SMS Sperber
Sperber in port
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| History | |
|---|---|
 German Empire
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| Name: | Sperber |
| Laid down: | September 1887 |
| Launched: | 23 August 1888 |
| Commissioned: | 2 April 1889 |
| Decommissioned: | 6 July 1911 |
| Struck: | 16 March 1912 |
| Fate: | Scrapped, 1922 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Schwalbe-class cruiser |
| Type: | Unprotected cruiser |
| Displacement: | 1,359 t (1,338 long tons; 1,498 short tons) |
| Length: | 66.9 m (219 ft 6 in) |
| Beam: | 9.36 m (30 ft 9 in) |
| Draft: | 4.4 m (14 ft 5 in) |
| Propulsion: | 2-cylinder double expansion engines, 2 screws |
| Speed: | 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph) |
| Range: | 3,290 nmi (6,090 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement: |
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| Armament: |
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SMS Sperber ("His Majesty's Ship Sperber—Sparrowhawk") was an unprotected cruiser built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), the second member of the Schwalbe class. She had one sister ship, Schwalbe. Sperber was built at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Dockyard) in Danzig; her keel was laid down in September 1887 and her completed hull was launched in August 1888. She was commissioned for service in April 1889. Designed for colonial service, Sperber was armed with a main battery of eight 10.5-centimeter (4.1 in) guns and had a cruising radius of over 3,000 nautical miles (5,600 km; 3,500 mi); she also had an auxiliary sailing rig to supplement her steam engines.
Sperber spent the majority of her career overseas. She briefly served in German East Africa in late 1889 and early 1890, before being transferred to the South Seas Station in German New Guinea. She remained there for three years before being transferred to German Southwest Africa from early 1894 to late 1896. She was decommissioned in Germany in December 1896 and overhauled before recommissioning for another tour abroad in December 1902. She briefly spent time in the East-American Station off Venezuela in early 1903 and East Africa from July to October of that year, before being assigned to the East Asia Squadron by the end of the year. After spending 1904 in Chinese waters, Sperber was reassigned to Southwest Africa, where she remained until 1911. She returned to Germany at the end of the year and was decommissioned a second time, but was thereafter used as a target ship until 1918. She was later sold for scrap in 1920 and broken up in Hamburg.
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