 Natter in Kiel
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Wespe class |
| Builders | AG Weser, Bremen |
| Operators | Imperial German Navy |
| Preceded by | Albatross class |
| Succeeded by | Otter |
| Built | 1875–1881 |
| In service | 1876–1970 |
| In commission | 1876–1900 |
| Completed | 11 |
| Lost | 2 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Gunboat |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 46.4 m (152 ft 3 in) |
| Beam | 10.6 m (34 ft 9 in) |
| Draft | 3.2 to 3.4 m (10 ft 6 in to 11 ft 2 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 10.4 knots (19.3 km/h; 12.0 mph) |
| Complement |
|
| Armament | 1 × 30.5 cm (12 in) MRK L/22 gun |
| Armor | |
The Wespe-class gunboats were a class of eleven armored gunboats built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the late 1870s and early 1880s. The class comprised Wespe, Viper, Biene, Mücke, Scorpion, Basilisk, Camaeleon, Crocodill, Salamander, Natter, and Hummel. Intended for use as part of Germany's coastal defense plan, the Wespes were armed with a 30.5 cm (12 in) MRK L/22 gun, which was very large for vessels of their size. They were to support the larger Sachsen-class ironclads in the event of war, and were to have operated in shallow coastal waters where larger and more powerful opponents could not pursue them.
The eleven ships saw relatively little active service over the course of their careers in the German fleet. Typically, they were commissioned for brief training exercises through the 1880s and 1890s, and they operated along Germany's North Sea and Baltic Sea coastlines during this period. Between 1909 and 1911, all eleven ships were struck from the naval register and used in other roles, from barges to floating workshops, and in the case of Viper, conversion into a crane ship. Most members of the class were broken up, but Salamander sank on the way to the scrap yard in 1910, and Hummel, having been converted into a floating anti-aircraft battery during World War II, was sunk by Allied bombers in the final days of the war in May 1945. Viper was in use as a crane ship as late as 1970, but her ultimate fate is unknown.