SMS Adler

Drawing of SMS Adler by Rear Admiral L.A. Kimberly, U.S. Navy
History
Name	SMS Adler
Namesake	German word for "eagle"
Builder	Kaiserliche Werft Kiel
Cost	881,000 German gold mark
Laid down	1882
Launched	3 November 1883
Commissioned	27 May 1884
In service	1884-1889
Fate	16 March 1889 stranded off Samoa, 20 dead
Notes	commander: Fregattenkapitän Frizze
General characteristics
Class and type	Habicht Klasse (Hawk class)
Displacement	880 metric tons (870 long tons; 970 short tons)/1,040 metric tons (1,020 long tons; 1,150 short tons)
Length	61.8 m (202 ft 9 in) o/a
Beam	8.8 m (28 ft 10 in)
Draught	3.11 m (10 ft 2 in)-4.02 m (13 ft 2 in) (bow-stern)
Propulsion	4 cylinder, coal-fired, double expansion steam engine
Speed	11 kn (20 km/h; 13 mph)
Range	2,000 nmi (3,700 km; 2,300 mi) @ 9 kn
Complement	7 officers, 126 men
Armament	5 × 12.5 cm (4.9 in) built-up guns 5 × 3.7 cm (1.5 in) revolver guns

SMS Adler was a gunboat of the Imperial German Navy. She was launched 3 November 1883 in the Imperial shipyard in Kiel. On 5 September 1888, she shelled Manono Island and Apolima, Samoa, which were strongholds of Malietoa’s forces. She was wrecked together with the German gunboat SMS Eber, the German corvette SMS Olga, the United States Navy gunboat USS Nipsic, the U.S. Navy screw steamer USS Trenton, and the U.S. Navy sloop-of-war USS Vandalia on 16 March 1889 in a hurricane at Apia, Samoa, during the Samoan crisis. Twenty crew members lost their lives.

Propulsion

• 4-cylinder double-expansion steam engine
• Coal-fired boilers
• Speed: 11.0 knots

Armament

• 5 × 12.5 cm (4.9 in) built-up guns
• 5 × 3.7 cm (1.5 in) revolver guns

• Wreck of SMS Adler
• 
  The wrecked ship
• 
  Rigging
• 
  The wreck about 1938

References

• Erich Gröner, Panzerschiffe, Linienschiffe, Schlachtschiffe, Flugzeugträger, Kreuzer, Kanonenboote = Die deutschen Kriegsschiffe, 1815-1945 Vol.I, Bernard & Graefe, 1982, ISBN 3-7637-4800-8, pp. 166–7

See also

• 1889 Apia cyclone