SMS Kaiser (1875)

SMS ''Kaiser''  was the lead ship of the s; was her sister ship. Named for the title "Kaiser" (german: Emperor), held by the leader of the then newly created German Empire, the ship was laid down in the Samuda Brothers shipyard in London in 1871. The ship was launched in March 1874 and commissioned into the German fleet in February 1875. ''Kaiser'' mounted a main battery of eight guns in a central battery amidships.

''Kaiser'' served with the fleet from her commissioning until 1896, though she was frequently placed in reserve throughout her career. The ship was a regular participant in the annual fleet training maneuvers conducted with the exception of the mid-1880s, when she was temporarily replaced by newer vessels. She participated in several cruises in the Baltic and Mediterranean, often escorting Kaiser Wilhelm II on official state visits. ''Kaiser'' was rebuilt in the early 1890s as an armored cruiser, though she was too slow to perform satisfactorily in this role. Nevertheless, she spent several years as the flagship of the East Asia Squadron before returning to Germany in 1899. She was used in secondary roles after 1904, until after the end of World War I in 1919, when she was broken up for scrap.

Design

The two ''Kaiser''-class ironclads were authorized under the naval program of 1867, which had been approved by the (Imperial Diet) to strengthen the North German Federal Navy in the wake of the Second Schleswig War, when the weak, then-Prussian Navy had been unable to break the blockade imposed by the Danish Navy. Designed by Edward James Reed in 1869, the ships were among the most powerful casemate ships built by any navy, though they were rendered obsolescent by the time they were completed by the advent of the turret ship.

The ship was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced normally and up to at full load. ''Kaiser'' was powered by one 2-cylinder single-expansion steam engine, which was supplied with steam by eight coal-fired trunk boilers. The boilers were vented into two widely spaced funnels. The propulsion system was rated at from . She was also equipped with a full ship rig to supplement the steam engines. Her standard complement consisted of 32 officers and 568 enlisted men.

She was armed with a main battery of eight L/20 guns mounted in a central casemate amidships. As built, the ship was also equipped with a single L/22 gun. After being rebuilt in 1891–1895, her armament was increased by six L/22 guns and one 8.8 cm L/30 gun, four and later twelve auto-cannons for defense against torpedo boats. She also received five torpedo tubes, all mounted in the ship's hull above the waterline.

''Kaiser''s armor consisted of wrought iron; her armor belt was thick, above which a strake of armor that was thick protected the main battery guns. Her main armor deck was thick.

Service history

''Kaiser'' was ordered by the Imperial Navy from the Samuda Brothers shipyard in London; her keel was laid in 1871. ''Kaiser'' and her sister ''Deutschland'' were ordered shortly after the end of the Franco-Prussian War, under the assumption that the French would quickly attempt a war of revenge. The ship was launched on 19 March 1874 and commissioned into the German fleet on 13 February 1875.

After commissioning in February 1875, ''Kaiser'' spent the spring working up her engines to be ready for the annual summer training cruise. She joined the older ironclads and and the new , under the command of Vice Admiral Ludwig von Henk. The four-ship squadron remained in German waters for the entirety of the cruise, which finished with a review of the flotilla in Rostock by Kaiser Wilhelm I in September. The squadron was reactivated the next spring; Rear Admiral Carl Ferdinand Batsch replaced Henk as the squadron commander. ''Kaiser'' served as the flagship of Batsch's squadron, which also included ''Kaiser''s sister ''Deutschland'', ''Kronprinz'', and .

At around the time Batch's squadron was working up for the summer cruise, Henry Abbott, the German consul in Salonika, then in the Ottoman Empire, was murdered. Further attacks on German citizens living in the area were feared, and so Batsch was ordered to sail to the Mediterranean Sea to stage a naval demonstration in June 1876. After arriving with the four ironclads, he was reinforced by three unarmored vessels. After the threat of violence subsided in August, Batsch departed with ''Kaiser'' and ''Deutschland''; the other two ironclads remained in the Mediterranean for the rest of the summer.

''Kaiser'' joined the 1877 summer squadron, composed of ''Deutschland'', ''Friedrich Carl'', and the new turret ironclad . The squadron was again sent to the Mediterranean, in response to unrest in the Ottoman Empire related to the Russo-Turkish War; the violence threatened German citizens living there. The squadron, again under the command of Batsch, steamed to the ports of Haifa and Jaffa in July 1877, but found no significant tensions ashore. Batsch then departed and cruised the Mediterranean for the remainder of the summer, returning to Germany in October. The newly commissioned and , sister ships of ''Preussen'', replaced ''Kaiser'' and ''Deutschland'' in the 1878 maneuvers, during which ''Grosser Kurfürst'' was accidentally rammed and sank with great loss of life.

''Kaiser'' and her sister ''Deutschland'' remained in reserve for the next six years. They were reactivated in the spring of 1883 for the summer maneuvers under the command of Wilhelm von Wickede. Due to their long period out of service, their engines proved troublesome during the training cruise. Regardless, the 1883 cruise was the first year the German navy completely abandoned the use of sails on its large ironclads. ''Kaiser'' went into reserve during the 1884 maneuvers, which were conducted by a homogenous squadron composed of the four s. The ship did not see active duty again until August 1887, when she joined ''König Wihelm'' and as the I Squadron for three weeks of maneuvers with the rest of the fleet.

In May 1888, ''Kaiser'' represented Germany at Barcelona's World Fair, which held a naval review. During the summer of 1889, ''Kaiser'' joined the fleet that steamed to Great Britain to celebrate the coronation of Kaiser Wilhelm II; the ship joined her sister ''Deutschland'' and the turret ships ''Preussen'' and ''Friedrich der Grosse'' in II Division. The fleet then held training maneuvers in the North Sea under command of Rear Admiral Friedrich Hollmann. ''Kaiser'' and the rest of II Division became the training squadron for the fleet in 1889–1890, the first year the Kaiserliche Marine maintained a year-round ironclad force. The squadron escorted Wilhelm II's imperial yacht to the Mediterranean; the voyage included state visits to Italy and the Ottoman Empire. The squadron remained in the Mediterranean until April 1890, when it returned to Germany.

''Kaiser'' participated in the ceremonial transfer of the island of Helgoland from British to German control in the summer of 1890. She was present during the fleet maneuvers in September, where the entire eight-ship armored squadron simulated a Russian fleet blockading Kiel. II Division, including ''Kaiser'', served as the training squadron in the winter of 1890–1891. The squadron again cruised the Mediterranean, under the command of Rear Admiral Wilhelm Schröder. Between 1891 and 1895, ''Kaiser'' was rebuilt in the Imperial Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven. The ship was converted into an armored cruiser; her heavy guns were removed and replaced with lighter weapons, including one , six , and nine guns. Her entire rigging equipment was removed and two heavy military masts were installed in place of the rigging. Despite the modernization, she remained quite slow. ''Deutschland'' and ''König Wilhelm'' were similarly converted.

Service in East Asia

In 1895, commanded by Paul Jaeschke, ''Kaiser'' reinforced the East Asia Division, which also included the protected cruisers and and several smaller vessels. During the period of diplomatic tension between Britain and Germany caused by the Kruger telegram sent by Wilhelm II, ''Kaiser'' and several other overseas cruisers were ordered to return to German waters. This order was quickly reversed, as it was decided it would be seen as an act of weakness by Britain. In April 1896, while entering the port of Amoy, ''Kaiser'' struck an uncharted rock. Only minor damage was done to the hull, but the ship was still out of service for twenty-two days for repairs in Hong Kong. ''Kaiser'' served as the flagship of Rear Admiral Otto von Diederichs during his tenure as the division commander. Diederichs was tasked with locating a suitable concession to be used as the main port of the East Asia Division; after surveying a number of sites aboard ''Kaiser'', Diederichs settled on Jiaozhou Bay. In the wake of two violent incidents against Germans in China, Wilhelm II gave Diederichs permission to seize Jiaozhou by force in November 1897.

After dusk on 10 November, ''Kaiser'' left Shanghai and headed toward Jiaozhou. ''Prinzess Wilhelm'' and the unprotected cruiser were to leave the following day to allay suspicion. The three ships rendezvoused on the 12th at sea; Diederichs intended to steam into Jiaozhou on the 14th and seize the port. At 06:00 on the 14th, ''Cormoran'' steamed into the bay to bring the Chinese forts under fire, while ''Kaiser'' and ''Prinzess Wilhelm'' sent a landing force of some 700 men ashore. In the span of two hours, Diederichs's forces had captured the central and outlying forts and destroyed the Chinese telegraph, preventing them from notifying their superiors of the German attack. After negotiating with General Chang, the commander of the Jiaozhou garrison, Diederichs succeeded in forcing the Chinese concession of Jiaozhou to Germany, which he proclaimed at 14:20. Diederichs was promoted to vice admiral following the successful seizure of the port, and the division became enlarged to squadron size with the addition of several warships, including ''Kaiser''s sister ''Deutschland''.

In May 1898, Diederichs sent ''Kaiser'' to Nagasaki for periodic maintenance. The Spanish–American War, which saw action in the Philippines at the Battle of Manila Bay, necessitated a German naval presence in the area to protect German nationals. ''Kaiser'' was still in Nagasaki undergoing repairs, so Diederichs ordered her and ''Prinzess Wilhelm'', also in dock for maintenance, to meet him in Manila as soon as was possible. Crew transfers during the repair process necessitated ''Irene'' and ''Cormoran'' to meet in Manila as well; this concentration of five warships in the Philippines caused a serious crisis with the American Navy. Rear Admiral George Dewey objected to the size of the German force and to a meeting between Diederichs and Governor General Augustin, the Spanish governor of the Philippines. The German naval forces left the Philippines after the fall of Manila in August, though tensions with the United States continued for some time after.

Following his departure from Manila in August 1898, Diederichs took ''Kaiser'' south to the Dutch East Indies. There, the ship represented Germany during celebrations for the coronation of Queen Wilhelmina. The ship then returned to Hong Kong via Singapore, before proceeding to Fuchow for gunnery practice. While steaming into the bay, however, the ship ran aground on an uncharted rock. The screw corvette and ''Cormoran'' arrived to tow ''Kaiser'' off the rocks, after which Diederichs sent her back to Hong Kong for repairs. ''Kaiser'' remained overseas until 1899, when she returned to Germany. She was reduced to a harbor ship on 3 May 1904 and renamed ''Uranus'' on 12 October 1905. The ship was stricken from the naval register on 21 May 1906 and used as a barracks ship for in Flensburg. ''Uranus'' was broken up in 1920 in Harburg.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaiser (1875), Sms
Kaiser-class ironclads
1874 ships