 Charlotte in 1897
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Preceded by | Nixe |
| Succeeded by | None |
| History | |
 German Empire | |
| Name | Charlotte |
| Namesake | Princess Charlotte of Prussia |
| Builder | Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven |
| Laid down | 2 April 1883 |
| Launched | 5 September 1885 |
| Commissioned | 1 November 1886 |
| Decommissioned | 26 May 1909 |
| Fate | Sold in 1921 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Screw corvette |
| Displacement | Full load: 3,763 t (3,704 long tons) |
| Length | 83.85 m (275 ft 1 in) o/a |
| Beam | 14.6 m (47 ft 11 in) |
| Draft | 6.04–6.86 m (19 ft 10 in – 22 ft 6 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion |
|
| Sail plan | 2,360 m2 (25,400 sq ft) full-rigged |
| Speed | 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph) |
| Range | 2,300 nmi (4,300 km; 2,600 mi) at 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) |
| Complement | 20 officers, 486 enlisted |
| Armament |
|
SMS Charlotte was a German screw corvette built for the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the 1880s, being laid down in April 1883, launched in September 1885, and commissioned in November 1886. The only vessel of her class, Charlotte was the last sailing warship built for the German navy. She was armed with a battery of eighteen 15 cm (5.9 in) guns.
Charlotte spent her career as a training ship, responsible for the training of naval cadets and apprentice seamen. This duty frequently took the ship on overseas cruises, and on one such cruise in 1897, she and the corvette Stein participated in the Lüders affair, a diplomatic humiliation of Haiti over the arrest and jailing of a German national. Charlotte also took part in other diplomatic initiatives, including in 1899 the first visit of a German warship to French ports since the Franco-Prussian War.
The ship remained in service until May 1909, when she was stricken from the naval register and thereafter converted into a barracks ship and tender. She served in these capacities to the outbreak of World War I in July 1914; in August, she was briefly reactivated, the only time in the history of the German navies that a vessel that had been stricken was re-commissioned. In October, she was again removed from service and returned to barracks ship duties. In 1921, after the war, she was sold to a firm in Hamburg and hulked; her ultimate fate is unknown.