''Von der Tann'' was a steam-powered 120 ton

gunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-steam ...

built in 1849 at Conradi shipyards in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...

for the small joint navy of the two duchies of

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig ( da, Hertugdømmet Slesvig; german: Herzogtum Schleswig; nds, Hartogdom Sleswig; frr, Härtochduum Slaswik) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km ...

and

Holstein Holstein (; nds, label=Northern Low Saxon, Holsteen; da, Holsten; Latin and historical en, Holsatia, italic=yes) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of German ...

. She was the first propeller-driven gunboat in the world.

History

During the

First War of Schleswig The First Schleswig War (german: Schleswig-Holsteinischer Krieg) was a military conflict in southern Denmark and northern Germany rooted in the Schleswig-Holstein Question, contesting the issue of who should control the Duchies of Schleswig, ...

, 1848-1850 between

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

and the two

duchies A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a medieval country, territory, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or queen in Western European tradition. There once existed an important difference between " ...

, the Schleswig-Holstein navy comprised three

paddlewheeler A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses wer ...

s with sail rigging, a

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

and 12 gunboats; their task was to protect the coast against Danish raids. Initially called Gunboat No. 1, ''Von der Tann'' was the most modern of these ships. Her

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

, built by

August Howaldt August Ferdinand Howaldt (23 October 1809 – 4 August 1883) was a German engineer and ship builder. The German sculptor Georg Ferdinand Howaldt was his brother. Biography Born in Braunschweig, the son of the silversmith David Ferdinand Howal ...

at Schweffel und Howaldt's works in Kiel, gave her and a top speed (under steam) of six knots. She carried the

rigging Rigging comprises the system of ropes, cables and chains, which support a sailing ship or sail boat's masts—''standing rigging'', including shrouds and stays—and which adjust the position of the vessel's sails and spars to which they are ...

of a three-mast schooner, with a very tall

funnel A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening. Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its construct ...

behind the main mast. Her armament comprised two 64-pounder guns mounted on swivels fore and aft plus four three-pounder

howitzer A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...

During the night of 20/21 July 1850, ''Von der Tann'' had captured a Danish freighter in the

bay of Lübeck The Bay of Lübeck (, ) is a basin in the southwestern Baltic Sea, off the shores of German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein. It forms the southwestern part of the Bay of Mecklenburg. The main port is Travemünde, a bor ...

, but was not permitted to enter the neutral port of

Travemünde Travemünde () is a borough of Lübeck, Germany, located at the mouth of the river Trave in Bay of Lübeck, Lübeck Bay. It began life as a fortress built by Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, in the 12th century to guard the mouth of the Trave, an ...

which belonged to the Free

Hanseatic The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=German language, Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Norther ...

City of

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

. When ''Von der Tann'' attempted to enter the port of

Neustadt in Holstein Neustadt in Holstein (; Holsatian: ''Niestadt in Holsteen'') is a town in the district of Ostholstein, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, on the Bay of Lübeck 30 km northeast of Lübeck, and 50 km southeast of Kiel. History In World War I ...

, she was engaged by Danish naval forces, the ships ''Heckla'' and ''Valkyren''. During the ensuing battle, ''Von der Tann'' accidentally ran aground just outside Neustadt harbor. The ship was abandoned and set on fire by her crew, but was later repaired and put back into service. In 1853, after the end of the First War of Schleswig, ''Von der Tann'' was taken over by the

Danish navy The Royal Danish Navy ( da, Søværnet) is the sea-based branch of the Danish Defence force. The RDN is mainly responsible for maritime defence and maintaining the sovereignty of Danish territorial waters (incl. Faroe Islands and Greenland). Oth ...

and renamed ''Støren''. She was decommissioned and scrapped in 1862. The engine was reused in the gunboat '' Hauch''.

Legacy

A model and some pieces of wreckage are on display at the Ostholstein-Museum in Neustadt. A later ship of the same name was the Imperial German

battlecruiser The battlecruiser (also written as battle cruiser or battle-cruiser) was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. These were similar in displacement, armament and cost to battleships, but differed in form and balance of attr ...

. Both were named after the

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

n general

Ludwig Freiherr von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen Ludwig Samson Heinrich Arthur Freiherr von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen (18 June 181526 April 1881) was a Bavarian general. Early life Born in Darmstadt, on the day of Waterloo, Ludwig was a descendant from the old family of von der Tann, whi ...

who, as a young officer, had organized and commanded the militia of Schleswig.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography *

External links

Dampfkanonenboot „von der Tann“

{{1850 shipwrecks 19th-century naval ships Ships of the Schleswig-Holstein Navy Gunboats of the Royal Danish Navy Ships built in Kiel 1849 ships Maritime incidents in July 1850 Bay of Lübeck