SMS ''Planet'' was a survey ship of the

Kaiserliche Marine {{italic title The adjective ''kaiserlich'' means "imperial" and was used in the German-speaking countries to refer to those institutions and establishments over which the ''Kaiser'' ("emperor") had immediate personal power of control. The term wa ...

. Her sister-ship was the SMS ''Möwe''. ''Planet'' was built by

AG Weser Aktien-Gesellschaft „Weser" (abbreviated A.G. „Weser”) was one of the major German shipbuilding companies, located at the Weser River in Bremen. Founded in 1872 it was finally closed in 1983. All together, A.G. „Weser" built about 1,400 ...

in Bremen, launched on 2 August 1905 and commissioned on 16 November 1905. The crew of the ship consisted of six officers, four deck officers and 81 petty officers, sailors, stokers, and craftsmen. At the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the ship was serving in the German North Pacific islands. On 7 October 1914 the crew of ''Planet'' scuttled the vessel off the island of

Yap Yap ( yap, Waqaab) traditionally refers to an island group located in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, a part of Yap State. The name "Yap" in recent years has come to also refer to the state within the Federated States of Micr ...

to avoid capture by Japanese naval forces under the command of Rear Admiral Tatsuo Matsumura.http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=hist_fac_pubs

References

World War I auxiliary ships of Germany {{WWI-stub