 SMS Bismarck, 1879
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 German Empire | |
| Name | SMS Bismarck |
| Builder | Norddeutsche Schiffbau, Kiel |
| Laid down | November 1875 |
| Launched | 25 July 1877 |
| Completed | 27 August 1878 |
| Decommissioned | 21 September 1891 |
| Fate | Scrapped, 1920 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Bismarck-class corvette |
| Displacement | Full load: 3,332 t (3,279 long tons) |
| Length | 82.5 m (270 ft 8 in) |
| Beam | 13.7 m (44 ft 11 in) |
| Draft | 6.18 m (20 ft 3 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Range | 2,380 nmi (4,410 km; 2,740 mi) at 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) |
| Complement | 404 |
| Armament | 16 × 15 cm (5.9 in) guns |
SMS Bismarck was a Bismarck-class corvette built for the German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) in the late 1870s. She was the lead ship of her class, which included five other vessels. 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. Bismarck was laid down in November 1875, launched in July 1877, and was commissioned into the fleet in August 1878. She was armed with a battery of sixteen 15 cm (5.9 in) guns and had sails, a full ship rig to supplement her steam engine on long cruises abroad.
Bismarck went on two major overseas cruises, the first in late 1878 to late 1880, visiting South American ports and patrolling the Central Pacific, where Germany had economic interests but no formal colonies at that time. During this cruise, she interfered with Samoan internal affairs and protected German interests in South America during the War of the Pacific. After returning to Germany, she was overhauled and received a new gun battery. Bismarck was reactivated in 1883 as Germany prepared to embark on the scramble for Africa.
The second deployment lasted from 1884 to 1888, when Germany began to seize colonies in Africa and the Pacific; Bismarck was closely involved in the acquisition of Kamerun in 1884, the settlement of borders for German East Africa in 1885 and 1886, and German intervention in the Samoan Civil War in 1887. For the entirety of this tour abroad, Bismarck served as the flagship of the German overseas cruiser squadron commanded by Eduard von Knorr and later Karl Eduard Heusner. After returning to Germany in 1888, the ship was decommissioned and stricken from the naval register in 1891, thereafter seeing use as a barracks ship until 1920, when she was broken up.