 Illustration ofCyclop's sister shipMeteor | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | Cyclop |
| Operator | |
| Builder | Königliche Werft,Danzig |
| Laid down | 1859 |
| Launched | 8 September 1860 |
| Commissioned | January 1864 |
| Stricken | 19 March 1872 |
| Fate | Reconstructed |
| History | |
| Builder | Kaiserliche Werft, Danzig |
| Launched | 5 August 1874 |
| Commissioned | 27 March 1875 |
| Stricken | 2 November 1888 |
| Fate | Broken up after 1914 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Camäleon-classgunboat |
| Displacement | 422 t (415long tons) |
| Length | 43.28 m (142 ft) |
| Beam | 6.96 m (22 ft 10 in) |
| Draft | 2.67 m (8 ft 9 in) |
| Installed power | 250 to 320 PS (250 to 320 ihp) |
| Propulsion | 1 ×marine steam engine |
| Speed | 9.1 to 9.3 kn (16.9 to 17.2 km/h; 10.5 to 10.7 mph) |
| Complement | 71 |
| Armament |
|
SMSCyclop was aCamäleon-classgunboat of thePrussian Navy (later theImperial German Navy) that was launched in 1860. A small vessel, armed with only three light guns,Cyclop served during the three wars ofGerman unification; during the first, theSecond Schleswig War on 1864, she guarded the Prussian coastline but saw no action. She supported the army's campaign against theKingdom of Hanover during theAustro-Prussian War of 1866, and she defended theElbe for the duration of theFranco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, but again took part in no battles. Badly deteriorated by 1872, she was stricken from thenaval register in March that year and reconstructed into an iron-hulled gunboat. Recommissioned in 1875, she thereafter served abroad in theGerman colonial empire before being stricken again in 1888. She was thereafter used as a storagehulk before ultimately beingbroken up forscrap after 1914.
TheCamäleon-classgunboats came about as a result of a program to strengthen thePrussian Navy in the late 1850s in the aftermath of the dissolution of theReichsflotte and in the midst of rising tensions with Denmark. In 1859,Prince Regent Wilhelm approved a construction program for some fifty-two gunboats to be built over the next fifteen years, of which eight became theCamäleon class. They were similar to the contemporaneousJäger-class gunboats, but were substantially larger vessels.[1]
Cyclop was 43.28 meters (142 ft) long, with abeam of 6.96 m (22 ft 10 in) and adraft of 2.67 m (8 ft 9 in). Shedisplaced 422metric tons (415long tons) atfull load. The ship's crew consisted of 4 officers and 67 enlisted men. She was powered by a singlemarine steam engine that drove one 3-bladedscrew propeller, with steam provided by two coal-fired trunkboilers, which gave her a top speed of 9.1knots (16.9 km/h; 10.5 mph) at 250metric horsepower (250 ihp). As built, she was equipped with a three-mastedschooner rig. The ship was armed with abattery of onerifled 15 cm (5.9 in) 24-pounder gun and two rifled 12 cm (4.7 in) 12-pounder guns.[2][3]
Thekeel forCyclop waslaid down in 1859 at theKönigliche Werft (Royal Dockyard) inDanzig, and she waslaunched on 8 September 1860. Normally, new ships underwentsea trials upon completion, but budgetary shortages prevented the Prussian Navy from running a thorough examination of the vessel. Instead, the crew was limited to what could be observed during the short trip from Danzig to the naval arsenal atDänholm offStralsund. Upon arrival, she waslaid up. The Prussian Navy planned to reactivateCyclop in December 1863 owing to rising tensions betweenPrussia and Austria of theGerman Confederation and Denmark over the latter'sNovember Constitution, which integrated the duchies ofSchleswig,Holstein, andLauenburg with Denmark, a violation of theLondon Protocol that had ended theFirst Schleswig War. Crew shortages and poor weather preventedCyclop from beingcommissioned until January 1864.[4]
Following the outbreak of theSecond Schleswig War in February,Cyclop served as theflagship of the III Division, which helped to defend the Prussian coast from the superior Danish fleet. In April, the III Division was deactivated and the gunboats were transferred to the Reserve Division. After the war,Cyclop took part in anaval review held for KingWilhelm I,[4][5] followed by a tour of ports in Holstein with nowKonteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Jachmann.[6] On 15 September,Cyclop arrived in the new Prussian naval base atKiel. In late 1864, she became theguard ship at the entrance to theEider Canal, and she remained in this role through early 1866.[4] During this period, in 1865, the boat's 24-pounder was replaced with a rifled 21 cm (8.3 in) 68-pounder gun.[7] On 14 January 1866,Cyclop was transferred to the coastal fortification atFriedrichsort outside Kiel, along with the gunboatScorpion and several cannon-armedshallops; these units formed the II Company of the Naval Artillery Division.[4]
Wilhelm I ordered the Navy to beginmobilization on 15 May as war with Austria became likely, leading to theAustro-Prussian War, which broke out in June.Cyclop was transferred to theNorth Sea along with theironcladArminius, which led the North Sea Flotilla of gunboats that was commanded by then-Korvettenkapitän (KK—Corvette Captain)Reinhold von Werner. For the duration of the conflict, the flotilla operated out ofGeestemünde. Without a naval threat from Austria, the Prussian navy therefore concentrated its effort against theKingdom of Hanover. On 15 June,Cyclop,Arminius and the gunboatTiger covered the crossing of theElbe river by GeneralEdwin von Manteuffel and some 13,500 soldiers to attack the city ofHanover.[4][8][9] From mid-July to early October,Cyclop served as thetender to thefrigateGefion.Cyclop returned to Dänholm on 14 October and was decommissioned there.[4]
Cyclop remained out of service until 22 March 1869, when she was reactivated for service first as a guard ship in Kiel. She conducted a survey offHörup Haff andAlsen for a shooting range for the old frigateThetis, then assigned to the artillery school. In mid-June,Cyclop and twotugboats towed a 40-metric-ton (39-long-ton) floating crane from theAG Vulcan shipyard inStettin to theKönigliche Werft in Kiel. She then took part in the annual fleet maneuvers in August and September, after which her crew was reduced in Kiel for the remainder of the year. In early 1870,Cyclop helped pull thearmored frigateFriedrich Carl free after she ran aground off the island ofLangeland and towed her to Kiel for repairs. The damage proved to be too extensive for theKönigliche Werft to complete, and soFriedrich Carl had to be towed to Britain;Cyclop escorted the ship through theSkagerrak.[4]
After France declared war on Prussia in July 1870, initiating theFranco-Prussian War,Cyclop and two smaller gunboats were transferred to guard the mouth of theElbe river. She remained there for the duration of the conflict but saw no action against theFrench Navy. After the Prussian victory in 1871, which saw the creation of theGerman Empire, along with theImperial German Navy, she returned to her previous role as a tender in Kiel. During the year, she assisted in the transfer of a new floatingdry dock fromSwinemünde to Kiel in company with the ironcladKronprinz and thepaddle steamerPreussischer Adler. Repeated, negative experiences with Danishpilots led the Imperial Navy to sendCyclop to assist with navigation off Langeland. In August,Cyclop served as a tender to theavisoPommerania, which had returned from a scientific expedition.[4]
On 11 November,Cyclop was scheduled to begin an overhaul in Danzig, but an inspection of the hull revealed it to be in too poor a condition. Accordingly, she was stricken from thenaval register on 19 March 1872 to be rebuilt. Her old wooden hull wasbroken up and a new iron frame was constructed. The completed vessel was re-launched on 5 August 1874,[10][11][12] though some historians, including Hans Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, and Hans-Otto Steinmetz do not consider the iron-hulled ship to be the same vessel.[10]
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Cyclop was recommissioned for service overseas on 27 March 1875.[13] The ship thereafter conducted sea trials that lasted into early May. Her crew thereafter began preparations for a deployment toEast Asian waters, which began on 9 May with her departure from Germany. At that time, Chinese pirates threatened European merchant vessels in the region, andCyclop was sent to protect German ships; her shallow draft would also permit her to enter Chinese rivers to attack pirate groups. She reachedSingapore on 17 July, and while there, the ship received orders to make a courtesy visit to the king ofSiam.Cyclop thereafter arrived inHong Kong on 9 August, where she met thescrew frigateHertha and thescrew corvetteAriadne. The cruiser unit there was at that time commanded byEduard von Knorr aboardAriadne.[14]
The ship's first operation in Chinese waters began on 27 September, while the gunboat was inAmoy. The schoonerAnna had been seized andrun aground by a group of Chinese pirates atFuzhou, who had murdered the ship's captain and helmsman.Cyclop sent alanding party ashore, who found the pirates, who were in possession of part of the schooner's cargo.[15][a] Knorr planned further anti-piracy operations in the area, but the German ambassador inBeijing intervened to prevent an escalation between Germany and China, leading to the chief of theKaiserliche Admiralität (Imperial Admiralty),Albrecht von Stosch, to issue new orders that restricted the ability of German naval commanders in the region to act.[16]
In February 1876,Cyclop sailed toTaiping Island in theSouth China Sea; she carried a memorial that was sent to commemorate the assistance given to the crew of the schoonerF.S. Robertson, which had been wrecked on the island three years earlier on 8 July 1873. The local populace had come to the aid of the ship's crew, treated the injured, and helped to salvage the cargo, and the government had refused any reward from the German shipping company.Otto von Bismarck, then theGerman Chancellor, suggested to Wilhelm I that a monument be sent instead to recognize the efforts to help the crew. The monument arrived in early 1876, andCyclop carried it to Taiping Island, helping to erect it there on 22 March.Cyclop departed two days later and sailed to Hong Kong, where she metAriadne andHertha. There, they awaited the arrival of the screw frigateVineta, whose commander,Alexander von Monts, replaced Knorr as the local commander.[16]
Hertha andAriadne thereafter returned to Germany, being replaced by the corvetteLuise and the gunboatNautilus; the four ships were thereafter organized as asquadron.Cyclop remained on station in East Asia through 1880, and during this period, she cruised throughout the region, visiting major ports as far north asSiberia and conducting hydrographic and topographical surveys. The ship typically spent the winter months atTianjin. At the time, the ship's white paint was unusual, which led to her nickname "the white gunboat" among the crews of other warships in the region. By late 1880, the ship was in need of a thorough overhaul, and so she was relieved by the gunboatIltis. On 1 January 1881,Cyclop began the voyage back to Germany, arriving in Kiel on 28 April, where she waslaid up for an overhaul at theKaiserliche Werft there.[17]
Cyclop was recommissioned after the completion of the overhaul on 1 April 1882. She was initially assigned to fishery protection duties in the North Sea. While inWilhelmshaven, she received orders on 7 August for a cruise to the easternMediterranean Sea, where she would join Germany's response to theʻUrabi revolt in Egypt, which also included the screw corvettesNymphe andGneisenau, the avisoZieten, and the gunboatsMöwe andHabicht. In June 1882, the revolutionaries, led byAhmed ‘Urabi and angered by foreign influence in the country, murdered fifty Europeans, prompting the BritishRoyal Navy tobombard Alexandria and then land forces to pursue the rebels. In the wake of the conflict, the German government determined that warships should be sent to protect Germans in the country.Cyclop arrived inPort Said, Egypt, on 2 October and she remained in the region, based inAlexandria, into January 1883.[18]
While in Egypt,Cyclop embarked Field Marshall PrinceFriedrich Karl fromSuez toEl Tor, Egypt, where he made a visit to the interior.Cyclop provided three armed sailors as a bodyguard. Friedrich Karl returned to the ship at Suez, and on 12 February, she took him toJaffa. In April, she cruised off the coast ofMarmarica, where she conducted shooting practice. A scholar, Professor Schweinfurth, was aboard the ship at that time to conduct studies of ports in the region. On 1 May, the admiralty orderedCyclop to return to Germany as the situation in Egypt had calmed, and she arrived back in Wilhelmshaven on 21 July. She returned to fishery protection duties on 19 August, which lasted through most of 1884. Increased competition between fishing vessels in the North Sea led to attacks on German boats by British sailors, prompting the German government to intervene diplomatically. Tensions had reduced by August 1884, allowingCyclop to take part in the annual fleet maneuvers later that month and into September. On 30 September, the ship was decommissioned in Wilhelmshaven.[18]
The admiralty had intended forCyclop to remain in service for fishery protection duties in 1885, but by that time, small warships were needed to enforce the German colony inKamerun, which had recently been seized. Before she could depart,Cyclop was taken into the shipyard to have her ventilation improved for service in the tropics. The ship got underway on 23 April and arrived atDuala, Kamerun, on 6 July. At around the same time, the only major warship on the station, the screw corvetteBismarck, left forGerman East Africa, leavingCyclop in company with justHabicht.Cyclop then cruised along the coast to conduct cartographic surveys of the colony. The crew suffered in the tropical climate, andmalaria was a particularly significant problem. Many men were hospitalized atSuellaba and later atJoss. The experience led the admiralty to decide to replace crews on the station after one year instead of the normal two-year rotation.[19]
In February 1886,Cyclop went toBimbia to suppress a revolt against German rule. The ship returned to Duala to be present for the ceremonial beginning construction of the colonial government building with the first imperial governor,Julius von Soden. The ship next visitedSaint Helena from 10 to 16 September. In early October, the ship was intentionally grounded in the mouth of theWouri River so the crew could perform maintenance on the hull.Cyclop later went toLuanda inPortuguese Angola for additional repairs that lasted into January 1887. From early April to the end of May,Cyclop was involved in the adjustment of the border between Kamerun andBritish Nigeria. The town ofBonny was at that time claimed by Germany as part of Kamerun, but it was surrounded on three sides by Nigeria, and Germany exchanged it in return for adjustments elsewhere. Men fromCyclop were given the honor of carrying out the formal transfer.[20]
On 10 June 1888,Cyclop sent a detachment of armed sailors to escort a scientific expedition into the interior of Kamerun. Heavy attacks by local rebels soon forced the expedition to turn back. By that time, the ship's propulsion system was badly worn out, and she was capable of steaming at just 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph); given her age, it was decided that an overhaul of her machinery would be cost prohibitive. The navy ordered she be converted into ahulk for use as a floating hospital, ammunition storage, and a work station on 6 September, and on 25 September, she was again struck from the naval register. She nevertheless remained in service to assist in the suppression of a rebellion atBatanga. On 1 November, she was disarmed and placed out of service. She was anchored at Suellaba with a crew of one deck officer and several sailors. Her masts and machinery were removed in 1900. In 1914, Britain invaded Kamerun early inWorld War I, and after they conquered the colony, they seizedCyclop and sold her toship breakers.[20]