SMS Blücher (1877)

SMS Blücher was a Bismarck-class corvette built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the late 1870s. The Bismarck-class corvettes were ordered as part of a major naval construction program in the early 1870s, and she was designed to serve as a fleet scout and on extended tours in Germany's colonial empire. Blücher was laid down in March 1876, launched in September 1877, and was commissioned into the fleet in late 1878. Unlike her sister ships, Blücher was converted shortly after entering service into a torpedo training ship to experiment with the new self-propelled torpedoes and develop German torpedo doctrine.

Blücher in heavy seas with a torpedo boat
History
German Empire
NameSMS Blücher
NamesakeField Marshal Gebhard von Blücher
BuilderNorddeutsche Schiffbau, Kiel
Laid down1876
Launched20 September 1877
Completed21 December 1879
FateSold 1909
General characteristics
Class and typeBismarck-class corvette
DisplacementFull load: 2,890 t (2,844 long tons)
Length82.5 m (270 ft 8 in)
Beam13.7 m (44 ft 11 in)
Draft6.18 m (20 ft 3 in)
Installed power
Propulsion
Speed12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Range2,380 nmi (4,410 km; 2,740 mi) at 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph)
Complement404
Armament4–7 × 35 cm (13.8 in) torpedo tubes

Blücher served in this capacity for the entirety of her active career. She was initially based in Kiel in the Baltic Sea, under the command of Alfred von Tirpitz. Between the 1880s and early 1900s, most of the officers and crewmen in the German fleet received their torpedo training aboard the ship. In 1907, Blücher suffered a boiler explosion that badly damaged the ship and killed thirty men. Deemed too old to warrant repairing, Blücher was instead sold to a Dutch company that used her as a coal storage hulk; her ultimate fate is unknown.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.