SMS Falke

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For the earlier aviso, see SMS Falke (1865).

SMS Falke in 1892
History
German Empire
NameFalke
NamesakeFalke
Laid downJanuary 1890
Launched4 April 1891
Commissioned14 September 1891
FateScrapped, 1913
General characteristics
Class and typeBussard-class unprotected cruiser
Displacement
Length82.6 m (271 ft 0 in)
Beam12.5 m (41 ft 0 in)
Draft4.45 m (14 ft 7 in)
Installed power
Propulsion
  • 2 ×
    triple-expansion steam engines
  • 2 ×
    screw propellers
Speed15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph)
Range2,990 nmi (5,540 km) at 9 knots (17 km/h)
Complement
  • 9 officers
  • 152 enlisted men
Armament

SMS Falke ("His Majesty's Ship Falke—Falcon")[a] was an unprotected cruiser of the Bussard class, built for the Imperial German Navy. She was the second member of the class of six vessels. The cruiser was laid down in 1890, launched in April 1891, and commissioned into the fleet in September of that month. Designed for overseas service, she carried a main battery of eight 10.5-centimeter (4.1 in) guns and had a top speed of 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph).

Falke served abroad for the majority of her career, seeing duty in East Asia, the Central Pacific, and the Americas. She assisted in the suppression of a revolt in

naval register
in late 1912 and subsequently broken up for scrap.

Design

Main article: Bussard-class cruiser
Illustration of the Bussard-class cruiser Geier

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]

Falke was 82.6 meters (271 ft)

metric horsepower (2,800 ihp), and a range of approximately 2,990 nautical miles (5,540 km; 3,440 mi) at 9 kn (17 km/h; 10 mph). She had a crew of 9 officers and 152 enlisted men.[3]

The ship was armed with a

Hotchkiss revolver cannon for defense against torpedo boats. She was also equipped with two 35 cm (13.8 in) torpedo tubes with five torpedoes, both of which were mounted on the deck.[3][4]

Service history

Falke was laid down at the

coastal defense ship Siegfried.[6][7]

Deployment to West Africa

Germany's African colonies

Falke was transferred to Germany's West African colonies in western Africa after the conclusion of the maneuvers, departing Kiel on 16 October to replace the gunboat Habicht. After arriving in western Africa, Falke went to Dahomey, where the Second Franco-Dahomean War had recently broken out. In December, her captain unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate the release of two German merchants who were being held by Dahomean soldiers. On 31 December, Falke returned to Duala, the main German port in Kamerun, where she joined the second warship stationed in the colony, the gunboat Hyäne.[6]

The borders of

German South-West Africa had been settled via treaties with Portugal (1886) and Britain (1890), but the coast line had not been surveyed in detail. Falke was tasked with locating a suitable port to connect to the capital at Windhuk. She departed Luanda on 23 January 1893 and arrived in Cape Cross four days later. The ship surveyed the area thoroughly, and discovered a Portuguese padrão. It had been placed there by the Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão in the late 15th century. Falke's crew removed it to protect it from further weathering and placed a wooden cross to mark the location. The ship's crew received a period of rest from 14 to 16 March, after which time Falke steamed back to Kamerun, stopping in several ports along the way and arriving in Duala on 29 April. There, the stone monument was unloaded and later transported back to Berlin for preservation by the steamer Stettin, which departed Duala on 29 October. A granite copy, carried by the cruiser Sperber, was installed in its place in 1895.[6][8]

In the meantime, Falke had been sent to

Admiralstab (Admiralty Staff) transferred Falke to the colony in German New Guinea. Falke departed on 23 December, arriving in Melbourne via Sydney.[9]

Deployment to the Pacific

Falke in Samoa

Upon arriving in Melbourne on 8 February 1894, Falke met her sister ship Bussard and the gunboat Möwe. The three ships then departed for Apia in the Caroline Islands, arriving on 16 April, where they conducted gunnery training. Falke remained in Samoa until early October when she returned to Sydney for repair work; at the time, Sydney possessed the only shipyard with the facilities necessary for major repairs, which meant that the Germans were dependent on the Australian port to keep their warships operational. A lengthy overhaul took place in Sydney from March to July 1895. From 29 July to 10 November, Falke was again in Samoa. During this period, the ship surveyed the port at Salua, north of the main island of Upolu. In mid-November, the governor of the Marshall Islands requested the presence of Falke, and in late December she left the Marshalls for Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, arriving in Matupi Harbor in January 1896. There she met Möwe; Falke's tour of Germany's Pacific colonies ended that month.[10]

Another overhaul in Sydney followed from 4 February to 4 April. On 15 April, Falke dropped anchor once again in Apia. At the end of August, the ship steamed to

Herbertshöhe to Ali Island and contributed a landing party from her crew. On 10 November Falke returned to Apia, but two days later she departed for Sydney via Auckland for repairs. A new crew had also arrived in Sydney from Germany. On 24 April 1898, she departed Sydney for a tour of the colonies. After the conclusion of the cruise, Falke returned to Sydney, where her new commander, Korvettenkapitän (Corvette Captain) Victor Schönfelder had arrived; he formally took control of the ship on 1 September.[10]

Falke c. 1899

On 1 October, Falke left Sydney for Apia before making visits to the New Hebrides, Fiji, and Tonga on the 15th. Four weeks later, Bussard departed the central Pacific, bound for Germany; Falke was now alone in the region, despite the rising international tensions concerning a succession crisis in Samoa.[11] In March 1899, Falke was in the harbor at Apia. Unrest on the island, instigated by Mata'afa Iosefo, prompted the American cruiser USS Philadelphia and the British sloop HMS Royalist and torpedo cruiser HMS Porpoise to shell the rebel positions. Their gunfire was poorly aimed, however, and several shells hit Falke.[12] Schönfelder kept his crew from escalating the situation to prevent a more serious diplomatic crisis from developing. Eventually, the Second Samoan Civil War was resolved by splitting the islands into German and American colonies, while Britain received concessions elsewhere. By June, the fighting was over and the situation had calmed.[13]

Falke's sister ship

Danzig, where she was decommissioned on 3 November. The Kaiserliche Werft in Danzig conducted a lengthy overhaul and modernization.[13]

Deployment to the Americas

Map of the Caribbean showing many of the ports Falke visited during her deployment
SMS Falke at the Royal Naval Dockyard Bermuda in 1903
SMS Falke in the floating drydock Bermuda at the Royal Naval Dockyard Bermuda in 1903

On 2 October 1901, Falke was recommissioned for another tour abroad, this time to the Americas. She was sent to reinforce the

San Ignacio in Peru on 17 April. By this point, the river was 114 m (374 ft) above sea level and only 400 nmi (740 km; 460 mi) from the Pacific coast; Falke had travelled around 5,200 nmi (9,600 km; 6,000 mi) up the river; a shortage of coal prevented her from proceeding further. On 30 April, she arrived back at the mouth of the river.[13]

On 8 May, Falke arrived in

Charlotte Amalie in the Virgin Islands. During this period, she made stops in Carúpano, La Guaira, and Puerto Cabello, along with a visit to Willemstad in Curaçao. On 30 September, she was sent to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to protect German nationals there during a revolution in the country. At times, landing parties had to be sent ashore to protect the German consulate in Gonaïves.[16]

By this time, the situation in Venezuela had worsened, necessitating foreign warships to remain of the coast to protect foreign nationals in the country. In December, Falke ran aground while leaving Willemstad; the training ship

Venezuela Crisis of 1902–1903.[16] The Germans operated in concert with the British Royal Navy and the Italian Regia Marina; they sought to compel the Venezuelan government to make reparations for grievances related to internal conflicts in the over the previous decade.[17] The crisis began when a British merchant ship was boarded and its crew arrested by Venezuelan forces on 13 December; in response, British forces bombarded the forts at Puerto Cabello, and enlisted the German squadron to assist them in punishing the Venezuelans. Falke and Gazelle were tasked with blockading the Venezuelan coast, in cooperation with the British squadron.[18]

Leaving the West Indies, on 28 February 1903 the Falke went to the

Valparaiso on 20 December. In the meantime, the East American Cruiser Division was disbanded. Starting on 6 January 1905, Falke resumed her voyage up the Pacific coast of the Americas, stopping in Peru, Colombia, and several Central American countries. On 15 June she reached San Francisco, where she stayed for three weeks. On 10 July she resumed her cruise northward and visited harbors in Canada and southern Alaska.[16][21]

On the return voyage, she steamed up the Columbia River and toured the Gulf of California. She spent Christmas and New Year's Day in Mazatlán in Mexico and also stopped in Callao. While cruising off the coast of Chile in August, she was damaged by a severe storm. Repairs were effected in Talcahuano; while she was being repaired, an earthquake struck Valparaiso. Once she was ready for sea, Falke carried food and medical supplies to the city between 28 August and 2 September. The ship returned to Chile to be present during the inauguration ceremony for President Pedro Montt on 18 September. She then returned to Talcahuano to complete her repairs. On 4 September, she departed and steamed down to Punta Arenas, where she stayed from 2 to 15 December. Falke then crossed back to the Atlantic and steamed up to Montevideo in January 1907; there, she received the order to return to Germany.[22]

Falke departed Montevideo and crossed the Atlantic to

naval register on 25 October 1912 and broken up the following year at the Kaiserliche Werft in Danzig.[23][24]

Notes

Footnotes

  1. Seiner Majestät Schiff
    " (German: His Majesty's Ship).

Citations

  1. ^ Nottelmann, pp. 102–103.
  2. ^ Sondhaus, pp. 166–167.
  3. ^ a b Gröner, p. 97.
  4. ^ Lyon, p. 253.
  5. ^ Gröner, pp. 97–98.
  6. ^ a b c d Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 78.
  7. ^ Naval Manoeuvres of 1892, p. 112.
  8. ^ Schoeman, p. 82.
  9. ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 78–79.
  10. ^ a b Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 79.
  11. ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 79–80.
  12. ^ Beede, p. 310.
  13. ^ a b c Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 80.
  14. ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 80–81.
  15. ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36831. London. 28 July 1902. p. 7.
  16. ^ a b c d Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 81.
  17. ^ Forbes, p. 325.
  18. ^ Marley, pp. 924–925.
  19. ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 77.
  20. ^ Witte, pp. 230–231.
  21. ^ Bredovskis, p. 177.
  22. ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 81–82.
  23. ^ Gröner, p. 98.
  24. ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 82.

References

Further reading
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