 SMS Amazon
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
  German Empire | |
| Name | Amazone |
| Laid down | December 1899 |
| Launched | 6 October 1900 |
| Commissioned | 15 November 1901 |
| Stricken | 31 March 1931 |
| Fate | Scrapped, 1954 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Gazelle-class light cruiser |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 104.8 m (343 ft 10 in) loa |
| Beam | 12.2 m (40 ft) |
| Draft | 5.12 m (16 ft 10 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion |
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| Speed | 21.5 knots (39.8 km/h; 24.7 mph) |
| Range | 3,560 nmi (6,590 km; 4,100 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement |
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| Armament |
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| Armor |
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SMS Amazone was the sixth member of the ten-ship Gazelle class of light cruisers that were built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) 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 (39.8 km/h; 24.7 mph).
After commissioning in late 1901, Amazone spent the first four years of her career in the reconnaissance forces of the German fleet. There, she earned a reputation for being the most accident-prone vessel of the fleet, being involved in numerous collisions and other accidents. During this period, she conducted training exercises with the rest of the fleet and made several trips abroad. As more modern cruisers began to enter service in 1905, Amazone was placed in reserve until the start of World War I in 1914. During the war, she operated in the Baltic Sea in the Detached Division, taking part in numerous operations in the central and northern Baltic to support the German Army. By the end of 1914, Amazone was no longer able to keep up with the other cruisers in the Baltic, so she was transferred to the Coastal Defense Division. She saw no action during this period, apart from a pair of failed British submarine attacks. Reduced to a torpedo testing and target ship by early 1916, she was disarmed and converted into a barracks ship in early 1917, seeing no further activity during the war.
Among the few major warships that Germany was permitted to retain under the Treaty of Versailles, Amazone served after the war in the Reichsmarine (Navy of the Realm) after being modernized and rearmed in 1921–1923. She took part in training exercises and cruises abroad through the rest of the 1920s, frequently to ports in Scandinavia, but also as far as the Mediterranean Sea. Decommissioned in 1930, she was again reduced to a barracks hulk, serving in that capacity through World War II and into the postwar years. Left unused beginning in 1951, she was ultimately broken up in 1954, the last-surviving member of the Gazelle class.