Nymphe saw action during the Second Schleswig War against Denmark in 1864 at the Battle of Jasmund. She was heavily engaged by a Danish frigate in the battle; she received around 70 hits, mostly to her rigging, though she was not seriously damaged. The ship, which had been on a cruise in the Mediterranean Sea, was in the process of being recalled to Germany during the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, and as a result, saw no action during the conflict. During the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, a French squadron of ironclads had anchored off Danzig, and Nymphe launched a surprise night attack on the idle vessels, though she inflicted no serious damage on the armored French ships. Her attack nevertheless convinced the French admiral that his heavy ships were not useful in a close blockade of German ports, and so they left.
In 1871, Nymphe embarked on a major overseas deployment to the Pacific Ocean and East Asia, where her captain conducted negotiations with various governments and she visited numerous cities. She remained abroad until mid-1874, after which she was converted into a training ship for apprentice seamen. She served in that capacity for the next decade, during which she conducted training cruises, usually to the Americas, though in 1882 she toured the Mediterranean Sea. In poor condition and in need of a complete reconstruction by 1885, she was stricken from the naval register in July 1887 and hulked. Nymphe was ultimately sold in 1891 and broken up in Hamburg.
The two Nymphe-class corvettes were ordered in the early 1860s as part of a program to strengthen the Prussian Navy when the likelihood of a conflict with Denmark over the Schleswig-Holstein Question became increasingly likely.[1] The design for the class was completed in 1861 and work began on both ships the next year.[2]
Nymphe was armed with a battery of ten 36-pounder guns and six 12-pounder guns, all smoothbores mounted on the broadside. In 1869, these guns were replaced with seventeen, and later nineteen, rifled 12cm (4.7in) 23-caliber guns. Later in her career, these were reduced to nine guns.[2][3]
Service history
Nymphe was ordered on 23 July 1861, the first of the wooden steam corvettes to be built for the Prussian Navy. Her keel was laid down on 25 January 1862 at the Königliche Werft (Royal Shipyard) in Danzig, and on 23 July her name was decided by an order from the Prussian Navy Department. The completed hull was launched on 15 April 1863 and she was completed for sea trials by late October. During the trials, it was discovered that the Prussian crew members did not have sufficient experience to operate the steam machinery, and so technicians from J Penn & Sons, the British manufacturer of the ship's engines, had to remain aboard to assist them. Nymphe transferred on 25 November to spend the winter months in Swinemünde, since the port would not remain frozen over as long as Danzig.[4] In addition, as tensions rose between Denmark and Prussia over the Schleswig-Holstein Question, the move west would allow Nymphe to cooperate with the gunboats based in Stralsund.[5]
Second Schleswig War
Nymphe was commissioned for the first time on 20 February 1864, shortly after the outbreak of the Second Schleswig War against Denmark. She joined the squadron commanded by Kapitän zur See (KzS—Captain at Sea) Eduard von Jachmann, whose flagship was the frigateArcona.[4]Nymphe's commander was Kapitänleutnant (captain lieutenant) Reinhold von Werner.[6] The Danish fleet, which was much more powerful than the Prussian fleet, immediately proclaimed a blockade of the Baltic and North Sea ports of Prussia and the other German states. The Danes began seizing Prussian merchant ships in the area, prompting AdmiralPrince Adalbert of Prussia, the commander of the Prussian Navy, to begin plans for an operation against the blockade using Jachmann's squadron. By mid-March, the Prussian ships were ready for action and the ice had receded far enough that Prince Adalbert ordered Jachmann to conduct a reconnaissance of the blockading force on 16 March. Two days before, a Danish squadron consisting of one ship of the line, one screw frigate, and two screw corvettes and commanded by Rear AdmiralEdvard van Dockum had arrived off Swinemünde. Arcona and Nymphe patrolled off Greifswald, but the weather was poor, with snow showers hampering visibility. The Prussian gunboats, led by the paddle steamerLoreley, remained closer to Swinemünde. Jachmann spotted three vessels at around 15:30, but there was not enough time before dark to catch them. Instead, Jachmann turned back to Swinemünde, intending to try again the following day.[7][8]
Battle of Jasmund
Illustration of the action by Carl Neumann; Nypmhe is at left
The next morning, at 07:30, Jachmann took his ships out of the mouth of the Oder, initially steaming east. Unable to locate any Danish warships, the Prussians turned west and, as they approached the island of Greifswalder Oie, lookouts aboard the ships spotted smoke to the northwest at about 13:15. The Prussians continued on toward the island of Rügen; off the Jasmund Peninsula, Jachmann's ships encountered Dockum's squadron.[9] There, with Arcona and Nymphe in the lead, Jachmann turned to engage the Danes; Loreley increased speed to join the two corvettes while Jachmann sent the gunboats to the coast of Rügen, where they could be used to cover his withdrawal. From further north, Dockum was awaiting the arrival of the steam frigate Tordenskjold.[10]
At 14:30, Arcona opened fire, targeting the frigate Sjælland; a few minutes later, after Sjælland closed to 1,500 meters (1,600yd), Dockum turned his flagship to starboard and began firing broadsides at Arcona. Jachmann turned Arcona to starboard as well, having realized the strength of the Danish squadron. He failed to inform the captains of Nymphe and Loreley of his decision to withdraw, and they continued to steam east for several minutes before they conformed to his maneuver. At this time, Dockum shifted fire to Nymphe and scored several hits, including damage to her funnel that reduced her speed temporarily. Dockum attempted to overtake and cut off Nymphe and Loreley from Arcona, but Nymphe's crew was able to quickly repair the damage she had sustained, allowing her to increase speed, though she continued to take hits.[9]
Nymphe and Loreley came under heavy fire from the pursuing Danish squadron; at 16:00 Loreley broke off to the west toward Stralsund and Dockum allowed her to leave, preferring to continue after Jachmann's corvettes. Both sides continued to score hits on each other until they checked fire at around 16:45 as the range grew too long. By 18:00, Dockum ended the chase and steamed off to the east, allowing Jachmann to return to Swinemünde.[11] In the course of the battle, Nymphe had received 19 hits in the hull and around 50 to her rigging, and her gig was shot away. Though she was the most heavily damaged vessel on either side of the battle, she was never in serious danger, and her crew suffered just two dead and four wounded.[4]
Jachmann made several more sorties into the Baltic without encountering any Danish vessels on 19 March, 9 and 14 April, and 6 May. On 6 June, Nymphe participated in a naval review held for King William I in Swinemünde. Jachmann's squadron steamed from there to Pillau on 12 June, remaining there for ten days before returning. On 24 September, she went into the shipyard in Danzig for periodic maintenance, and in mid-November, she moved to the newly-acquired naval base in Kiel to spend the winter.[4]
Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars
In early 1865, the Prussian Navy decided to send Nymphe and the gunboat Delphin to the Mediterranean Sea. The two ships began a short training cruise to Sonderburg and Wismar, and on 6 August, Nymphe took the 15cm (5.9in) gun from Delphin on board in preparation for the voyage to the Mediterranean to improve the gunboat's seakeeping. Once they arrived in the Aegean Sea on 22 September, Nymphe transferred the gun back to Delphin. The cruise was cut short in March 1866, as both vessels were ordered to return to Prussia as tensions with the Austrian Empire began to mount. The ships arrived in the new naval depot in Geestemünde in mid-July, by which time the Austro-Prussian War had broken out and had been decided at the Battle of Königgrätz. Nymphe joined the North Sea Flotilla, but with the war all but over she saw no action. The flotilla was dissolved on 29 September and Nymphe went to Geestemünde, where she was decommissioned on 31 March 1867. On 16 April, the ship was moved to the Baltic, visiting Kiel and Danzig, where she entered the Königliche Werft for extensive repairs to her boilers.[12]
Nymphe} remained out of service until the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in July 1870, when she returned to service as part of the general mobilization of what was now the North German Federal Navy. On 21 July, she was assigned to the defenses of Neufahrwasser that protected Danzig. The following month, a French squadron consisting of three ironclads and an aviso under Admiral Édouard Bouët-Willaumez arrived off Danzig and anchored in the Putziger Wiek at around 18:00 on 21 August, on the western end of the Danziger Bucht. Nymphe's commander, Korvettenkapitän (KK—Corvette Captain) Weickhmann, decided to make a surprise attack the next morning. At midnight on 22 August, he sortied and began a slow approach to the French squadron, which remained at anchor overnight. At 01:15, Nymphe came within sight of the French ships, and at a distance of 1.3 nautical miles (2.4km; 1.5mi), she turned to port and engaged the French squadron. Accounts differ on the details of the action; the historians Hildebrand, Röhr, and Steinmetz state that she fired a broadside at the French ironclad Thétis before turning to starboard to fire another broadside, inflicting no damage. But Alfred Stenzel, who was an officer in the North German Federal Navy at the time, reported in an 1899 account that Nymphe fired two broadsides at Bouët-Willaumez's flagship, the ironclad Surveillantem before turning to flee with Thétis in pursuit. Regardless, Nymphe escaped and the French vessels could not get underway quickly enough to catch her. By 03:00, Nymphe was safely behind the coastal fortifications at Neufahrwasser.[13][14]
Bouët-Willaumez decided that the attack demonstrated that the large ironclads could not be effectively used close to shore, and that smaller, shallower-draft vessels would be necessary. He therefore took his ships away from Danzig, which Nymphe confirmed by a reconnaissance to Rixhöft. At this point, the North German naval command decided to embark on a commerce raiding strategy to attack French merchant shipping in the Atlantic Ocean. Nymphe was deemed to be too slow for the task, and so she was decommissioned on 25 August so her crew could be transferred to the faster corvette Augusta, which entered service in late October.[13]
Overseas deployment
Loading the guns on Nymphe, 1872
Nymphe remained in reserve through the end of the war, when she was recommissioned under command of KKLouis von Blanc on 1 June 1871 to relieve her sister shipMedusa, which had been blockaded by French warships in Japan during the war. Nymphe left Kiel on 25 July and made a stop in Cowes, where she was visited by the British royal family. She reached Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 14 October, where she stayed for two weeks. During this period, some of her crew were in a local restaurant when a fight broke out between them and some pro-French civilians; the sailors were arrested by the Brazilian police, which prompted the German government to consider sending a squadron of warships to coerce their release. In response to the threatened naval deployment, the Brazilian authorities released the men, allowing Nymphe to proceed with her voyage on 27 October. While in South Africa, nine members of her crew deserted to join a diamond rush; Nymphe quickly left port on 22 November after the desertion to prevent any others from joining them.[15]
After crossing the Indian Ocean, she visited several ports in Australia and then sailed north into Oceania—the first German warship to reach the South Pacific—and visited several islands that had not yet been visited by German vessels.[16][17] These included the town of Levuka in Fiji in early March 1872, where Blanc negotiated a protection agreement, which was rejected by German chancellor Otto von Bismarck. On 15 March, Nymphe arrived in Apia in Samoa, where Blanc helped to settle disputes between German merchants and chiefs on the islands. She left the islands at the end of the month and arrived in Yokohama, Japan on 20 April, where she met the frigate Hertha, the other member of the East Asia station. Nymphe then began a tour of Japanese and Russian ports, including Nagoya, Japan, which had recently been opened to foreign ships, before stopping in Hong Kong on 25 December. Nymphe visited Singapore in March 1873, after which a large portion of her crew became ill. She then went to Borneo to enforce German demands for financial compensation for a German company. Nymphe then visited Jolo in the Sulu Archipelago, then part of the Spanish Empire, where Sultan Jamal ul-Azam requested that Germany sign a protectorate agreement, since he wished to declare independence from Spain. Blanc passed the request on to Berlin, where it was rejected by Bismarck.[16]
On 11 April, she returned to Singapore; Blanc and a contingent from the ship traveled overland to Bangkok, Siam, where they delivered the Order of the Black Eagle to the King of Siam, Chulalongkorn. Nymphe left Singapore on 16 May to begin a survey for a potential German coaling station in the South China Sea. She surveyed the Anambas Islands, but these proved to be unusable, as did Hainan, which lacked a suitable harbor. Nymphe also examined the Chusan Archipelago, but it too lacked a usable harbor. Nymphe left Chinese waters on 10 October to return to Yokohama. There, Blanc began preparations to open a hospital for German naval and merchant sailors, which was opened in 1878. The ship received the order to return to Germany on 12 September, and she crossed the Pacific to San Francisco, United States, before steaming south, rounding Cape Horn on 11 February 1874. While passing into the Baltic, the ship ran aground on a rock off Langeland, and she had to be pulled free by a pair of gunboats. Nymphe arrived in Kiel on 12 May and was decommissioned there eight days later.[16]
Later career
A Krupp Ballonabwehrkanone (anti-balloon gun) on Nymphe, 1872
Nymphe was recommissioned on 1 June for use as a training ship for Schiffsjungen (apprentice seamen). She initially embarked on a cruise in the Baltic with the brigsUndine and Musquito before carrying Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia to visit the kings of Denmark and Sweden. She participated in a fleet review for now Kaiser Wilhelm I on 19 September. She moved to Danzig, where she was decommissioned for an overhaul on 15 October. This work was completed by late 1875, and she returned to service on 1 April 1876 for training ship duties. Nymphe embarked on a major training cruise to North and South America, ranging as far north as Halifax, Canada and as far south as Montevideo, Uruguay. While in Uruguay, she steamed up the Uruguay River to Paysandú, where a memorial for the German consul, who had been murdered several years earlier, was dedicated with military honors. The ship arrived back in Kiel on 10 September 1877, where she was decommissioned on the 27th.[18]
The ship was reactivated on 1 January 1878 to begin the next year's training routine. She began the overseas training cruise in mid-July, and it repeated the destination of the previous year's cruise, though this time she only went as far south as Rio de Janeiro. In January 1879, she stopped in several ports in Venezuela to protect Germans during a period of unrest in the country. She carried a Venezuelan government delegation from Puerto Cabello to La Guaira to negotiate with the rebels there. She was later replaced by the ironcladHansa, allowing her to continue her training cruise. She returned to Kiel on 12 September; six days later, while Admiral Albrecht von Stosch, the Chief of the Kaiserliche Admiralität (Imperial Admiralty), was visiting the ship in Wiker Bucht, she was driven aground by a sudden gust of wind. Stosch had to be taken ashore by a boat, while Nymphe was pulled free by another vessel. The ship was decommissioned in Danzig on 30 September for repairs and a re-boilering.[19]
On 3 April 1880, Nymphe was recommissioned and began training cruises in the Baltic. She began the overseas cruise on 12 July; on the way out, she stopped in Copenhagen, Denmark, where Danish naval officers visited the ship. Unlike in previous years, the training cruise was for the most part limited to the West Indies. She made a stop in Puerto Cabello, where she was visited by the President of Venezuela, Antonio Guzmán Blanco. On the way back to Germany, she stopped in Hampton Roads, United States, where she was visited by the family of President James A. Garfield. She was decommissioned in Danzig on 3 October and she remained out of service for the next year and a half. On 1 April 1882, she was reactivated for another training cruise, which for that year went to the Mediterranean to strengthen the German naval forces in the region during the 'Urabi revolt in Egypt. Nymphe left Kiel on 15 July and visited several ports in the Levant, stopped in Suda Bay, Crete, and had to go to Malta after a number of her crew were sick. An outbreak of typhoid fever prompted a second stay in Malta in December, and this time, the entire crew disembarked in Valletta so the ship could be disinfected.[19]
The ship was out of service owing to the fever until 26 February 1883, after which she visited numerous Greek ports; while in Piraeus, she was visited by the Greek king, George I. She then began the voyage back to Germany, and on the way stopped in Lisbon, Portugal, where she was visited by the King of Portugal, Luís I. Nymphe arrived in Kiel on 6 September and she was decommissioned there on 29 September. The ship conducted short training cruises in the Baltic and took part in training exercises with the main fleet in June 1884. On 16 July, she began the next major cruise to the West Indies, during which she stayed in Sabanilla, Colombia, from late February to late March 1885. Her presence was necessitated by a revolution in the country that threatened German interests. She returned to Germany in early September and joined fleet exercises in the North and Baltic Seas. The ship was decommissioned for the last time on 7 October. Nymphe was worn out by this time, and it was determined that further use would require a complete rebuilding of the vessel's wooden hull, so she was stricken from the naval register on 21 July 1887 and thereafter used as a hulk for machinist training in Kiel. In 1891, she was sold for scrap and broken up in Hamburg.[19]
The naval Battle of Jasmund took place between elements of the Danish and Prussian navies on 17 March 1864 during the Second Schleswig War. The action took place east of the Jasmund peninsula on the Prussian island of Rügen, during a Prussian attempt to weaken the Danish blockade in the Baltic Sea. The Prussian squadron, commanded by Eduard von Jachmann, sortied with a screw frigate, a screw corvette, a paddle steamer, and six gunboats to attack the Danish squadron blockading the eastern Prussian coast. The Danish force was commanded by Edvard van Dockum, and it consisted of one screw frigate, one ship of the line, and two steam corvettes. In an action lasting two hours, the superior Danish squadron forced the Prussians to withdraw, with both sides suffering damage and light casualties. The Danish victory was compounded by the arrival of further warships after the battle, which cemented the blockade. The outcome of the battle, and the naval war in the Baltic as a whole, was irrelevant to the outcome of the war, however, as the Prussian and Austrian armies decisively defeated the Danes on land, forcing them to surrender.
SMS Zähringen was the third Wittelsbach-class pre-dreadnought battleship of the German Imperial Navy. Laid down in 1899 at the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel, she was launched on 12 June 1901 and commissioned on 25 October 1902. Her sisters were Wittelsbach, Wettin, Schwaben and Mecklenburg; they were the first capital ships built under the Navy Law of 1898, brought about by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz. The ship, named for the former royal House of Zähringen, was armed with a main battery of four 24 cm (9.4 in) guns and had a top speed of 18 knots.
Eduard Karl Emanuel von Jachmann was the first Vizeadmiral of the Prussian Navy. He entered the navy in the 1840s after initially serving in the merchant marine. In 1848, Jachmann received his first command, the corvette SMS Amazone; through the 1850s and early 1860s, he held several other commands, including the frigates Thetis—aboard which he took part in the Eulenburg expedition to East Asia—and Arcona. During the Second Schleswig War in 1864, he commanded Prussian naval forces in the Baltic from Arcona, and led a small squadron at the Battle of Jasmund on 17 March. Though defeated in that battle, he was promoted to Konteradmiral for his aggressive handling of the Prussian fleet.
SMS Arcona was the ninth member of the ten-ship Gazelle class of light cruisers that were built for the German Kaiserliche Marine in the late 1890s and early 1900s. The Gazelle class was the culmination of earlier unprotected cruiser and aviso designs, combining the best aspects of both types in what became the progenitor of all future light cruisers of the Imperial fleet. Built to be able to serve with the main German fleet and as a colonial cruiser, she was armed with a battery of ten 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns and a top speed of 21.5 knots. Arcona was a modified version of the basic Gazelle design, with improved armor and additional coal storage for a longer cruising range.
SMS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse was a German pre-dreadnought battleship of the Kaiser Friedrich III class, built around the turn of the 20th century. The ship was one of the first battleships built by the German Imperial Navy as part of a program of naval expansion under Kaiser Wilhelm II. Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse was built in Kiel at the Germaniawerft shipyard. She was laid down in January 1898, launched in June 1899, and completed in May 1901. The ship was armed with a main battery of four 24-centimeter (9.4 in) guns in two twin turrets.
SMS Wettin was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Wittelsbach class of the German Kaiserliche Marine. She was built by Schichau Seebeckwerft in Danzig. Wettin was laid down in October 1899, and was completed October 1902. She and her sister ships—Wittelsbach, Zähringen, Schwaben and Mecklenburg—were the first capital ships built under the Navy Law of 1898. Wettin was armed with a main battery of four 24 cm (9.4 in) guns and had a top speed of 18 knots.
SMS Kronprinz was a unique German ironclad warship built for the Prussian Navy in 1866–1867. Kronprinz was laid down in 1866 at the Samuda Brothers shipyard at Cubitt Town in London. She was launched in May 1867 and commissioned into the Prussian Navy that September. The ship was the fourth ironclad ordered by the Prussian Navy, after Arminius, Prinz Adalbert, and Friedrich Carl, though she entered service before Friedrich Carl. Kronprinz was built as an armored frigate, armed with a main battery of sixteen 21 cm (8.3 in) guns; several smaller guns were added later in her career.
SMS Nymphe was the third member of the ten-ship Gazelle class of light cruisers that were built for the German Kaiserliche Marine in the late 1890s and early 1900s. The Gazelle class was the culmination of earlier unprotected cruiser and aviso designs, combining the best aspects of both types in what became the progenitor of all future light cruisers of the Imperial fleet. Built to be able to serve with the main German fleet and as a colonial cruiser, she was armed with a battery of ten 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns and a top speed of 21.5 knots.
SMS Hansa was a German ironclad warship built in 1868–1875. She was the first ironclad built in Germany; all previous German ironclads had been built in foreign shipyards. She was named after the Hanseatic League, known in Germany simply as Hanse, Latinized Hansa. The ship was launched in October 1872 and commissioned into the German Imperial Navy in May 1875. Designed as for coastal bombardment, Hansa was classed as an armored corvette and armed with eight 21 cm (8.3 in) guns in a central battery.
SMS Comet was a Camäleon-class gunboat of the Prussian Navy that was launched in 1860. A small vessel, armed with only three light guns, Comet served during the Second Schleswig War of 1864 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, part of the conflicts that unified Germany. The ship was present at, but was only lightly engaged in the Battle of Jasmund during the Second Schleswig War. She served in a variety of roles during peacetime, including fishery protection and survey work. Comet went on one lengthy deployment abroad, with an assignment to the Mediterranean Sea from 1876 to 1879. She saw little active service after returning to Germany and was decommissioned and hulked in 1881. The vessel remained in the navy's inventory until at least 1891, being broken up sometime thereafter.
SMS Cyclop was a Camäleon-class gunboat of the Prussian Navy that was launched in 1860. A small vessel, armed with only three light guns, Cyclop served during the three wars of German unification; during the first, the Second Schleswig War on 1864, she guarded the Prussian coastline but saw no action. She supported the army's campaign against the Kingdom of Hanover during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, and she defended the Elbe for the duration of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, but again took part in no battles. Badly deteriorated by 1872, she was stricken from the naval register in March that year and reconstructed into an iron-hulled gunboat. Recommissioned in 1875, she thereafter served abroad in the German colonial empire before being stricken again in 1888. She was thereafter used as a storage hulk before ultimately being broken up for scrap after 1914.
SMS Delphin was a Camäleon-class gunboat of the Prussian Navy that was launched in 1860. A small vessel, armed with only three light guns, Delphin served during the Second Schleswig War of 1864 and the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, part of the conflicts that unified Germany. The ship was present at, but was only lightly engaged in the Battle of Jasmund during the Second Schleswig War. The ship spent much of the rest of her career in the Mediterranean Sea, going on three lengthy deployments there in 1865–1866, 1867–1870, and 1871–1873. During the last tour, she took part in operations off the coast of Spain with an Anglo-German squadron during the Third Carlist War, where she helped to suppress forces rebelling against the Spanish government. For the rest of the 1870s, she served as a survey vessel in the North and Baltic Seas before being decommissioned in August 1881, stricken from the naval register the following month, and subsequently broken up for scrap.
SMS Augusta was a wooden steam corvette built in the 1860s, the lead ship of the Augusta class. She had one sister ship, Victoria; the ships were armed with a battery of fourteen guns. Augusta was laid down in 1863 at the Arman Brothers shipyard in Bordeaux, France, and was launched in early 1864. Originally ordered by the Confederate States Navy, her delivery was blocked by the French Emperor Napoleon III, and she was instead sold to the Prussian Navy in May 1864. The Prussians had been in search of vessels to strengthen their fleet before and during the Second Schleswig War against Denmark, but Augusta arrived too late to see action in the conflict.
SMS Medusa was a steam corvette built for the Prussian Navy in the 1860s. She was the second and final member of the Nymphe class, ordered as part of a naval expansion program to counter the Danish Navy over the disputed ownership of Schleswig and Holstein. Medusa was laid down in February 1862, was launched in October 1864, and was completed in September 1865. She had one sister ship, Nymphe, and the vessels were wooden-hulled ships armed with a battery of sixteen guns.
The Nymphe class of screw corvettes were the first vessels of the type to be built for the Prussian Navy in the early 1860s. The class comprised two vessels, Nymphe and Medusa. The ships were laid down in early 1862, and Nymphe was completed by late 1863, but work on Medusa proceeded slower, owing to budgetary disputes with the Prussian parliament and a desire to use experience in building Nymphe during the former's construction. The ships were built as part of a naval expansion program aimed at countering the powerful Danish Navy in the context of the disputed ownership of Schleswig and Holstein. The ships were armed with a battery of sixteen guns, and were capable of a top speed of 12 knots under steam power. All of the material used in their construction was domestically produced, apart from the propulsion system, which was imported from Great Britain.
SMS Preussischer Adler was a paddle steamer originally built in the mid-1840s for use on a packet route between the Kingdom of Prussia and the Russian Empire in the Baltic Sea. She was requisitioned by the Prussian Navy during the First Schleswig War in 1848 and converted into an aviso, the first vessel of the type commissioned by Prussia. During the war, she took part in an inconclusive action with the Danish brig St. Croix, the first naval battle of the Prussian fleet. After the war, she was disarmed and returned to her commercial role, operating uneventfully on the Stettin–St. Petersburg route until 1862, when the expansion of the Prussian Eastern Railway had rendered the maritime route superfluous. The ship was purchased by the Prussian Navy that year and rearmed, once again as an aviso.
SMS Grille was an aviso of the Prussian Navy built in France in the mid-1850s as part of a naval expansion program directed by Prince Adalbert of Prussia, who saw the need for a stronger fleet. She was authorized in 1855 in the aftermath of the First Schleswig War, which had demonstrated the weakness of the Prussian fleet. Grille was the first screw propeller-driven steamship to be built for Prussia; all earlier steam-powered vessels had been paddle steamers.
SMS Loreley was an aviso of the Prussian Navy built in the late 1850s. Built as a paddle steamer, since the Prussian naval command was not convinced of the reliability of screw propellers, she was the first Prussian warship to be fitted with a domestically-produced marine steam engine. The ship carried a light armament of two 12-pound guns and had a top speed of 10.5 knots. Loreley was intended to serve as the flagship of the gunboat flotillas that formed the bulk of the Prussian fleet in the 1850s.
Embree, Michael (2007). Bismarck's First War: The Campaign of Schleswig and Jutland 1864. Solihull: Helion & Co Ltd. ISBN978-1-906033-03-3.
Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships: 1815–1945. Vol.I: Major Surface Vessels. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN978-0-87021-790-6.
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.6. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN3-7822-0237-6.
Sondhaus, Lawrence (1997). Preparing for Weltpolitik: German Sea Power Before the Tirpitz Era. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN978-1-55750-745-7.
Stenzel, Alfred (1900). "The Fleet and the Coast". In von Pfiugk-Harttung, Julius Albert Georg (ed.). The Franco-German War, 1870–71. London: Swan Sonnenschein and Co. pp.567–592. OCLC3788640.
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