SMS Iltis

SMS "Iltis" was the lead ship of the of gunboats built for the German "Kaiserliche Marine" (Imperial Navy) in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Other ships of the class are , , , , and .
Design.
"Iltis" was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of a pair of horizontal triple-expansion steam engines each driving a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by four coal-fired Thornycroft boilers. "Iltis" could steam at a top speed of at . The ship had a cruising radius of about at a speed of . She had a crew of 9 officers and 121 enlisted men. "Iltis" was armed with a main battery of four SK L/30 guns, with 1,124 rounds of ammunition. She also carried six machine guns.
Service history.
"Iltis" was laid down at the Schichau-Werke shipyard in Danzig in 1897. She was launched on 4 August 1898 and commissioned into the German fleet on 1 December that year. After entering service, "Iltis" was sent abroad, to Germany's main naval force in Asia, the East Asia Squadron. Shortly thereafter, the Boxer Rebellion broke out in China. At the time, the East Asia Squadron also included the protected cruisers , , , and , the unprotected cruiser , and the gunboat . Kaiser Wilhelm II decided that an expeditionary force was necessary to reinforce the Eight Nation Alliance that had formed to defeat the Boxers. The expeditionary force consisted of the four s, six cruisers, 10 freighters, three torpedo boats, and six regiments of marines, under the command of Marshal Alfred von Waldersee.
After the outbreak of World War I in early August 1914, the light cruiser captured the Russian steamer "Ryazan" and brought her back to Tsingtao. Men from the crews of "Iltis", the unprotected cruiser and the gunboat were used to man "Ryazan", which was commissioned as the auxiliary cruiser . "Iltis" was then scuttled on 28 September 1914 during the Siege of Tsingtao. Three of her sisters were also scuttled during the siege.