Unprotected Cruisers: Bussard Class

[Brian James]

Bussard Class Unprotected Cruiser SMS Seeader pictured in New York City in 1893.... The third member of a class of six ships built by the German Kaiserliche Marine. Her sister ships included Bussard, the lead ship, along with Falke, Condor, Cormoran, and Geier. Seeadler was built at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig in late 1890, launched in February 1892, and commissioned in August of that year. Intended for colonial service, Seeadler was armed with a main battery of eight 4.1 in guns and had a top speed of 15.5 knots.
Seeadler spent almost her entire career abroad. Following her commissioning, she joined the Protected Cruiser SMS Kaiserin Augusta in 1893 on a visit to the United States for the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's discovery of the Americas. She thereafter went to German East Africa, where she was stationed until 1898. She returned to Germany briefly for a modernization in 1898–1899, before being assigned to the South Seas Station in German New Guinea. During her tour in the Pacific, she participated in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in Qing China in 1900. Her assignment in the Pacific was interrupted by the 1905 Maji-Maji Rebellion in German East Africa, which prompted the German Navy to send Seeadler there.
Seeadler remained in East Africa for the next nine years, returning to Germany finally in January 1914. She had spent over thirteen years abroad since her 1899 modernization, the longest period of continuous overseas service of any major German warship. After arriving in Germany, she was decommissioned. She was not mobilized after the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, being too old to be of any fighting value. She was instead used as a Mine Storage Hulk outside Wilhelmshaven. On April 19th 1917, her cargo of mines exploded and destroyed the ship, though there were no casualties. Her wreck was never raised for scrapping.

[ivorthediver]

Nice post Brian , thank you , I shouldn't have thought there was much left to salvage was there

[Brian James]

Bussard Class Unprotected Cruiser SMS Geier pictured c1897.
She was laid down in 1893 at the Imperial Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven, launched in October 1894, and commissioned into the fleet a year later in October 1895. Designed for service in Germany's overseas colonies, she carried a comparatively heavy armament of eight 4.1 in SK L/35 guns and a long cruising radius. She had a top speed of 15.5 knots.
Geier spent the majority of her career on foreign stations, including tours in the Americas, East Asia, and Africa. In 1897, she was deployed to the Caribbean, and during the Spanish–American War the following year, she ferried Europeans out of the war zone to Mexico by crossing the blockade lines around Cuban ports. After being transferred to the western coast of the Americas in 1899, Geier was reassigned to China to help suppress the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. She remained in East Asian waters through 1905 before being recalled to Germany for major repairs. In 1911, the ship was assigned to the colony in German East Africa, though she served little time in the area, as the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912 and the Balkan Wars of 1912–13 required German warships in the Mediterranean to safeguard German interests. Geier returned to East Africa in early 1914, but in June that month, the new Light Cruiser Königsberg arrived, and Geier headed to China for second deployment there.
Geier was still en route to the German base in Tsingtao when war broke out in Europe in August 1914. Slipping out of still-neutral British Singapore days before Britain declared war on Germany, she crossed the central Pacific in an attempt to link up with Maximilian von Spee's East Asia Squadron. While at sea, she captured one British freighter, but did not sink her. In need of engine repairs and coal, Geier put into the neutral United States port at Honolulu, Hawaii, in October 1914, where she was eventually interned. After the American entrance into the war in April 1917, the US Navy seized Geier, commissioned her as USS Schurz, and placed her on convoy duty. She was ultimately sunk following a collision with a freighter off the coast of North Carolina, with one man killed and twelve injured. She rests at a depth of 115 feet and is a popular scuba diving site.

[Brian James]

The interned Bussard Class Unprotected Cruiser SMS Geier pictured at Honolulu on October 2nd 1918.

[Brian James]

Lead Ship.Unprotected Cruiser SMS Bussard pictured at Sydney c1899.