SMS Gefion

Line drawing of Gefion

Gefion was 109.2 meters (358 ft) long at the waterline and 110.4 m (362 ft) long overall. She had a beam of 13.2 m (43 ft) and had a draft of 6.47 m (21.2 ft) forward and 6.27 m (20.6 ft) aft. She was designed to displace 3,746 metric tons (3,687 long tons; 4,129 short tons), but with a full ammunition, stores, and fuel load she displaced up to 4,275 t (4,207 long tons; 4,712 short tons). The hull was constructed from transverse and longitudinal steel frames, except for the lower stem and stern parts, which were made of bronze. The frames were covered with wood planking and a metal sheath that extended to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) above the waterline to reduce fouling.[6]

She was fitted with a fore and main pole mast with spotting tops to aid her gunnery. The ship had a crew of 13 officers and 289 enlisted men. She carried a number of small boats, including one picket boat, one pinnace, two cutters, two yawls, and one dinghy. Gefion was crank, rolled badly, and made severe leeway, and her decks were wet in a head sea. She nevertheless maneuvered well and had a tight turning radius. She had a metacentric height of .55 m (1 ft 10 in). Steering was controlled by a single rudder.[6]

Gefion was powered by two vertical, 3-cylinder triple expansion engines, which drove a pair of 3-bladed screw propellers that were 4.2 m (14 ft) in diameter. Steam was provided by six coal-fired, transverse, cylindrical, double water-tube boilers, which were trunked into three vertical funnels. The engines were designed to produce 9,000 indicated horsepower (6,700 kW) for a top speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph). On trials, her engines produced 9,827 ihp (7,328 kW) and a speed of 20.5 kn (38.0 km/h; 23.6 mph). The ship could store up to 860 t (850 long tons; 950 short tons) of coal, which enabled her to steam for 3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) at a cruising speed of 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph). Electrical power was provided by three generators, which supplied a total output of 40 kilowatts (54 hp) at 67 volts.[6]

Gefion was originally to be armed with 15-centimeter (5.9 in) guns,[7] but the main battery was revised to fifteen 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK L/35 guns and finally to ten 10.5 cm guns. These guns were supplied with a total of 807 rounds of ammunition, and they had a maximum range of 10,800 m (35,400 ft). She was also equipped with six 5 cm (2.0 in) SK L/40 guns, with 1,500 rounds. They had a range of 6,200 m (20,300 ft). The ship was also fitted with two 45 cm (18 in) deck-mounted torpedo tubes with a total of five torpedoes. The ship was protected with a light armored deck consisting of steel. The deck was 25 mm (0.98 in) thick, with 30 mm (1.2 in) thick sloped sides. The coaming around the funnels was 40 mm (1.6 in) thick. The engine rooms received much more significant protection, with coaming 100 mm (3.9 in) thick on top of 180 mm (7.1 in) of teak.[6]

Gefion, probably during her deployment to the East Asia Squadron

Shortly before the arrival of the II Division, the US Navy destroyed the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish–American War. Diederichs detached Gefion to investigate the situation in Manila in an attempt to maneuver Germany into a position to secure colonial possessions in the Philippines, or even to obtain a German prince on the Philippine throne outright.[13] In late March 1899, Gefion was sent to Kiaotschou in response to mistreatment of German missionaries there; Kapitänleutnant (Captain Lieutenant) Franz Grapow went ashore with a landing party of 132 marines and artillerymen to punish the offenders.[9]

In April, Prince Heinrich replaced Diederichs as the squadron commander. That same month, Gefion had to leave the harbor at Wusong to assist Deutschland, which had suffered engine damage. At the end of the month, Gefion steamed up the Yangtze River as far as Hankou. She visited Japanese ports, including Nagasaki, starting in June and the Russian port of Vladivostok in August, before having to assist Deutschland once again, after the latter vessel struck a reef in Samsah Bay in Fujian. As a precautionary measure, she escorted Deutschland to Hong Kong for repairs. At the end of the year, Gefion met Deutschland in Bangkok; the latter vessel was carrying Prince Heinrich back to Germany.[9] In January 1900, Vizeadmiral Felix von Bendemann arrived to take command of the East Asia Squadron, aboard his flagship, the protected cruiser Hertha. In the first half of the year, Gefion and the rest of the squadron cruised in the German central Pacific colonies.[9]

By the end of May 1900, the unrest that sparked the Boxer Rebellion began to appear in the Shandong Peninsula, particularly around the German base at Tsingtau.[9] After the outbreak of the rebellion, Gefion and the rest of the squadron joined ships from other European navies to launch a relief expedition under the command of Edward Hobart Seymour. The ships bombarded Chinese coastal defenses southeast of Tianjin and sent an expeditionary force—the Seymour Expedition—ashore at the Battle of Taku Forts on 16–17 June.[14] The contingent from Gefion was commanded by Kapitänleutnant Otto Weniger; these men participated in the storming of the Great Hsi-Ku Arsenal in Tianjin.[9] Starting in mid-July, Gefion was stationed outside the mouth of the Yangtze to monitor traffic in the area. In November, she went to Hong Kong for an overhaul. In January 1901, the ship's commander was sent to temporarily govern Tsingtau on behalf of the ill governor. Between February and April, Gefion was in Nagasaki, and in June she was stationed at Shanghai. She stayed there until September, when the Admiralstab (Admiralty Staff) ordered her to return to Germany. On 22 September she departed Chinese waters and arrived back in Germany on 1 October.[15]

Illustration of Gefion during her deployment to the East Asia Squadron

She was decommissioned for a major reconstruction the day she returned to Germany.[16] The work was done at the Kaiserliche Werft in Wilhelmshaven from December 1901 to 1904. New, more powerful electrical generators were installed, the upper deck was enclosed, and the 10.5 cm guns that had been located on the upper deck were moved to gun ports in the hull. The two 5 cm guns that were located abreast of the center funnel were moved further aft, to the third funnel.[6] After completion of the work, Gefion was left out of service in reserve. Following the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the Admiralstab ordered Gefion to be reactivated, and on 10 August Korvettenkapitän (Corvette Captain) Waldeyer was placed in command of the ship. A crew could not be assembled due to shortages in personnel, however, and so the ship could not be placed back into service. Waldeyer was therefore transferred to another ship on 21 August. Gefion was thereafter moved to Danzig in 1916 for use as a barracks ship for crews of warships being repaired at the Kaiserliche Werft there. She remained there for the duration of the war, and was stricken from the naval register on 5 November 1919.[16][17]

She was thereafter sold to Norddeutsche Tiefbaugesellschaft, converted into a diesel-powered freighter, and renamed Adolf Sommerfeld in 1920.[17] She had been purchased along with the old pre-dreadnought Brandenburg, from which some material was taken for Gefion's conversion. The ship's magazines and most of her machinery spaces were converted into cargo holds.[18] With her new diesel engines, which had come from the unfinished U-boats U-115 and U-116,[19] she could steam at 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) and had a cargo capacity of 2,600 t (2,600 long tons; 2,900 short tons).[16][17] The conversion was not particularly successful, and was only done due to a severe shortage of shipping in the aftermath of the war.[7] As a result, Adolf Sommerfeld served only very briefly, and was broken up for scrap by Danziger Hoch- und Tiefbau in Danzig in 1923.[17]