 Illustration ofLeipzig byFritz Stoltenberg | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 German Empire | |
| Name | Leipzig |
| Namesake | Battle of Leipzig |
| Builder | AG Vulcan, Stettin |
| Laid down | 1874 |
| Launched | 13 September 1875 |
| Commissioned | 1 June 1877 |
| Stricken | 27 August 1894 |
| Fate | Broken up, 1921 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Leipzig-classcorvette |
| Displacement | Full load: 4,626metric tons (4,553long tons) |
| Length | 87.5 m (287 ft 1 in) (loa) |
| Beam | 14 m (45 ft 11 in) |
| Draft | 6.2 m (20 ft 4 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | |
| Sail plan | Full ship rig |
| Speed | 15.8knots (29.3 km/h; 18.2 mph) |
| Range | 2,330nautical miles (4,320 km; 2,680 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Crew |
|
| Armament |
|
SMS[1]Leipzig was a German flush-decksteam corvette, thelead ship of theLeipzig class, named after the 1813Battle of Leipzig. She was built for theKaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the 1870s, beinglaid down in early 1875,launched in September that year, andcommissioned into the fleet in May 1877. She had onesister ship,SMS Prinz Adalbert. Intended for long cruises abroad, the ship was fitted with afull ship rig to supplement hersteam engine if coal was unavailable. She carried abattery of twelve 17 cm (6.7 in) guns.
Leipzig went on two overseas cruises as atraining ship fornaval cadets early in her career. The first, in 1877–1878, went toCentral America andEast Asia; while in Central American waters, she was involved in an international dispute between Germany and Nicaragua. The second cruise, which took place from 1882 to 1884, also went to East Asia. While on the way back to Germany, she stopped in the newly-proclaimed colony ofGerman Southwest Africa, where she participated in the flag-raising ceremony. From 1885 to 1888,Leipzig was extensively modernized and reconstructed for use as a squadronflagship overseas.
In 1888,Leipzig embarked on a major overseas deployment, first toGerman East Africa, which was in the midst of theAbushiri revolt.Leipzig and several other warships formed a cruiser squadron that bombarded rebel troops and sent landing parties ashore to suppress the rebellion, which was defeated by 1890.Leipzig and the rest of the squadron went to East Asia, but in 1891 they were reassigned to Chilean waters to protect German interests during theCivil War of 1891. After the fighting subsided,Leipzig alternated between East Africa and East Asia before being recalled to Germany in 1893 after a refit inCape Town revealed a significant deterioration in her condition. Found to be not worth repairing, she was converted into abarracks ship and traininghulk, a role she filled until 1919, when she sank unexpectedly. She was raised in 1921 and subsequentlybroken up that year.
After theFranco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, the newly formedKaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) began an expansion program to strengthen the fleet. The naval command determined that modernsteam corvettes were necessary for scouting purposes, as well as overseas cruising duties to protect German interests abroad. The twoLeipzig-classcorvettes were ordered as part of the fleet plan of 1873, which called for a total of twenty unarmored corvettes, twelve of which were already either in service or under construction.[2]Leipzig was the first iron-hulled corvette of the German fleet;[3] originally designed with aforecastle, the ship was completed with aflush deck instead.[4]
Leipzig was 87.5 meters (287 ft 1 in)long overall, with abeam of 14 m (45 ft 11 in) and adraft of 6.2 m (20 ft 4 in) forward. Shedisplaced 4,626metric tons (4,553long tons) atfull load. The ship's crew consisted of 39 officers and 386 enlisted men. She was powered by a singlemarine steam engine that drove one 2-bladedscrew propeller, with steam provided by ten coal-firedfire-tube boilers, which gave her a top speed of 15.8knots (29.3 km/h; 18.2 mph) at 6,050metric horsepower (5,970 ihp). She had a cruising radius of 2,330nautical miles (4,320 km; 2,680 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).Leipzig was equipped with afull ship rig to supplement her steam engines on long-distance cruises.[4][5]
Leipzig was armed with abattery of twelve 17 cm (6.7 in)breech-loading guns, two of which were 25-caliber (cal.); the other ten were shorter 20-cal. weapons. Two of the guns were in the bow aschase guns, with the rest on thebroadside. Later in her career, she had four 37 mm (1.5 in)Hotchkiss revolver cannon installed, along with four 35 cm (13.8 in)torpedo tubes. These were all above-water launchers, with two in thebow and one on each side.[4][5]
Leipzig waslaid down at theAG Vulcan shipyard inStettin in 1875. Her completedhull waslaunched on 13 September 1875, and her launching ceremony was attended by the Chief of theKaiserliche Admiralität (Imperial Admiralty), GeneralAlbrecht von Stosch, who christened the shipLeipzig after the 1813Battle of Leipzig. Afterfitting-out work was completed, she was towed from Stettin toSwinemünde on 31 May 1877 and wascommissioned into the fleet the following day, though she had not yet had her armament installed. TheOberburgermeister of Leipzig,Otto Robert Georgi, andField MarshalPrince Friedrich Karl of Prussia attended the commissioning ceremony; Georgi gave the ship its flags as a gift from the city ofLeipzig.Leipzig then began initialsea trials that lasted until 12 June. The ship then had her guns installed, after which she began further trials starting on 13 September under the command ofKorvettenkapitän (KK—Corvette Captain)Carl Paschen. A week later, she accidentally ran aground offKleverberg outsideKiel and had to have some 400 t (390 long tons; 440 short tons) ofballast removed before she could be refloated. She was then towed to theKaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Kiel by the shipyardtugboatNotus. Sea trials were completed on 5 October, and the following day,Leipzig was ordered to begin her first overseas cruise.[3][4]
Still under Paschen's command,Leipzig was to be employed as atraining ship fornaval cadets. She embarked men from the Crew of 1876, which included the future admiralsErich Gühler,Wilhelm Schack, andAdolph von Bassewitz. Paschen's orders instructed him to proceed toEast Asia, where he would serve as the commander of German warships in the region. On 17 November,Leipzig departed Germany and crossed theAtlantic Ocean, stopping first inCentral American waters. While there, she was temporarily assigned to a German squadron tasked with protecting German interests in Nicaragua during the so-called "Eisenstuck Affair".[3] A pair of German merchants, Paul and Christian Eisenstuck, were reportedly attacked in the country and the Nicaraguan government did not investigate the incident quickly enough for German satisfaction, and soBernhard Ernst von Bülow, theforeign minister, ordered a flotilla of warships toenforce German demands for anindemnity. In early 1878,Leipzig and five other vessels that had gathered off the coast landed men atCorinto to seize weapons in the event that Nicaragua chose to resist German demands, though the government quickly acceded.[6]
On 11 April,Leipzig resumed her voyage to East Asia. After rounding the southern tip of South America and entering thePacific Ocean, she stopped inHonolulu in theHawaiian Islands, where she was visited by KingKalākaua. She then visited several ports in Mexico and the United States, before proceeding across the Pacific. She arrived inYokohama, Japan on 5 July, where she relieved the corvetteSMS Augusta, which then departed for Germany. At the time, theEast Asia Squadron also included thegunboatsAlbatross andCyclop, thoughAlbatross was soon replaced byWolf, and the corvetteFreya joined them later. On 7 October, Paschen was promoted to the rank ofKapitän zur See (KzS—Captain at Sea); at that time, all four ships of the squadron rendezvoused inNagasaki, Japan. Over the following five months,Leipzig remained in Japanese waters. In April 1879, she sailed to China, where she met hersister shipPrinz Adalbert and the corvetteLuise, which had been sent to replaceLeipzig andFreya, respectively. On 28 May,Leipzig departedShanghai and began the voyage back to Germany, stopping inSingapore,Anjer in theDutch East Indies,Mauritius,Cape Town, South Africa, andPlymouth, Great Britain, before arriving in Kiel on 27 September. There, she was decommissioned.[7]
Leipzig remained out of service until late 1882, and during this period she underwent an extensive overhaul that included moving thebridge further aft, replacing therudder with a more effective one, and installing the four 35 cm torpedo tubes. On returning to service in October 1882 under the command ofKKOtto Herbig, she embarked the 1881 Crew, which includedFranz von Hipper. The ship departed Germany on 19 October and after encountering severe storms in theNorth Sea, stopped in Plymouth andYarmouth to wait for the weather to improve. She thereafter followed the same route to East Asia as she had in 1877, though she did not stop in Central America while en route. She reached East Asia in June 1883, where she joined the corvetteStosch, the flagship ofKonteradmiral (KAdm—Rear Admiral)Louis von Blanc. In August,Leipzig visitedVladivostok, Russia, and in October, she carried the German Consul General from Shanghai toChemulpo, so he could sign a trade agreement between Germany and theKingdom of Korea. Poor weather conditions compelledLeipzig to stay in Korea through December, and during this period Herbig, four officers, and the ship's band went to visit KingGojong of Korea inSeoul. On 15 December, Herbig was promoted to the rank ofKapitän zur See.[8]
In early March 1884,Leipzig received orders to begin the voyage back to Germany. The ship stopped first inManila in the Philippines before sailing through theSulu Sea to northernBorneo, where she stopped inSandakan. From there, she sailed to Singapore for repairs that lasted from 19 April to 10 June. During this stay, a major outbreak offever rendered 6 officers and 230 sailors seriously ill, and they had to be transported home, with a replacement crew sent to bringLeipzig back to Germany. While in Cape Town, Herbig received new orders directing him to takeLeipzig toGerman South West Africa, which had recently been declared a Germanprotectorate.Leipzig sailed toLüderitz Bay on 18 July, where she was joined by thescrew frigateElisabeth on 6 August.Elisabeth's captain read the formal proclamation announcing the German protectorate, andLeipzig remained in the area to patrol the new colony. On 30 August, she went to the island ofFernando Po, where she met the gunboatMöwe, which had the GermanCommissionerGustav Nachtigal aboard. On 5 September, she sailed toPorto Seguro inTogoland.Leipzig then left West African waters and returned to Germany by way ofCape Verde,Madeira, and Plymouth. She reachedWilhelmshaven, Germany, on 9 October.[9]
TheAdmiralität issued orders on 18 February 1885 to heavily rebuild the ship, which on 25 November 1884 had been re-designated as a "Kreuzerfregatte" (Cruiser-Frigate). She was to be modified for service as a permanent cruiser squadron flagship, able to remain abroad for extended periods of time. At that time, the German navy did not possess a ship suited to that purpose, and opposition in theReichstag (ImperialDiet) prevented the construction of a new vessel to fill the role.Leipzig was stripped down to her iron hull and almost completely rebuilt with new wood planking, the installation of additional transversebulkheads to increase the number ofwatertight compartments, a new propulsion system, and a reorganization of the interior spaces to accommodate an admiral and his staff. The new boilers installed in the ship necessitated the addition of a secondfunnel, which was fixed, as opposed to the original funnel that could be retracted.[10]
Work was finished by late 1886, and the ship was recommissioned under the command ofKK Herbing for sea trials, which lasted from 1 September to 20 October. Speed tests demonstrated that the ship was not fast enough for her intended duties, and attempts to increase her speed by fitting a different rudder to reduce drag failed to rectify the problem. She therefore went back into the shipyard, and during this period, electrical generators were installed to provide electric lights for the entire ship. She was recommissioned again on 12 October 1887, again under Herbing's command, for additional trials that lasted until 12 November. Her speed still proved unsatisfactory, and during the tests she suffered an accident with her propeller. On 6 April 1888, she was again ready for trials, now under command ofKK Eduard Hartog. She was still too slow, so she returned to the shipyard yet again, though she remained in commission during this last period, and in early June she was finally declared ready for service.[11]
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Leipzig embarked on her next deployment abroad on 14 June to replace the corvetteBismarck. The new squadron commander,KAdmKarl August Deinhard, was travelling independently by passenger ship.Leipzig stopped inAden on 16 July, where she formally relievedBismarck as the squadron flagship, and proceeded toZanzibar, where she arrived on 2 August. There, she joined the corvetteOlga; the latter vessel's commander,KzSFranz Strauch was serving as the squadron's interim commander while Deinhard was still en route, and so he transferred toLeipzig and Hartog took his place aboardOlga. Deinhard arrived on 31 August and took command of the squadron inManda Bay, Kenya. At the time, the squadron consisted ofLeipzig,Olga,Möwe, and from 31 December theunprotected cruiserSchwalbe and from 5 January 1889 theavisoPfeil. The squadron, which was intended to operate in the South Pacific, had instead to remain offGerman East Africa due to theAbushiri revolt, a major rebellion against German rule; this was indeed the reasonSchwalbe andPfeil were sent to reinforce the squadron. The operations conducted off German East Africa were the largest and longest sustained action of the German fleet beforeWorld War I.[12]
On 8 September,Leipzig,Olga, andMöwe sent troops ashore atTanga.Leipzig then went toBagamoyo where she shelled rebel troops. Starting on 2 November, the German ships enforced ablockade of the coast in concert with theRoyal Navy, and a month later the Italian and Portuguese warships in the region joined the effort. From 5 to 6 December,Leipzig again bombarded rebel forces in Bagamoyo; she remained there for the rest of the month and was joined there for subsequent battles by the corvetteCarola.Leipzig then went toDar es Salam, which she helped to defend from 11 to 16 January 1889. On 3 February, she went to Bagamoyo to defend the port from renewed rebel attacks.Leipzig's marines took part in the occupation ofKunduchi on 27 March 1889, in a campaign led by MajorHermann Wissmann. On 8 May, men fromLeipzig,Carola, andSchwalbe attacked a rebel camp outside of Bagamoyo, and two days laterLeipzig's detachment attackedMbegani andMwangoni.Leipzig,Pfeil, andSchwalbe shelledSaadani on 6 June and sent men ashore to attack rebels there. In July,Leipzig operated offPangani and Tanga and participated in the blockade effort.[13]
By the end of July, the insurrection was all but over; Dar es Salam and Bagamoyo had been successfully defended and Wissmann's troops had retaken Tanga and Saadani. In August,Schwalbe was detached to rest her crew in Mauritius andMöwe was sent home. On 13 August,Leipzig left East Africa to undergo an overhaul in Cape Town. The work lasted into September, and whileLeipzig was away, her place as squadron flagship was taken byCarola. On 4 September, whileLeipzig was still in the drydock, Deinhard received instructions that he was to take his ship as soon as was possible to theMediterranean Sea, where he was to briefKaiser Wilhelm II, who was cruising there in hisyachtHohenzollern with the Armored Training Squadron. By early October, work onLeipzig had proceeded to the point where the ship was again seaworthy and she was able to steam north to the eastern Mediterranean, which she reached on 28 October. She rendezvoused with the Armored Training Squadron off the island ofMytilene on 1 November;Hohenzollern was at that time inConstantinople in theOttoman Empire, and she arrived five days later. Deinhard delivered his report on 6 November, after which all of the German ships steamed to Italy andLeipzig went into the drydock inVenice on 12 November to complete the overhaul begun in Cape Town.[14]
The overhaul was finished on 15 December, allowingLeipzig to return to East Africa, stopping inMalta andPort Said on the way; while in the latter port, the ship's crew celebratedChristmas andNew Year's Day, 1890. The ship then proceeded to Aden, where she received orders to proceed to East Asia, rather than East Africa. The rest of the squadron was to remain in East African waters, whileLeipzig proceeded independently to China. While on the way across theIndian Ocean, she stopped inKochi, India, before reachingHong Kong on 20 March. There, she joined the other warships on the East Asia station, the corvetteSophie and the gunboatsIltis andWolf. By this time, Deinhard had been promoted to the rank ofVizeadmiral (VAdm—Vice Admiral) and recalled to Germany; his replacement,KAdmVictor Valois, began the voyage out to take command of the squadron.Leipzig began a tour of Japanese ports, and while in Nagasaki on 20 May, Valois reached the ship.Leipzig then cruised south to Singapore via Hong Kong and Manila, after which she toured the Dutch East Indies, sailed throughDampier Strait, and then visited theBismarck Archipelago. The voyage ended inSydney, Australia on 16 September, where she met the corvetteAlexandrine, which then joined the squadron.[15]
Leipzig went into drydock in Sydney for repairs, and in November the squadron sailed to New Zealand and then toApia inSamoa. In January 1891, the ships of the East Asia Squadron left Apia and returned to Hong Kong, at times sailing independently.Leipzig arrived there on 14 February and beginning in mid-March, she began a tour of Chinese ports, which includedNanking. While in theWusung Roads she ran aground, but was able to free herself athigh tide. Valois received instructions ordering him to take his corvettes to Chile, but the grounding delayed his departure. He had takenLeipzig to Yokohama to have the ship's hull inspected for damage, and while there he received another set of orders stressing the need to proceed to South America as soon as possible. Chile was embroiled in theCivil War of 1891, and the conflict threatened German interests in the country. The German chancellor,Leo von Caprivi, initially opposed sending warships to join the international fleet that had begun to assemble off Chile to protect foreigners in the country, but after an extended debate in theReichstag, he relented and ordered Valois to Chile. The second order he had received was worded so harshly that he instructed his ship's captains to skip replenishing their coal stocks to avoid any further delay, hoping instead to use favorable winds to cross the Pacific as quickly as possible.[16]
As the ships crossed the Pacific, they did not find the winds to be strong enough to propel them as quickly as Valois had hoped, and so they had to resort to their steam engines. ButLeipzig, which notoriously burned through coal at a prodigious rate, ran out of fuel while en route.Sophie andAlexandrine had to take her under tow for the rest of the voyage, which covered some 1,217 nautical miles (2,254 km; 1,400 mi) over the course of 97 hours. The ships initially went toSan Francisco, United States before proceeding south toValparaiso; they arrived on 6 July, but remained outside of the harbor for three days. At the time, fighting had not yet spread to the city, and so from late July to late August, he took his ships further north toIquique andCoquimbo. Valois returned to Valparaiso on 20 August, and by that time, rebel forces had advanced on the city. He negotiated with CaptainJorge Montt, aChilean Navy officer that supported the rebel Congressist faction, to allow a German landing party of 9 officers and 291 sailors to go ashore to protect Germans in the city. This effort was done in cooperation with a party from the British corvetteHMS Champion. While the men were ashore, they set up a hospital under the supervision ofLeipzig's doctor. On 30 August, the rebel forces under ColonelEstanislao del Canto had taken control of the city. With the fighting in the city over, the landing party returned to their ships on 13 September. Shortly thereafter, the Chilean president,José Manuel Balmaceda, killed himself, which effectively ended the conflict. Valois's ships remained in Chile for another three months but there were no further incidents in the country.[17]
In mid-December, Valois received orders from Berlin to leave the region. The ships passed through theStrait of Magellan on 1 January 1892 and arrived inMontevideo five days later. Valois expected to be instructed to return home at this point, but he was instead ordered to cross the Atlantic to Cape Town. While en route, they stopped inRio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The ships reached Cape Town on 21 February; two days later,KAdmFriedrich von Pawelsz arrived to relieve Valois as the squadron commander. The ships underwent repairs in Cape Town before sailing north toDelagoa Bay on 22 March, where Pawelsz traveled overland to theSouth African Republic to pay a visit to the president,Paul Kruger. The ships then continued on to German East Africa, where they joinedSchwalbe andMöwe. The situation there was calm, so the squadron continued on to East Asia, leaving behindSophie, as she was scheduled to return to Germany in June. Her place was taken by the corvetteArcona.Leipzig andAlexandrine continued on toColombo, where they embarked replacement crews forIltis andWolf. The two corvettes then steamed to Hong Kong. They thereafter toured Chinese ports in September and October, during which timeAlexandrine left for Japan. WhileLeipzig was in Shanghai, Pawelsz received orders to return to East Africa, as the succession ofAli bin Said of Zanzibar threatened to destabilize the region. Pawelsz recalledAlexandrine and the two ships rendezvoused in Hong Kong; they departed on 16 November to return to East Africa.[18]
The ships reached Zanzibar on 5 January 1893; a month later, on 6 February,Arcona joined them. The corvetteMarie, which had been stationed in Central American waters, was also assigned to Pawelsz's squadron.Schwalbe andMöwe were also still in East Africa, bringing the total number of vessels available to respond to any crises resulting from bin Said's accession to the throne to six. The transition proved to be uneventful, and so on 3 MarchLeipzig went to Cape Town for an overhaul; she was joined there byArcona andAlexandrine later in the month. It was planned that the squadron would return to East Asia once repairs were completed, but it was discovered thatLeipzig had deteriorated significantly in her years abroad. Wear on her propulsion system proved to be too extensive for the shipyard in Cape Town, and soVAdmFriedrich von Hollmann, the State Secretary of theReichsmarineamt (RMA—Imperial Navy Office), ordered her to return to Germany. On 29 March, Pawelsz received instructions to return home withLeipzig and to dissolve the squadron; the other ships were to proceed elsewhere independently.Leipzig sailed north through the Atlantic, stopping inSaint Helena, Cape Verde, and Madeira on the way. She was greeted in theSchillig roadstead by AdmiralMax von der Goltz and her old commander,VAdm Valois, who was now the Chief of theMarinestation der Nordsee (North Sea Naval Station).[19]
On arriving in Wilhelmshaven,Leipzig was decommissioned to be examined thoroughly in theKaiserliche Werft there. The inspection determined that the ship's hull was still in good condition, but it would not be economical to repair her machinery for another overseas deployment. TheRMA therefore decided to convert the vessel into both ahulk for engine-room training and abarracks ship. In these capacities, she would replace the old frigateVineta. Allocating the funds for the work proved to be controversial in theReichstag, and so they were not approved until the 1895–1896 budget.Leipzig continued to serve for another twenty-five years in this capacity. The firstwireless telegraphy school for the German navy was set up aboard the ship, and during World War I she was used for initial training forU-boat crews. On 5 November 1919, the ship suddenly sank in port for unknown reasons. She was later raised in 1921, sold to Hattinger Co., andbroken up in Wilhelmshaven.[4][20]
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