SMS Basilisk

Last updated October 01, 2024

Three ships of the German and Austro-Hungarian navies have been named SMS Basilisk:

SMS Basilisk (1862), a Prussian gunboat that served during the wars of German unification
SMS Basilisk (1878), a German armored gunboat
SMS Basilisk (1902), an Austro-Hungarian minelayer that later served as the Romanian Aurora

This article includes a list of ships with the same or similar names. If an internal link for a specific ship led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended ship article, if one exists.

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The Battle of Heligoland was fought on 9 May 1864, during the Second Schleswig War, between a Danish squadron led by Commodore Edouard Suenson and a joint Austro-Prussian squadron commanded by the Austrian Commodore Wilhelm von Tegetthoff. The action came about as a result of the Danish blockade of German ports in the North Sea; the Austrians had sent two steam frigates, SMS Schwarzenberg and Radetzky, to reinforce the small Prussian Navy to help break the blockade. After arriving in the North Sea, Tegetthoff joined a Prussian aviso and a pair of gunboats. To oppose him, Suenson had available the steam frigates Niels Juel and Jylland and the corvette Hejmdal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Austro-Hungarian Navy</span> Branch of the military of Austria-Hungary

The Austro-Hungarian Navy or Imperial and Royal War Navy was the naval force of Austria-Hungary. Ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy were designated SMS, for Seiner Majestät Schiff. The k. u. k. Kriegsmarine came into being after the formation of Austria-Hungary in 1867, and ceased to exist in 1918 upon the Empire's defeat and subsequent collapse at the end of World War I.

SMS Kaiser has been the name of two ships of the German Imperial Navy:

During World War I, conflict on the Asian continent and the islands of the Pacific included naval battles, the Allied conquest of German colonial possessions in the Pacific Ocean and China, the anti-Russian Central Asian revolt of 1916 in Russian Turkestan and an the Ottoman-supported Kelantan rebellion in British Malaya. The most significant military action was the careful and well-executed Siege of Qingdao in China, but smaller actions were also fought at Bita Paka and Toma in German New Guinea.

SMS Novara may refer to one of two ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, both named after the 1849 Battle of Novara in which Austrian forces had defeated troops of the Kingdom of Sardinia:

SMS Mars may refer to one of two ships in the German and Austro-Hungarian Navies:

Two ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy have been named SMS Tegetthoff after the Austrian admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff:

SMS Meteor may refer to one of the following ships:

Three ships of the Austrian and later Austro-Hungarian Navy have been named SMS Prinz Eugen in honor of Prince Eugene of Savoy

In addition to several other ships, two ships of the Imperial German Navy and one ship of the Austro-Hungarian Navy have been named SMS Nautilus, after the Greek word for a sailor.

SMS Basilisk was a Camäleon-class gunboat of the Prussian Navy that was launched in 1862. A small vessel, armed with only three light guns, Basilisk served during all three wars of German unification in the 1860s and early 1870s. The ship was present during the Battle of Heligoland in May 1864 during the Second Schleswig War, but was too slow to engage the Danish squadron. During the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, Basilisk was stationed in the North Sea to help defend the coast, but she did not see action during either conflict. Between 1873 and 1875, she was employed experimentally as the first torpedo-armed warship of the German fleet. Basilisk was decommissioned in 1875, renamed "Mine Barge No. 1", and converted into a naval mine storage hulk. The details of her fate are unrecorded, but she was still in service in that capacity at least as late as 1900. Sometime thereafter, she was broken up.

Several warships of the German Kaiserliche Marine have been named SMS Wolf:

Three ships of the Imperial German Navy and one of the Austro-Hungarian Navy have been named SMS Möwe:

Several ships of the Prussian and Austrian/Austro-Hungarian Navies have been named SMS Drache (Dragon)

Several ships of the German and Austro-Hungarian Navies have been named SMS Greif

Several ships of the Austrian, Prussian, and German navies have been named SMS Salamander:

Three ships of the Austrian and Austro-Hungarian Navy have been named SMS Radetzky:

Several ships in the Prussian Navy and later German Imperial Navy and the Austro-Hungarian Navy have been named SMS Natter:

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