SMS Moltke (1877)

SMS Moltke
History
German Empire
Name:	SMS Moltke
Namesake:	Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
Builder:	Kaiserliche Werft Danzig, Danzig
Laid down:	1875
Launched:	18 October 1877
Completed:	16 April 1878
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 7 July 1920
General characteristics
Class & type:	Bismarck-class corvette
Displacement:	3,089 t (3,040 long tons)
Length:	82 m (269 ft 0 in)
Beam:	13.7 m (44 ft 11 in)
Draught:	6.3 m (20 ft 8 in)
Installed power:	2,500 ihp (1,900 kW) 4 boilers
Propulsion:	1 shaft 1 × 3-cylinder marine steam engine
Speed:	12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Range:	1,940 nmi (3,590 km; 2,230 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement:	452 (including trainees)
Armament:	10 × 15 cm (5.9 in) guns 2 × 88 mm (3.5 in) quick-firing guns 6 × 37 mm (1.5 in) 5-barreled guns

SMS Moltke was a Bismarck-class corvette built for the German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) in the late 1870s. The ship was named after Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder and served as training vessel for cadets and midshipmen and made numerous voyages abroad.

Moltke serving as a U-boat tender

On 28 October 1911, Moltke was renamed Acheron. A new battlecruiser had been commissioned on 30 September 1911 to carry the distinguished name Moltke in the Imperial Navy. Acheron was reclassified and converted to serve as hulk for U-boat crews at the Kiel naval base. The hulk Acheron was broken up in 1920.

References

• Gardiner, Robert; Chesneau, Roger; Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-133-5. 
• Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships: 1815–1945. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-790-9. OCLC 22101769. 

External links

• Media related to SMS Moltke (1877) at Wikimedia Commons
• deutsche-schutzgebiete.de webpage about SMS Moltke (German)