SMS Scorpion (1877)
Scorpion in Kiel in the 1890s | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | Scorpion |
| Namesake | SMS Scorpion |
| Operator | Imperial German Navy |
| Builder | AG Weser, Bremen |
| Laid down | July 1876 |
| Launched | 19 May 1877 |
| Commissioned | 12 December 1877 |
| Decommissioned | 20 September 1900 |
| Stricken | 18 March 1911 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Wespe-class gunboat |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 46.4 m (152 ft 3 in) |
| Beam | 10.6 m (34 ft 9 in) |
| Draft | 3.2 to 3.4 m (10 ft 6 in to 11 ft 2 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) |
| Range | 700 nmi (1,300 km; 810 mi) at 7 knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph) |
| Complement |
|
| Armament | 1 × 30.5 cm (12 in) MRK L/22 gun |
| Armor | |
SMS Scorpion was an ironclad gunboat of the Wespe class built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the 1870s. The ships, which were armed with a single 30.5 cm (12 in) MRK L/22 gun, were intended to serve as part of a coastal defense fleet. Because Scorpion was a purely defensive vessel, she saw little active use, apart from brief stints in active service for sea trials upon completion in 1878 and then infrequently for training exercises in 1885 and the late 1890s. The ship was eventually struck from the naval register in 1911 and converted into a torpedo launching platform, a role she filled until after the end of World War I in 1918. Scorpion lingered on as a floating workshop until 1924, when she was broken up.