 Pfeil in 1899
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Operators |  Imperial German Navy |
| Preceded by | SMS Zieten |
| Succeeded by | SMS Greif |
| Built | 1881–84 |
| In service | 1883–1922 |
| Completed | 2 |
| Retired | 2 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Aviso |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 78.43 m (257 ft 4 in) o/a |
| Beam | 9.90 m (32 ft 6 in) |
| Draft | 4.22 m (13 ft 10 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 15.7 knots (29.1 km/h; 18.1 mph) |
| Range | 2,440 nmi (4,520 km; 2,810 mi) at 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) |
| Complement |
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| Armament |
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The Blitz class was a pair of avisos built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the early 1880s. The ships, Blitz and Pfeil, were the first steel-hulled ships of any kind built by the German Navy, were among the first torpedo cruiser type warships in the world, and were the progenitors of the later light cruisers of the Gazelle class. They were armed with a 12.5 cm (4.9 in) gun and one 35 cm (13.8 in) torpedo tube as their principal armament, and were capable of a top speed in excess of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph). They were very successful warships, remaining in active service for more than three decades.
Blitz and Pfeil served extensively in various roles; Blitz spent much of her career as a flotilla leader for torpedo boats, while Pfeil served with the training squadron and the main fleet. Pfeil was deployed to German East Africa in 1889 to suppress the Abushiri revolt, returning to Germany in 1890. Throughout the 1890s, the ships served with the fleet, conducting a yearly routine of exercises and training cruises. They served in a variety of additional roles during the 1890s and 1900s, including as tenders, fishery protection vessels, and training ships. They operated as dedicated tenders to the battle squadrons of the High Seas Fleet by the mid-1900s, filling that role through the start of World War I. Blitz took part in Operation Albion in the Baltic Sea in late 1917 and Pfeil was later used as a training ship for U-boat crews. The ships were discarded in the early 1920s and broken up for scrap.