
SMS Tiger

SMS "Tiger" was the third member of the of gunboats built for the German "Kaiserliche Marine" (Imperial Navy) in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Other ships of the class were , , , and .
Design.
"Tiger" 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. "Tiger" 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. "Tiger" was armed with a main battery of two SK L/40 guns, with 482 rounds of ammunition. She also carried six machine guns.
Service history.
"Tiger" was laid down at the "Kaiserliche Werft" (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig in 1898. She was launched on 15 August 1899 and commissioned into the German fleet on 3 April 1900.
In August 1904, the badly damaged Russian battleship "Tsesarevich" and three destroyers sought refuge in the German naval base at Tsingtao following the Russian defeat in the Battle of the Yellow Sea. As Germany was neutral, the East Asia Squadron interned "Tsesarevich" and the destroyers. On 13 August, the Russian ships restocked their coal supplies from three British steamers, but the armored cruiser and the protected cruiser cleared for action to prevent them from leaving the port. The two cruisers were joined by "Tiger" and her sister and the cruisers and .
"Tiger" was scuttled on 29 October 1914 at the German colony in the Kiautschou Bay concession during the Siege of Tsingtao. Three of her sisters were also scuttled during the siege.