 Alexandrine sometime c. 1886–1895
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 German Empire | |
| Name | Alexandrine |
| Builder | Kaiserliche Werft, Kiel |
| Laid down | February 1882 |
| Launched | 7 February 1885 |
| Commissioned | October 1886 |
| Fate | 27 May 1907, stricken from the naval register and later broken up |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Carola-class corvette |
| Displacement | Full load: 2,662 t (2,620 long tons) |
| Length | 81.2 m (266 ft 5 in) |
| Beam | 12.6 m (41 ft 4 in) |
| Draft | 5 m (16 ft 5 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
| Range | 4,180 nautical miles (7,740 km; 4,810 mi) at 8.5 knots (15.7 km/h; 9.8 mph) |
| Crew |
|
| Armament |
|
SMS Alexandrine was a member of the Carola class of steam corvettes built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the 1880s. Intended for service in the German colonial empire, the ship was designed with a combination of steam and sail power for extended range, and was equipped with a battery of ten 15-centimeter (5.9 in) guns. Alexandrine was laid down at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Kiel in 1882, she was launched in February 1885, and she was completed in October 1886 before being laid up after completing sea trials.
Alexandrine was first activated in 1889 for a deployment to the Central Pacific, where competing claims to the islands of Samoa created tension between several colonial powers. The ship patrolled Deutsch-Neuguinea, Germany's colonial holdings in the Central Pacific, until 1891, when she joined the German Cruiser Squadron, which was sent to Chile to protect German nationals during the Chilean Civil War of 1891. The squadron thereafter cruised off East Asia in 1892, and by the end of the year, went to German East Africa. In 1893, she was sent to Brazil where the Revolta da Armada (Revolt of the Fleet) in that country threatened German interests. The ships were then sent back to East Asia to monitor the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895.
In March 1895, Alexandrine was recalled to Germany; while en route, she stopped in Morocco to pressure local authorities into paying reparations for the murder of two German citizens. On her arrival in Germany she was found to be in poor condition after several years abroad, and so she was decommissioned in June 1895. She served as a floating battery in Danzig from 1904 to 1907, when she was stricken from the naval register, sold and used temporarily as a floating workshop, and then broken up later in 1907.