 Sophie sometime between 1882 and 1897
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 German Empire | |
| Name | Sophie |
| Namesake | Sophie, Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach |
| Laid down | January 1880 |
| Launched | 10 November 1881 |
| Commissioned | 10 August 1882 |
| Decommissioned | 7 April 1899 |
| Fate | Scrapped, 1921 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Carola-class corvette |
| Displacement | Full load: 2,424 t (2,386 long tons) |
| Length | 76.35 m (250 ft 6 in) |
| Beam | 12.5 m (41 ft) |
| Draft | 4.98 m (16 ft 4 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
| Range | 3,420 nautical miles (6,330 km; 3,940 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Crew |
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| Armament |
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SMS Sophie 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. Sophie was laid down at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig in 1880, she was launched in November 1881, and she was completed in August 1882.
Sophie was sent abroad in 1883, first to escort Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm on a visit to Spain. She then went to western Africa to protect German nationals in Togo before Germany had declared a protectorate in the country. The ship then returned home and was tasked with training duties; during exercises in September 1884, she was rammed and badly damaged by a steam ship. She returned to service after lengthy repairs, and in 1885 and 1886, went on extended training cruises, the first to the West Indies and the second to Spain.
While on the second cruise, she was ordered to join the cruise squadron Germany maintained to respond to crises around the world. She patrolled German colonial holdings in German East Africa and German New Guinea from 1886 to 1892. In June 1892, she was recalled to Germany and decommissioned. Sophie returned to training ship duties in January 1898, but this lasted for only a year before she was withdrawn in March 1899. She ended her career as a barracks ship, ultimately being sold in 1920 and broken up the following year.