SMS Eber (1887)


SMS Eber in 1887
Career (German Empire)
Name: SMS Eber
Commissioned: September 1887
In service: 1887-1889
Fate: wrecked in 1889
General characteristics
Displacement: 735-ton

The SMS Eber, a 735-ton iron-hulled gunboat, was built at Kiel, Germany for gunboat diplomacy in the Pacific. It was a barque-rigged auxiliary steamer. After commissioning in September 1887 she was sent to the Pacific to serve in the German Colonial Empire. She disarmed the inhabitants of Nauru in 1888,[1] ending their civil war and annexing the island to the German Empire. The Eber was anchored in Apia Harbor, Samoa, during the 1889 Apia cyclone of 15-16 March 1889. Though she was the most modern of the seven warships present, damage to her propeller made it impossible for her to survive the violent wind and seas.[2] After a long struggle, Eber was forced against the edge of the harbor reef and sank quickly, with the loss of 73 of her crewmen.[3]

References

  1. ^ Stevenson, Robert Louis (November 1888) [1892] "VII_The Samoan Camps" A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa Cassell pp. 49 ISBN 0824818571 9780824818579 OCLC 227258432 http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/stevenson/robert_louis/s848fh/s848fh7.html 
  2. ^ Naval Historical Center (23 March 2002). "SMS Eber (Gunboat, 1887-1889)". United States Navy. http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-fornv/germany/gersh-e/eber.htm. Retrieved 4 October 2009. 
  3. ^ "Six War Vessels Sunk; Wrecked in a Hurricane at Samoa" (PDF). New York Times. 30 March 1889. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9903E5DC123AE033A25753C3A9659C94689FD7CF. 

See also