SMS ''Luchs'' was the fourth member of the of gunboats built for the German '' Kaiserliche Marine'' (Imperial Navy) in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Other ships of the class are

SMS Iltis SMS ''Iltis'' was the lead ship of the of gunboats built for the German ''Kaiserliche Marine'' (Imperial Navy) in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Other ships of the class are , , , , and . Design ''Iltis'' was long overall and had a beam of ...

SMS Tiger SMS ''Tiger'' was the third member of the of gunboats built for the German ''Kaiserliche Marine'' (Imperial Navy) in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Other ships of the class were , , , and . Design ''Tiger'' was length overall, long overall ...

SMS Eber SMS ''Eber'' was the last of the six gunboats of the of the German Imperial Navy prior to and during World War I. Other ships of the class are SMS Iltis, SMS Luchs, SMS Tiger, SMS Jaguar and SMS Panther. They were built between 1898 and 19 ...

SMS Jaguar SMS ''Jaguar'' was the second member of the of gunboats built for the German ''Kaiserliche Marine'' (Imperial Navy) in the late 1890s and early 1900s, for overseas service in the German colonial empire. Other ships of the class are SMS Iltis, SMS ...

and SMS Panther.

Design

''Luchs'' was

long overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, and ...

and had a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of and a draft of forward. She displaced at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of a pair of vertical

triple-expansion steam engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure ''(HP)'' cylinder, then having given up he ...

s each driving a single

screw propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

, with steam supplied by four coal-fired

Thornycroft boiler Three-drum boilers are a class of water-tube boiler used to generate steam, typically to power ships. They are compact and of high evaporative power, factors that encourage this use. Other boiler designs may be more efficient, although bulkier, an ...

s. ''Luchs'' could steam at a top speed of at . The ship had a cruising radius of about at a speed of . She had a crew of 9 officers and 121 enlisted men. ''Luchs'' was armed with a main battery of two SK L/40 guns, with 482 rounds of ammunition. She also carried six

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) a ...

Service history

''Luchs'' was laid down at the ''Kaiserliche Werft'' (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig in 1898. She was launched on 18 October 1899 and commissioned into the German fleet on 15 May 1900. She was initially assigned to the American Station, along with the protected cruiser and the

unprotected cruiser An unprotected cruiser was a type of naval warship in use during the early 1870s Victorian or pre-dreadnought era (about 1880 to 1905). The name was meant to distinguish these ships from “protected cruisers”, which had become accepted in ...

. In August 1904, the badly damaged Russian

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

''Tsesarevich'' and three

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

s sought refuge in the German naval base at

Qingdao Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...

following the Russian defeat in the Battle of the Yellow Sea. As Germany was neutral, the East Asia Squadron interned ''Tsesarevich'' and the destroyers. On 13 August, the Russian ships restocked their coal supplies from three British steamers, but the armored cruiser and the protected cruiser cleared for action to prevent them from leaving the port. The two cruisers were then reinforced by ''Luchs'' and her sister and the cruisers and . ''Luchs'' spent December 1909 and early January 1910 in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

for the Christmas and New Year's festivities in company with the armored cruiser and the light cruiser . In January, ''Scharnhorst'', ''Leipzig'', and ''Luchs'' went on a tour of East Asian ports, including

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

, and stops in

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

and

North Borneo North Borneo (usually known as British North Borneo, also known as the State of North Borneo) was a British Protectorate, British protectorate in the northern part of the island of Borneo, which is present day Sabah. The territory of North Borneo ...

. By 22 March, ''Scharnhorst'' and ''Leipzig'' had returned to the German port at

.Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 107 ''Luchs'' was scuttled on 28 September 1914 at the German colony in the

Jiaozhou Bay Leased Territory The Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory was a German leased territory in Imperial and Early Republican China from 1898 to 1914. Covering an area of , it centered on Jiaozhou ("Kiautschou") Bay on the southern coast of the Shandong Peninsula (g ...

during the

Siege of Qingdao The siege of Tsingtao (or Tsingtau) was the attack on the German port of Tsingtao (now Qingdao) in China during World War I by Japan and the United Kingdom. The siege was waged against Imperial Germany between 27 August and 7 November 1914. ...

. Three of her sisters were also scuttled during the siege, including , which was scuttled the same day as ''Luchs''.

Notes

References

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Design

Service history

Notes

References

Further reading