| Career (German Empire) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | SMS Gneisenau |
| Builder: | Schichau yard at Danzig |
| Laid down: | June 1877 |
| Launched: | 4 September 1879 |
| Commissioned: | 1880 |
| Fate: | Sunk in storm off Málaga, Spain, 16 December 1900 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 2,850 t (2,805 long tons) |
| Length: | 75 m (246 ft 1 in) |
| Beam: | 14 m (45 ft 11 in) |
| Draught: | 5.8 m (19 ft 0 in) |
| Propulsion: | 4 × coal-fired boilers 1 × 2-cylinder expansion engine, 2,500 ihp (1,864 kW) 300 tons coal |
| Speed: | 12 knots (14 mph; 22 km/h) |
| Range: | 2,000 nmi (3,700 km) at 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h) |
| Complement: | 452 (including trainees) |
| Armament: | • 10-14 × 15 cm (5.9 in) cannon • 2 × 88 mm (3.5 in) quick-firing cannon • 2 × 37 mm (1.5 in) autocannon • 2 × machine guns |
SMS Gneisenau was a three-masted, full-rigged sail frigate of the German Kaiserliche Marine [Imperial Navy] with an unplated iron hull and a steam engine. The ship was named after the Prussian field marshal August von Gneisenau.
Gneisenau served in the training of officer candidates, for which the ship undertook numerous voyages abroad. An incident of desertion by a crew member is alleged to have occurred in 1885 at Sydney. On 16 December 1900 the ship sank in a storm near the harbor of Málaga, Spain, after grounding at the harbor mole and failure of the propulsion machinery. Forty crew members perished, including the captain and first officer.
Sister ships were the Moltke, Blücher, Stosch and Stein.