SMS Marie

SMS ''Marie'' was a member of the of steam corvettes built for the German '' Kaiserliche Marine'' (Imperial Navy) in the 1880s. Intended for service in the German colonial empire, the ship was designed with a combination of steam and sail power for extended range, and was equipped with a battery of ten guns. ''Marie'' was laid down at the Reiherstieg AG of Hamburg in 1880, the first Imperial German warship built in the city. She was launched in August 1881. In May, 1883, she was completed and commissioned into the fleet. The namesake was Princess Marie of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, who married Frederick Francis II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1868.

''Marie'' was sent abroad immediately after entering service, initially to South America, where she picked up the German participants of the first International Polar Year at South Georgia Island. After observing the aftermath of the War of the Pacific in late 1883 and early 1884, she was transferred to Deutsch-Neuguinea in the western Pacific Ocean; this deployment was cut short when she ran aground off Neu-Mecklenburg and was badly damaged, necessitating a return to Germany for extensive repairs.

The ship was reactivated for a second overseas tour in 1892. She was sent to Chile to protect German nationals in the aftermath of the Chilean Civil War of 1891, before joining two of her sister ships off Brazil in 1893 in response to the '' Revolta da Armada'' (Revolt of the Fleet) there. The three ships were then sent to East Asia in 1894, where they formed the nucleus of the East Asia Division, and were tasked with protecting German nationals in China during the First Sino-Japanese War. ''Marie'' was recalled to Germany in mid-1895 and stopped in Morocco on the way back to enforce a settlement over the murder of two German citizens. After reaching Germany in September 1895, she was decommissioned. Later assigned to the reserve training unit, she was never activated for the role. Instead, she was eventually stricken from the naval register in 1904 and sold for scrap three years later.

Design

The six ships of the ''Carola'' class were ordered in the late 1870s to supplement Germany's fleet of cruising warships, which at that time relied on several ships that were twenty years old. ''Marie'' and her sister ships were intended to patrol Germany's colonial empire and safeguard German economic interests around the world.

''Marie'' was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced at full load. The ship's crew consisted of 13 officers and 285 enlisted men. She was powered by a single marine steam engine that drove one 2-bladed screw propeller, with steam provided by six coal-fired fire-tube boilers, which gave her a top speed of at . She had a cruising radius of at a speed of . ''Marie'' was equipped with a three-masted barque rig to supplement her steam engines on extended overseas deployments.

''Marie'' was armed with a battery of ten 22-caliber (cal.) breech-loading guns and two 24-cal. guns. She also carried six Hotchkiss revolver cannon. Later in her career, the 8.7 cm guns were replaced with a pair of SK L/30 guns and she received ten small-caliber machine cannon of unrecorded type.

Service history

''Marie'' was built by Reiherstieg AG of Hamburg; her keel was laid down in 1880 under the contract name "''Ersatz Vineta''", a replacement for the old sail frigate . This was the first time that a Hamburg shipbuilder received a contract for a warship of the German '' Kaiserliche Marine'' (Imperial Navy). The new corvette was launched on 20 August 1881, and Hamburg's mayor, Gustav Heinrich Kirchenpauer, gave the launching speech. At her launching, she was christened ''Marie'', for Princess Marie of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. Fitting-out work then commenced, and on 12 September she was moved to Wilhelmshaven, where her guns were installed. ''Marie'' began sea trials in late October, though she was not formally commissioned. The ship was commissioned on 1 May 1883 for a deployment to South American waters.

First overseas deployment

On 17 May, ''Marie'' left Wilhelmshaven, bound for South America, where she replaced the corvette . In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ''Marie'' met the gunboat on 9 July. ''Marie'' then continued on to Punta Arenas, Chile, where she rendezvoused with ''Moltke'' on 2 August. She proceeded to South Georgia Island, but ran into heavy weather while en route. She lost two of her boats and was damaged in the storm, forcing her to put into Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands for repairs. On 23 August, she was able to return to her voyage, and on 1 September, she reached Moltke Harbor on the eastern side of the island. There, she picked up the German contingent from the first International Polar Year, which had been brought to the island by ''Moltke'' the year before. The scientists boarded ''Marie'' with their equipment, and the ship steamed to Montevideo, Uruguay on 6 September. ''Marie'' arrived in the port on 25 September and transferred the scientists and equipment to the HSDG steamship , which took them back to Germany. During the trip to South Georgia and back to Montevideo, ''Marie'' tested a register log apparatus. Other similar studies followed.

On 10 October, ''Marie'' left Montevideo and passed through the Strait of Magellan into the Pacific Ocean. She reached Valparaiso, Chile on 20 November to observe the aftermath of the War of the Pacific between Peru and Bolivia on one side and Chile on the other. Chile and Peru had signed the Treaty of Ancón on 20 October, but ''Marie'' remained in the area until January 1884, when she began a tour of South American ports along the western coast of the continent, as far north as Puerto San José, Guatemala. While in Callao, Peru, the ship received orders to steam to Samoa in the central Pacific on 17 September.

She was to reinforce the German forces in the Pacific to defend the German acquisition of Kaiser-Wilhelmsland on the north eastern shore of New Guinea from British objections, which failed to materialize. She reached Apia on 30 October, and while there, her presence helped to coerce the king of Samoa into allowing '' Handels-und Plantagen-Gesellschaft der Südsee-Inseln zu Hamburg'' to control the Samoan treasury and police. She remained there until 14 November, when she departed for a cruise to Melanesia, part of Deutsch-Neuguinea, Germany's colonial holding in the western Pacific. She rendezvoused with the corvette and the gunboat in Melanesia. ''Marie'' anchored first at Matupi in Neu-Pommern, where she relieved ''Elisabeth'', which then steamed to East Asian waters.

While ''Marie'' was cruising off Neu-Mecklenburg on 26 December, she struck a reef and ran aground. The crew had to remove a significant amount of weight from the ship before she came free three days later. Divers determined the ship had been badly damaged: her rudder was broken, her propeller and propeller shaft were inoperable and her aft compartments were leaking. She put into the harbor in the nearby island of Nusa for temporary repairs on 4 January 1885. While the work was being done, a group of 12 men were sent in one of ''Marie''s boats to relay news of the accident to Mioko island

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