SMS Blitz (1862)
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | Blitz |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Template:Sclass- |
| Displacement | 422 t (415 long 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 | 320 PS (320 ihp) |
| Propulsion | 1 × Marine steam engine |
| Speed | 9.3 kn (17.2 km/h; 10.7 mph) |
| Complement | 71 |
| Armament |
|
SMS Blitz was a Template:Sclass- of the Prussian Navy (later the Imperial German Navy) that was launched in 1862. The ship was present during the Battle of Heligoland in May 1864 during the Second Schleswig War.
Design
Blitz was 43.28 meters (142 ft) long, with a beam of 6.96 m (22 ft 10 in) and a draft of 2.67 m (8 ft 9 in). She displaced 422 metric tons (415 long tons) at full load. The ship's crew consisted of 4 officers and 67 enlisted men. She was powered by a pair of marine steam engines that each drove one 3-bladed screw propeller and two coal-fired trunk boilers, which gave her a top speed of 9.3 knots (17.2 km/h; 10.7 mph) at 320 metric horsepower (320 ihp). As built, she was equipped with a three-masted schooner rig. The ship was armed with a battery of one rifled 15 cm (5.9 in) 24-pounder gun and two rifled 12 cm (4.7 in) 12-pounder guns.[1][2]
Service history
Blitz was laid down at the Königliche Werft Danzig (Royal Dockyard Danzig) on 26 July 1861; her name was already assigned on 23 May, two months before work began.[3][4] She was launched on 27 August 1862.[5] On 22 May 1863, Blitz was ordered to deploy to the Mediterranean Sea along with her sister ship Basilisk and the aviso Preussischer Adler. Blitz began sea trials five days later, and on 13 June the gunboat was formally commissioned into service for her tour abroad. On 18 August, the three vessels departed Prussia, bound for Greek waters.[4] Blitz's first commander was then Leutnant zur See (Lieutenant at Sea) Archibald MacLean.[6] Upon arrival, the three ships protected German nationals in Greece, which was experiencing a period of civil unrest. Later that year, the vessels entered the Black Sea; under the terms of the Treaty of Paris that had ended the Crimean War in 1856, Prussia was permitted to station warships in Sulina at the mouth of the Danube to enforce the peace. Basilisk and Blitz had their 15 cm gun removed during the trip to prevent damage in heavy weather. On 18 August 1863, the vessels left the Black Sea and returned to Piraeus, Greece, arriving on 9 October. There, on 3 December, they received the order to return to Prussia, as conflict with Denmark over the latter's November Constitution, which integrated the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg with Denmark, a violation of the London Protocol that had ended the First Schleswig War.[7][8]
Second Schleswig War
The crisis between Denmark and the German Confederation erupted in the Second Schleswig War, which began on 1 February 1864, after the Prussian and Austrian Empires delivered an ultimatum to Denmark to cede the disputed duchies to Austro-Prussian control. At the time, the Danish fleet was far superior to the Prussian naval forces initially available, which allowed the Danes to blockade the German coast. To assist the Prussians, the Austrian Navy sent Commodore Wilhelm von Tegetthoff with the screw frigates Schwarzenberg and Radetzky to break the Danish blockade. The Austrian and Prussian squadrons rendezvoused in Texel, the Netherlands, and Blitz and the other Prussian vessels came under Tegetthoff's command.[9][10] On 4 May, the combined squadron arrived in Cuxhaven, then an enclave of the free city of Hamburg.[7]
On the morning of 9 May, Tegetthoff learned that a Danish squadron consisting of the steam frigates Niels Juel and Jylland and the corvette Hejmdal were patrolling off the island of Heligoland. Tegetthoff took the five ships under his command out to attack the Danish vessels, resulting in the Battle of Heligoland.[11] Blitz and the other Prussian ships were too slow to keep pace with Schwarzenberg and Radetzky. After Schwarzenberg caught fire, Tegetthoff broke off the action and escaped to the neutral waters around Heligoland, where the ships remained until early the next day. During the period off Heligoland, the Prussian vessels sent their doctors to the Austrian frigates to help tend to their wounded. The next morning, the ships returned to Cuxhaven. Though the Danish squadron had won a tactical victory at Heligoland, the arrival of Austrian warships in the North Sea forced the Danes to withdraw their blockade.[12][13]
In June, a second Austrian squadron arrived, which included the ship of the line Kaiser and the armored frigate Don Juan d'Austria; the now outnumbered Danish fleet remained in port for the rest of the war and did not seek battle with the Austro-Prussian squadron.[14] For the next month, Blitz and the rest of the Austro-Prussian squadron patrolled the North Sea, taking Danish prizes. On 19 July, Blitz, Basilisk, and three Austrian gunboats supported landing operations conducted with two companies from the Austrian Kaiserjäger-Regiment in the North Frisian Islands. The operations were covered by the heavy units of the Austrian fleet, including Kaiser Don Juan d'Austria, and the corvette Erzherzog Friedrich, though the Danish fleet did not venture out to oppose the landing.[15] The Danes could muster only a small force of light craft, including two small armored steamers, and several cutters and dinghies.[4]
With the war all but over by August, the Austrian and Prussian warships were visited on 20 August by the commanders of the Prussian and Austrian armies that had conquered Denmark, Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia and Field Marshal Ludwig von Gablenz. Prince Adalbert visited the ships on 31 August. On 28 November, Blitz, Basilisk, and the corvette Augusta passed through the Kattegat and into the Baltic, arriving in Stralsund, where they were decommissioned on 10 December.[4]
Later career
In 1865, the boat's 24-pounder was replaced with a rifled 21 cm (8.3 in) 68-pounder gun.[5]
Blitz was stricken from the naval register on 28 December 1876 and converted into a coal storage hulk, though she served in this capacity for less than two years before being broken up for scrap in 1878, at the now-Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig.[5]
Notes
- ^ Gröner, pp. 133–134.
- ^ Gardiner, p. 259.
- ^ Gröner, p. 133.
- ^ a b c d Hildebrand, Röhr & Steinmetz, p. 86.
- ^ a b c Gröner, p. 134.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr & Steinmetz, p. 85.
- ^ a b Hildebrand, Röhr & Steinmetz, p. 38.
- ^ Sondhaus, p. 72.
- ^ Greene & Massignani, pp. 197–198, 205.
- ^ Embree, pp. 280–281.
- ^ Embree, pp. 282–283.
- ^ Embree, pp. 283–284.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr & Steinmetz, pp. 38–39.
- ^ Greene & Massignani, pp. 210–211.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr & Steinmetz, p. 39.
References
- Embree, Michael (2007). Bismarck's First War: The Campaign of Schleswig and Jutland 1864. Solihull: Helion & Co Ltd. ISBN 9781906033033.
- Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5.
- Greene, Jack; Massignani, Alessandro (1998). Ironclads at War: The Origin and Development of the Armored Warship, 1854–1891. Pennsylvania: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-938289-58-6.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|lastauthoramp=ignored (|name-list-style=suggested) (help) - Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships: 1815–1945. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-790-6. OCLC 22101769.
- Hildebrand, Hans H.; Röhr, Albert; Steinmetz, Hans-Otto (1993). Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe (Band 2) [The German Warships (Volume 2)]. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ASIN B003VHSRKE.
- Sondhaus, Lawrence (1997). Preparing for Weltpolitik: German Sea Power Before the Tirpitz Era. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1557507457.