SMS Luchs

Luchs c. 1900
History
Namesake	German for "lynx"
Launched	18 October 1899
Out of service	1914
Fate	Scuttled 28 September 1914
General characteristics
Class and type	Iltis-class gunboat
Displacement	1,108 t (1,091 long tons)
Length	65.2 meters (214 ft) o/a
Beam	9.1 m (30 ft)
Draft	3.59 m (11.8 ft)
Installed power	4 × Thornycroft boilers 1,345 PS (1,327 ihp)
Propulsion	2 × triple-expansion steam engines 2 × screw propellers
Speed	13.9 knots (25.7 km/h; 16.0 mph)
Range	2,580 nautical miles (4,780 km; 2,970 mi) at 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph)
Complement	9 officers 121 enlisted men
Armament	2 × 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK L/40 guns 6 × machine guns

SMS Luchs was the fourth member of the Iltis class 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 Tiger, SMS Eber, SMS Jaguar and SMS Panther.

Design

Main article: Iltis-class gunboat

Luchs was 65.2 meters (214 ft) long overall and had a beam of 9.1 m (30 ft) and a draft of 3.56 m (11.7 ft) forward. She displaced 1,108 metric tons (1,091 long tons; 1,221 short tons) at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of a pair of vertical triple-expansion steam engines each driving a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by four coal-fired Thornycroft boilers. Luchs could steam at a top speed of 13.9 knots (25.7 km/h; 16.0 mph) at 1,345 metric horsepower (1,327 ihp). The ship had a cruising radius of about 2,580 nautical miles (4,780 km; 2,970 mi) at a speed of 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph). She had a crew of 9 officers and 121 enlisted men. Luchs was armed with a main battery of two 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK L/40 guns, with 482 rounds of ammunition. She also carried six machine guns.

Service history

An Iltis-class ship in the harbor at Qingdao

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 Vineta and the unprotected cruiser Geier.

In August 1904, the badly damaged Russian battleship Tsesarevich and three destroyers sought refuge in the German naval base at Qingdao 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 Fürst Bismarck and the protected cruiser Hansa cleared for action to prevent them from leaving the port. The two cruisers were then reinforced by Luchs and her sister Tiger and the cruisers Hertha and Geier.

Luchs spent December 1909 and early January 1910 in Hong Kong for the Christmas and New Year's festivities in company with the armored cruiser Scharnhorst and the light cruiser Leipzig. In January, Scharnhorst, Leipzig, and Luchs went on a tour of East Asian ports, including Bangkok, Manila, and stops in Sumatra and North Borneo. By 22 March, Scharnhorst and Leipzig had returned to the German port at Qingdao.

Luchs was scuttled on 28 September 1914 at the German colony in the Jiaozhou Bay Leased Territory during the Siege of Qingdao. Three of her sisters were also scuttled during the siege, including Iltis, which was scuttled the same day as Luchs.

References

• Garbett, H., ed. (1900). "Naval Notes". R.U.S.I. Journal. XLIV (268). London: Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies: 684–699. doi:10.1080/03071840009420016.
• Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships: 1815–1945. Vol. I: Major Surface Vessels. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-790-6.
• Hildebrand, Hans H.; Röhr, Albert & Steinmetz, Hans-Otto (1993). Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe: Biographien: ein Spiegel der Marinegeschichte von 1815 bis zur Gegenwart (Band 5) [The German Warships: Biographies: A Reflection of Naval History from 1815 to the Present (Vol. 5)] (in German). Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7822-0456-9.
• Lyon, Hugh (1979). "Germany". In Gardiner, Robert; Chesneau, Roger; Kolesnik, Eugene M. (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5.

Further reading

• Nottlemann, Dirk (2022). "The Development of the Small Cruiser in the Imperial German Navy, Part III: The Gunboats". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2022. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. pp. 63–79. ISBN 978-1-4728-4781-2.