SMS Tiger, a sister ship to Eber |
|
| Career (German Empire) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Eber |
| Fate: | Scuttled, 16 October 1917 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Iltis-class gunboat |
| Displacement: | 1,193 metric tons (1,174 long tons) |
| Length: | 66.9 m (219.5 ft) |
| Beam: | 9.7 m (31.8 ft) |
| Draft: | 3.12 m (10.2 ft) |
| Installed power: | 1,300 ihp (970 kW) |
| Propulsion: | 2 shafts, 2 Triple-expansion steam engines |
| Speed: | 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
| Complement: | 130 |
| Armament: | 2 × 1 - 105 mm (4.1 in) guns |
SMS Eber was the last of the six gunboats of the Iltis-class of the German Imperial Navy prior to and during World War I. The others were Iltis, Jaguar, Tiger, Luchs and Panther. They were built between 1898 and 1903. All of them served primarily overseas, in the German colonies.
Eber was posted in West African waters when the war broke out. She met up with the German passenger liner Cap Trafalgar off the Brazilian island of Trindade and transferred her guns, most of her ammunitions and some of her crew to the liner, which was then expected to operate as a commerce raider. Eber herself was interned in Brazil and scuttled by her crew on 16 October 1917 in Bahia when Brazil joined the war against Germany.
A previous SMS Eber was wrecked by the 1889 Apia cyclone.