Bussard-class cruiser
 SMS Bussard in Dar es Salaam
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Preceded by | Schwalbe class |
| Succeeded by | SMS Gefion |
| Built | 1888–1895 |
| Completed | 6 |
| Lost | 3 |
| Scrapped | 3 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Unprotected cruiser |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 82.60 m (271 ft) |
| Beam | 12.50 m (41 ft) |
| Draft | 4.45 m (14 ft 7 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph) |
| Range | 2,990 nmi (5,540 km) at 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) |
| Complement |
|
| Armament |
|
The Bussard class of
Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the late 1880s and early 1890s. The class comprised six ships: Bussard, the lead ship, Falke, Seeadler, Cormoran, Condor, and Geier
. Designed for service in Germany's colonial empire, the class emphasized a long-range cruising radius and relatively heavy armament; they were also the last cruisers in the Kaiserliche Marine to be equipped with an auxiliary sailing rig. The ships were equipped with eight 10.5-centimeter (4.1 in) guns.
All six ships served abroad for the majority of their careers, primarily in Africa and the south Pacific, where they assisted in the suppression of uprisings such as the
Venezuela Crisis of 1902–03. Bussard and Falke were broken up for scrap in 1912, but the remaining four ships were still in service following the outbreak of World War I
in August 1914.
Cormoran was based in
hulks
after the start of the war. Seeadler was destroyed by an accidental explosion in 1917. Condor was the only member of the class to survive the war, and she was scrapped in 1921.
Design
Through the 1870s and early 1880s,
screw corvettes capable of patrolling the German colonial empire. A pair of new cruisers was authorized under the 1886–1887 fiscal year, intended for the latter purpose. General Leo von Caprivi, the Chief of the Imperial Admiralty, sought to modernize Germany's cruiser force. The first step in the program, the two Schwalbe-class unprotected cruisers, provided the basis for the larger Bussard class.[1][2]
The Bussard class was designed for service abroad and the design for the Bussard class was prepared in 1888. The ships were significantly larger and faster than the Schwalbe class, but mounted the same battery of guns—though only Bussard carried the same type of guns—the rest carried a newer,
Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) to be equipped with a sailing rig; the subsequent unprotected cruiser Gefion was entirely steam-powered.[3][4]
General characteristics
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The ships of the Bussard class all differed slightly in their characteristics. The first two ships,
full load. The next three ships, Seeadler, Condor, and Cormoran, were 79.62 m (261 ft 3 in) long at the waterline and had the same overall length as their earlier sister ships. They had a beam of 12.70 m (41 ft 8 in) and a draft of 4.42 m (14 ft 6 in) forward and 5.35 m (17 ft 7 in) aft. They displaced 1,612 t (1,587 long tons) as designed and 1,864 t (1,835 long tons) at full load. The last ship, Geier, was 79.62 m long at the waterline and 83.90 m (275 ft 3 in) long overall. She had a beam of 10.60 m (34 ft 9 in) and a draft of 4.74 m (15 ft 7 in) forward and 5.22 m (17 ft 2 in) aft.[5]
The cruisers' hulls were constructed with transverse steel frames with yellow pine planking up to the upper deck. A layer of
double bottom was installed below the boiler rooms. The ships were good sea boats, but they rolled badly and the sponsons for the main guns caused severe vibration. Since Geier was laid down after the other five ships entered service, she was redesigned slightly to discard the sponsons, and so she did not suffer from bad vibration. They were very maneuverable, except for turns into the wind when steaming at low speed. The ships had a crew of 9 officers and 152 enlisted men. They carried a number of smaller boats, including one picket boat, one cutter, two yawls, and two dinghies.[5]
Propulsion
Their propulsion system consisted of two horizontal 3-cylinder
screw propellers that were 3 m (9 ft 10 in) wide in diameter. The boilers were divided into two boiler rooms and were trunked into a single funnel. The ships were fitted with an auxiliary schooner barque rig with a total surface area of 856 to 877 m2 (9,210 to 9,440 sq ft). Steering was controlled by a single rudder. Each ship was equipped with a pair of electricity generators with a combined output of 24 kilowatts (32 hp) at 67 volts.[5]
The propulsion system provided a top speed of 15.5 kn (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph), though all six ships exceeded their design speeds while on
sea trials, reaching between 15.7 to 16.9 knots (29.1 to 31.3 km/h; 18.1 to 19.4 mph). The ships carried between 170 to 205 t (167 to 202 long tons; 187 to 226 short tons) of coal as designed, and they could accommodate up to 305 to 320 t (300 to 315 long tons; 336 to 353 short tons) of coal using additional storage spaces. This provided a range of between 2,990 to 3,610 nautical miles (5,540 to 6,690 km; 3,440 to 4,150 mi) at 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph).[5]
Armament
The first ship was armed with a
Hotchkiss revolver cannon for defense against torpedo boats. The first five ships were also equipped with two 35 cm (13.8 in) torpedo tubes, both of which were mounted on the deck. Geier instead had larger 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes. Each ship carried five torpedoes.[4][5]
Ships
| Name | Builder[5] | Laid down[6] | Launched[6] | Commissioned[6] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bussard | Danzig
|
1888 | 23 January 1890 | 7 October 1890 |
| Falke | Kaiserliche Werft, Kiel | 1890 | 4 April 1891 | 14 September 1891 |
| Seeadler | Kaiserliche Werft, Danzig | 1890 | 2 February 1892 | 17 August 1892 |
| Condor | Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
|
1891 | 23 February 1892 | 9 December 1892 |
| Cormoran | Kaiserliche Werft, Danzig | 1890 | 17 May 1892 | 25 July 1893 |
| Geier | Kaiserliche Werft, Wilhelmshaven
|
1893 | 18 October 1894 | 24 October 1895 |
Service history
All six ships of the class spent the majority of their careers abroad, primarily in Germany's colonial possessions in Africa and the Pacific. Seeadler visited the United States in March 1893, along with the
Southwest Africa, where she suppressed local uprisings.[9]
In November 1897, Cormoran took part in the seizure of the
Venezuela Crisis of 1902–03 after Venezuelan forces seized a British merchant ship. The two cruisers helped British warships bombard Venezuelan coastal fortifications and blockade the coast.[13]
Cormoran and Geier were modernized between 1907 and 1909; only Falke and Condor never returned for major dockyard work.Sokehs Rebellion in the Caroline Islands in January 1911, along with the light cruiser Leipzig.[14] In 1912, when the Second Balkan War broke out, Geier was stationed in the eastern Mediterranean Sea to observe the hostilities.[15] Both Bussard and Falke were stricken from the naval register on 25 October 1912 and broken up the following year, at Hamburg and the Kaiserliche Werft in Danzig, respectively.[6]
After the outbreak of
US Navy. After the United States declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917, she was seized and commissioned as USS Schurz for use as an escort vessel. She was sunk after colliding with a merchant ship in June 1918.[17]
Notes
- ^ Nottelmann, pp. 102–103.
- ^ Sondhaus, pp. 166–167.
- ^ Gröner, pp. 93–99.
- ^ a b Lyon, p. 253.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Gröner, p. 97.
- ^ a b c d Gröner, pp. 97–98.
- ^ Sondhaus, p. 206.
- ^ Clowes et al., p. 414.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 7, pp. 152–153.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 2, p. 193.
- ^ Nunez, p. 76.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 7, p. 154.
- ^ Marley, pp. 924–925.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 2, p. 191.
- ^ Vego, p. 124.
- ^ Gröner, p. 98.
- ^ Schurz.
References
- OCLC 1296915.
- 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 [The German Warships: Biographies − A Reflection of Naval History from 1815 to the Present] (in German). Vol. 2. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8364-9743-5.
- Hildebrand, Hans H.; Röhr, Albert & Steinmetz, Hans-Otto (1993). Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe: Biographien – ein Spiegel der Marinegeschichte von 1815 bis zur Gegenwart [The German Warships: Biographies − A Reflection of Naval History from 1815 to the Present] (in German). Vol. 7. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7822-0267-1.
- 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.
- Marley, David (2008). Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the Western Hemisphere, 1492 to the Present. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-59884-100-8.
- Nottelmann, Dirk (2020). "The Development of the Small Cruiser in the Imperial German Navy". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2020. Oxford: Osprey. pp. 102–118. ISBN 978-1-4728-4071-4.
- Nunez, Severo Gómez (1899). The Spanish–American War: Blockades and Coast Defense. Washington, DC: Washington, Govt. Print. Off.
- "Schurz". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
- Sondhaus, Lawrence (1997). Preparing for Weltpolitik: German Sea Power Before the Tirpitz Era. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-745-7.
- Vego, Milan N. (1996). Austro-Hungarian Naval Policy, 1904–14. London: Frank Cass Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7146-4209-3.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-1-68247-745-8.