 SMS Geier, 1894
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 German Empire | |
| Name | Geier |
| Namesake | Vulture |
| Laid down | 1893 |
| Launched | 18 October 1894 |
| Commissioned | 24 October 1895 |
| Fate | Captured by the US Navy, 6 April 1917 |
 United States | |
| Name | Schurz |
| Acquired | 6 April 1917 |
| Commissioned | 15 September 1917 |
| Fate | Sunk 21 June 1918 after collision |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Bussard-class unprotected cruiser |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 83.9 m (275 ft 3 in) |
| Beam | 10.6 m (34 ft 9 in) |
| Draft | 4.74 m (15 ft 7 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph) |
| Range | 3,610 nmi (6,690 km) at 9 knots (17 km/h) |
| Complement |
|
| Armament |
|
SMS Geier ("His Majesty's Ship Vulture")[a] was an unprotected cruiser of the Bussard class built for the German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine). She was laid down in 1893 at the Imperial Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven, launched in October 1894, and commissioned into the fleet a year later in October 1895. Designed for service in Germany's overseas colonies, the ship required the comparatively heavy armament of eight 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK L/35 guns and a long cruising radius. She had a top speed of 15.5 kn (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph).
Geier spent the majority of her career on foreign stations, including tours in the Americas, East Asia, and Africa. In 1897, she was deployed to the Caribbean, and during the Spanish–American War the following year, she ferried Europeans out of the war zone to Mexico by crossing the blockade lines around Cuban ports. After being transferred to the western coast of the Americas in 1899, Geier was reassigned to China to help suppress the Boxer Uprising in 1900. She remained in East Asian waters through 1905 before being recalled to Germany for major repairs. In 1911, the ship was assigned to the colony in German East Africa, though she served little time in the area, as the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912 and the Balkan Wars of 1912–13 required German warships in the Mediterranean to safeguard German interests. Geier returned to East Africa in early 1914, but in June that month, the new light cruiser Königsberg arrived, and Geier headed to China for second deployment there.
Geier was still en route to the German base in Qingdao when war broke out in Europe in August 1914. Slipping out of still-neutral British Singapore days before Britain declared war on Germany, she crossed the central Pacific in an attempt to link up with Maximilian von Spee's East Asia Squadron. While at sea, she captured one British freighter, but did not sink her. In need of engine repairs and coal, Geier put into the neutral United States port at Honolulu, Hawaii, in October 1914, where she was eventually interned. After the American entrance into the war in April 1917, the US Navy seized Geier, commissioned her as USS Schurz, and placed her on convoy duty. She was ultimately sunk following a collision with a freighter off the coast of North Carolina, with one man killed and twelve injured. She rests at a depth of 115 feet (35 m) and is a popular scuba diving site.
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