to patrol the new colony. On 30 August, she went to the island of Fernando Po, where she met the gunboat , which had the German Commissioner Gustav Nachtigal aboard. On 5 September, she sailed to Porto Seguro in Togoland. ''Leipzig'' then left West African waters and returned to Germany by way of Cape Verde, Madeira, and Plymouth. She reached Wilhelmshaven, Germany, on 9 October.

Refit

The ''Admiralität'' issued orders on 18 February 1885 to heavily rebuild the ship, which on 25 November 1884 had been re-designated as a "''Kreuzerfregatte''" (Cruiser-Frigate). She was to be modified for service as a permanent cruiser squadron flagship, able to remain abroad for extended periods of time. At that time, the German navy did not possess a ship suited to that purpose, and opposition in the ''Reichstag'' (Imperial Diet) prevented the construction of a new vessel to fill the role. ''Leipzig'' was stripped down to her iron hull and almost completely rebuilt with new wood planking, the installation of additional transverse bulkheads to increase the number of watertight compartments, a new propulsion system, and a reorganization of the interior spaces to accommodate an admiral and his staff. The new boilers installed in the ship necessitated the addition of a second funnel, which was fixed, as opposed to the original funnel that could be retracted.

Work was finished by late 1886, and the ship was recommissioned under the command of ''KK'' Herbing for sea trials, which lasted from 1 September to 20 October. Speed tests demonstrated that the ship was not fast enough for her intended duties, and attempts to increase her speed by fitting a different rudder to reduce drag failed to rectify the problem. She therefore went back into the shipyard, and during this period, electrical generators were installed to provide electric lights for the entire ship. She was recommissioned again on 12 October 1887, again under Herbing's command, for additional trials that lasted until 12 November. Her speed still proved unsatisfactory, and during the tests she suffered an accident with her propeller. On 6 April 1888, she was again ready for trials, now under command of ''KK'' Eduard Hartog. She was still too slow, so she returned to the shipyard yet again, though she remained in commission during this last period, and in early June she was finally declared ready for service.

Third overseas cruise

1888–1890

''Leipzig'' embarked on her next deployment abroad on 14 June to replace the corvette . The new squadron commander, ''KAdm'' Karl August Deinhard, was travelling independently by passenger ship. ''Leipzig'' stopped in Aden on 16 July, where she formally relieved ''Bismarck'' as the squadron flagship, and proceeded to Zanzibar, where she arrived on 2 August. There, she joined the corvette ; the latter vessel's commander, ''KzS'' Franz Strauch was serving as the squadron's interim commander while Deinhard was still en route, and so he transferred to ''Leipzig'' and Hartog took his place aboard ''Olga''. Deinhard arrived on 31 August and took command of the squadron in Manda Bay, Kenya. At the time, the squadron consisted of ''Leipzig'', ''Olga'', ''Möwe'', and from 31 December the unprotected cruiser and from 5 January 1889 the aviso . The squadron, which was intended to operate in the South Pacific, had instead to remain off German East Africa due to the Abushiri revolt, a major rebellion against German rule; this was indeed the reason ''Schwalbe'' and ''Pfeil'' were sent to reinforce the squadron. The operations conducted off German East Africa were the largest and longest sustained action of the German fleet before World War I.

On 8 September, ''Leipzig'', ''Olga'', and ''Möwe'' sent troops ashore at Tanga. ''Leipzig'' then went to Bagamoyo where she shelled rebel troops. Starting on 2 November, the German ships enforced a blockade of the coast in concert with the Royal Navy, and a month later the Italian and Portuguese warships in the region joined the effort. From 5 to 6 December, ''Leipzig'' again bombarded rebel forces in Bagamoyo; she remained there for the rest of the month and was joined there for subsequent battles by the corvette . ''Leipzig'' then went to Dar es Salam, which she helped to defend from 11 to 16 January 1889. On 3 February, she went to Bagamoyo to defend the port from renewed rebel attacks. ''Leipzig''s marines took part in the occupation of Kunduchi on 27 March 1889, in a campaign led by Major Hermann Wissmann. On 8 May, men from ''Leipzig'', ''Carola'', and ''Schwalbe'' attacked a rebel camp outside of Bagamoyo, and two days later ''Leipzig''s detachment attacked Mbegani and Mwangoni. ''Leipzig'', ''Pfeil'', and ''Schwalbe'' shelled Saadani on 6 June and sent men ashore to attack rebels there. In July, ''Leipzig'' operated off Pangani and Tanga and participated in the blockade effort.

By the end of July, the insurrection was all but over; Dar es Salam and Bagamoyo had been successfully defended and Wissmann's troops had retaken Tanga and Saadani. In August, ''Schwalbe'' was detached to rest her crew in Mauritius and ''Möwe'' was sent home. On 13 August, ''Leipzig'' left East Africa to undergo an overhaul in Cape Town. The work lasted into September, and while ''Leipzig'' was away, her place as squadron flagship was taken by ''Carola''. On 4 September, while ''Leipzig'' was still in the drydock, Deinhard received instructions that he was to take his ship as soon as was possible to the Mediterranean Sea, where he was to brief Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was cruising there in his yacht ''Hohenzollern'' with the Armored Training Squadron. By early October, work on ''Leipzig'' had proceeded to the point where the ship was again seaworthy and she was able to steam north to the eastern Mediterranean, which she reached on 28 October. She rendezvoused with the Armored Training Squadron off the island of Mytilene on 1 November; ''Hohenzollern'' was at that time in Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire, and she arrived five days later. Deinhard delivered his report on 6 November, after which all of the German ships steamed to Italy and ''Leipzig'' went into the drydock in Venice on 12 November to complete the overhaul begun in Cape Town.

1890–1891

The overhaul was finished on 15 December, allowing ''Leipzig'' to return to East Africa, stopping in Malta and Port Said on the way; while in the latter port, the ship's crew celebrated Christmas and New Year's Day, 1890. The ship then proceeded to Aden, where she received orders to proceed to East Asia, rather than East Africa. The rest of the squadron was to remain in East African waters, while ''Leipzig'' proceeded independently to China. While on the way across the Indian Ocean, she stopped in Kochi, India, before reaching Hong Kong on 20 March. There, she joined the other warships on the East Asia station, the corvette and the gunboats and ''Wolf''. By this time, Deinhard had been promoted to the rank of '' Vizeadmiral'' (''VAdm''—Vice Admiral) and recalled to Germany; his replacement, ''KAdm'' Victor Valois, began the voyage out to take command of the squadron. ''Leipzig'' began a tour of Japanese ports, and while in Nagasaki on 20 May, Valois reached the ship. ''Leipzig'' then cruised south to Singapore via Hong Kong and Manila, after which she toured the Dutch East Indies, sailed through Dampier Strait, and then visited the Bismarck Archipelago. The voyage ended in Sydney, Australia on 16 September, where she met the corvette , which then joined the squadron.

''Leipzig'' went into drydock in Sydney for repairs, and in November the squadron sailed to New Zealand and then to Apia in Samoa. In January 1891, the ships of the East Asia Squadron left Apia and returned to Hong Kong, at times sailing independently. ''Leipzig'' arrived there on 14 February and beginning in mid-March, she began a tour of Chinese ports, which included Nanking. While in the Wusung Roads she ran aground, but was able to free herself at high tide. Valois received instructions ordering him to take his corvettes to Chile, but the grounding delayed his departure. He had taken ''Leipzig'' to Yokohama to have the ship's hull inspected for damage, and while there he received another set of orders stressing the need to proceed to South America as soon as possible. Chile was embroiled in the Civil War of 1891, and the conflict threatened German interests in the country. The German chancellor, Leo von Caprivi, initially opposed sending warships to join the international fleet that had begun to assemble off Chile to protect foreigners in the country, but after an extended debate in the ''Reichstag'', he relented and ordered Valois to Chile. The second order he had received was worded so harshly that he instructed his ship's captains to skip replenishing their coal stocks to avoid any further delay, hoping instead to use favorable winds to cross the Pacific as quickly as possible.

As the ships crossed the Pacific, they did not find the winds to be strong enough to propel them as quickly as Valois had hoped, and so they had to resort to their steam engines. But ''Leipzig'', which notoriously burned through coal at a prodigious rate, ran out of fuel while en route. ''Sophie'' and ''Alexandrine'' had to take her under tow for the rest of the voyage, which covered some over the course of 97 hours. The ships initially went to San Francisco, United States before proceeding south to Valparaiso; they arrived on 6 July, but remained outside of the harbor for three days. At the time, fighting had not yet spread to the city, and so from late July to late August, he took his ships further north to Iquique and Coquimbo. Valois returned to Valparaiso on 20 August, and by that time, rebel forces had advanced on the city. He negotiated with Captain Jorge Montt, a Chilean Navy officer that supported the rebel Congressist faction, to allow a German landing party of 9 officers and 291 sailors to go ashore to protect Germans in the city. This effort was done in cooperation with a party from the British corvette . While the men were ashore, they set up a hospital under the supervision of ''Leipzig''s doctor. On 30 August, the rebel forces under Colonel Estanislao del Canto had taken control of the city. With the fighting in the city over, the landing party returned to their ships on 13 September. Shortly thereafter, the Chilean president, José Manuel Balmaceda, killed himself, which effectively ended the conflict. Valois's ships remained in Chile for another three months but there were no further incidents in the country.

1891–1893

In mid-December, Valois received orders from Berlin to leave the region. The ships passed through the Strait of Magellan on 1 January 1892 and arrived in Montevideo five days later. Valois expected to be instructed to return home at this point, but he was instead ordered to cross the Atlantic to Cape Town. While en route, they stopped in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The ships reached Cape Town on 21 February; two days later, ''KAdm'' Friedrich von Pawelsz arrived to relieve Valois as the squadron commander. The ships underwent repairs in Cape Town before sailing north to Delagoa Bay on 22 March, where Pawelsz traveled overland to the South African Republic to pay a visit to the president, Paul Kruger. The ships then continued on to German East Africa, where they joined ''Schwalbe'' and ''Möwe''. The situation there was calm, so the squadron continued on to East Asia, leaving behind ''Sophie'', as she was scheduled to return to Germany in June. Her place was taken by the corvette . ''Leipzig'' and ''Alexandrine'' continued on to Colombo, where they embarked replacement crews for ''Iltis'' and ''Wolf''. The two corvettes then steamed to Hong Kong. They thereafter toured Chinese ports in September and October, during which time ''Alexandrine'' left for Japan. While ''Leipzig'' was in Shanghai, Pawelsz received orders to return to East Africa, as the succession of Ali bin Said of Zanzibar threatened to destabilize the region. Pawelsz recalled ''Alexandrine'' and the two ships rendezvoused in Hong Kong; they departed on 16 November to return to East Africa.

The ships reached Zanzibar on 5 January 1893; a month later, on 6 February, ''Arcona'' joined them. The corvette , which had been stationed in Central American waters, was also assigned to Pawelsz's squadron. ''Schwalbe'' and ''Möwe'' were also still in East Africa, bringing the total number of vessels available to respond to any crises resulting from bin Said's accession to the throne to six. The transition proved to be uneventful, and so on 3 March ''Leipzig'' went to Cape Town for an overhaul; she was joined there by ''Arcona'' and ''Alexandrine'' later in the month. It was planned that the squadron would return to East Asia once repairs were completed, but it was discovered that ''Leipzig'' had deteriorated significantly in her years abroad. Wear on her propulsion system proved to be too extensive for the shipyard in Cape Town, and so ''VAdm'' Friedrich von Hollmann, the State Secretary of the ''Reichsmarineamt'' (''RMA''—Imperial Navy Office), ordered her to return to Germany. On 29 March, Pawelsz received instructions to return home with ''Leipzig'' and to dissolve the squadron; the other ships were to proceed elsewhere independently. ''Leipzig'' sailed north through the Atlantic, stopping in Saint Helena, Cape Verde, and Madeira on the way. She was greeted in the Schillig roadstead by Admiral Max von der Goltz and her old commander, ''VAdm'' Valois, who was now the Chief of the ''Marinestation der Nordsee'' (North Sea Naval Station).

Fate

On arriving in Wilhelmshaven, ''Leipzig'' was decommissioned to be examined thoroughly in the ''Kaiserliche Werft'' there. The inspection determined that the ship's hull was still in good condition, but it would not be economical to repair her machinery for another overseas deployment. The ''RMA'' therefore decided to convert the vessel into both a hulk for engine-room training and a barracks ship. In these capacities, she would replace the old frigate . Allocating the funds for the work proved to be controversial in the ''Reichstag'', and so they were not approved until the 1895–1896 budget. ''Leipzig'' continued to serve for another twenty-five years in this capacity. The first wireless telegraphy school for the German navy was set up aboard the ship, and during World War I she was used for initial training for U-boat crews. On 5 November 1919, the ship suddenly sank in port for unknown reasons. She was later raised in 1921, sold to Hattinger Co., and broken up in Wilhelmshaven.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Leipzig, SMS
1875 ships
Ships built in Stettin
Leipzig-class corvettes
Maritime incidents in 1919