Did the SMS Gneisenau sink?
5937289#19
The crew attempted to drop the starboard anchor, but it did not catch in the stony ground. "Gneisenau" was driven into the mole repeatedly, striking it with her stern twice before being turned and pushed bow-first on the starboard side, forcing her aground. A merchant ship attempted to come to the crew's aid, but they were unable to connect a line between the two ships before "Gneisenau" began to list 35 degrees. A boat from shore also attempted to rescue the crew, but it too was forced ashore in the heavy seas. Wave action quickly smashed "Gneisenau"s hull against the mole, and part of her crew attempted to find safety by climbing the rigging. The ship rolled over onto her side, and the surviving crewmen reached shore with a line. Forty-one men were killed in the accident, including Kretschmann and the ship's first officer. "Charlotte" and the British ironclad were sent to aid the wounded. Those killed in the sinking were buried in Málaga's cemetery, and the survivors returned to Germany aboard the HAPAG steamship on 2 January 1901.
SMS Gneisenau (1879)
331543#7
"Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" quickly wrecked their British counterparts, while "Leipzig" fired at "Glasgow" without success. At 18:49, "Glasgow" hit "Leipzig", but the shell was a dud and did not explode. "Leipzig" and hit "Glasgow" five times before von Spee ordered "Leipzig" to close with the stricken "Good Hope" and torpedo it. A rain squall obscured the ship, and by the time "Leipzig" reached "Good Hope"s position, the latter had sunk. Unaware of the sinking of "Good Hope", no rescue operations were mounted by "Leipzig"s crew. By 20:00, "Leipzig" encountered "Dresden" in the gathering darkness, and the two initially mistook each other for hostile warships, though they quickly established their identity. "Leipzig" emerged from the battle essentially unscathed, and with no wounded crewmen.
SMS Leipzig (1905)
5937289#0
SMS "Gneisenau" was a built for the German Imperial Navy ("Kaiserliche Marine") in the late 1870s. The ship was named after the Prussian Field Marshal August von Gneisenau. She was the fifth member of the 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. "Gneisenau" was laid down in June 1877, launched in September 1879, and was commissioned into the fleet in October 1880. She was armed with a battery of fourteen guns and had a full ship rig to supplement her steam engine on long cruises abroad.
SMS Gneisenau (1879)
193164#0
SMS "Gneisenau" was an armored cruiser of the German navy, part of the two-ship . She was named after August von Gneisenau, a Prussian general of the Napoleonic Wars. The ship was laid down in 1904 at the AG Weser dockyard in Bremen, launched in June 1906, and completed in March 1908, at a cost of over 19 million goldmarks. She was armed with a main battery of eight guns, had a top speed of , and displaced at full combat load.
SMS Gneisenau
5937289#14
Upon returning to Germany, she underwent a short overhaul before joining the ships of III Division during the fleet training exercise in August and September. During the maneuvers she accidentally collided with the torpedo boat , which was badly damaged. "Gneisenau" continued in the exercises until she too was decommissioned for repairs on 30 September. On 3 April 1894, "Gneisenau" embarked on the summer training cruise, which this year just went to Christiana, Norway and concluded with the Kiel Week regatta. The ships thereafter took part in the fleet maneuvers in August and September again as III Division, with "Gneisenau"s commander now "KK" Hermann da Fonseca-Wollheim. On 1 October, "Gneisenau" began the winter training cruise to the Mediterranean, and while in La Valletta, Malta, she met the unprotected cruisers and . "Gneisenau" then visited Souda Bay, Crete from 16 November to 20 December, followed by Smyrna for three weeks. On 18 January 1895, she began the voyage back to Germany, arriving in Kiel on 27 March.
SMS Gneisenau (1879)
193164#12
At 19:00, the German ships closed to attack. In the span of five minutes, the German cruisers' guns had seriously damaged "Good Hope", which was destroyed by a magazine explosion. "Monmouth" attempted to escape to the south; she was burning furiously and her guns had fallen silent. "Nürnberg" closed to point-blank range of "Monmouth" and poured shells into her. "Glasgow" was forced to abandon "Monmouth" after 20:20, before fleeing south and meeting with "Canopus". "Monmouth" eventually capsized and sank at 21:18. Over 1,600 men were killed in the sinking of the two armored cruisers, including Admiral Craddock; German losses were negligible. However, the German ships had expended over 40% of their ammunition supply.
SMS Gneisenau
5937289#11
"Gneisenau" departed Lamu on 6 September and went to Kismayu, before proceeding on to Zanzibar four days later. In the meantime, Paschen had been instructed to form a second cruiser squadron, which was to consist of his flagship "Stosch", along with "Gneisenau" and "Prinz Adalbert". The squadron was to proceed to the Caroline Islands, which were at the center of a dispute between Germany and Spain. "Gneisenau" first went to Cape Town, arriving on 11 October. While there, she received new orders to proceed instead to what was now German East Africa; on 9 November she was formally reassigned back to Knorr's squadron. "Gneisenau" patrolled the coast of East Africa until 6 March 1886, when Knorr's squadron, at that time consisting of "Gneisenau", "Bismarck", and the corvette , departed for Australia. After reaching the south Pacific, the ships toured Australian ports, New Zealand, Tonga, and Samoa before "Gneisenau" was detached first to the Gazelle Peninsula on the island of New Pomerania to suppress an uprising against German colonial rule. She then went to the Palau Islands, part of the Caroline group, to retrieve a German monument, as Germany had dropped its claim to the islands in favor of Spain. On 25 July, "Gneisenau" began the journey back to Germany, reaching Kiel on 27 September. She was decommissioned there on 14 October.
SMS Gneisenau (1879)
193164#9
At the Battle of Papeete on 22 September, "Gneisenau" and the rest of the East Asia Squadron bombarded the colony. During the bombardment, the French gunboat was sunk by gunfire from the German ships. Fear of mines in the harbor prevented von Spee from seizing the coal that lay in the harbor. By 12 October, "Gneisenau" and the rest of the squadron had reached Easter Island. There they were joined by and "Leipzig", which had sailed from American waters. "Dresden" was stationed in the Caribbean, but had been in San Francisco when von Spee issued the order to consolidate German naval forces in the Pacific. After a week off Easter Island, the ships departed for the Chilean mainland.
SMS Gneisenau
5937289#9
"Gneisenau" was recommissioned for another tour abroad on 5 October 1884 to join the newly-formed West African Cruiser Squadron, which was commanded by "Konteradmiral" (Rear Admiral) Eduard von Knorr aboard his flagship . The ship's new commander was "KzS" Victor Valois. While en route from Kiel to Wilhelmshaven to join the rest of the squadron, "Gneisenau" ran aground off the island of Lolland in heavy fog; she had to be towed free by the ironclad , though she was undamaged in the accident. The squadron left Wilhelmshaven on 30 October, bound for West Africa. While in the Cape Verde islands, Knorr detached "Gneisenau" to Cape Town, where she arrived on 8 January 1885. There, she embarked Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs, who had been appointed consul to Zanzibar, and took him to the island on 28 January. "Gneisenau" then went to the port of Lamu to survey the coast of eastern Africa, particularly the area around Wituland. "Gneisenau"s survey of the area led the German government to instruct Rohlfs to accept the offer of the Witu Sultan, Ahmed ibn Fumo Bakari, to form a protectorate on 27 May.
SMS Gneisenau (1879)
5937289#8
These two small vessels proved to be insufficient for the task, and so on 13 August, "Gneisenau", the corvette , the aviso , and the gunboat were commissioned to reinforce them. They departed Kiel on 19 August, under the command of "Gneisenau"s captain "KzS" Max von der Goltz, who was made "Kommodore" of the squadron. The ships arrived in Port Said on 21 August, and on 13 September the British defeated 'Urabi's forces at the Battle of Tell El Kebir, effectively ending the rebellion. The German squadron remained in the area until December, when it was disbanded; "Gneisenau" arrived back in Kiel on 24 December, where she was decommissioned on 9 January 1883, though "Nymphe" and "Cyclop" remained in the eastern Mediterranean Sea as a precaution against further unrest.
SMS Gneisenau (1879)