SMS was a built for the German Imperial Navy () in the late 1870s. The ship was named after the Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder. She was the fourth member of the class, which included five other vessels. The -class corvettes were ordered as part of a major naval construction program in the early 1870s, and she was designed to serve as a fleet scout and on extended tours in Germany's colonial empire. was laid down in July 1875, launched in October 1877, and was commissioned into the fleet in April 1878. She was armed with a battery of ten guns and had a full ship rig to supplement her steam engine on long cruises abroad.
went on one major overseas deployment in the 1880s to South America. There, she visited ports in several South American countries in the aftermath of the War of the Pacific and carried the German expedition for the International Polar Year to South Georgia Island. After returning to Germany in 1885, she became a training ship for naval cadets and later apprentice seamen. The ship served in this capacity from 1885 to 1908, during which time her activity consisted primarily of fleet training exercises and overseas training cruises. These cruises frequently went to the West Indies and Mediterranean Sea. She was stricken from the naval register in October 1910, converted into a barracks ship, and assigned to the U-boat school in Kiel. In October 1911, was renamed and she served in this capacity until 1920, when she was sold to ship breakers in July and subsequently dismantled for scrap.
Design
The six ships of the class were ordered in the early 1870s to supplement Germany's fleet of cruising warships, which at that time relied on several ships that were twenty years old. and her sister ships were intended to patrol Germany's colonial empire and safeguard German economic interests around the world.
was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced at full load. The ship's crew consisted of 18 officers and 386 enlisted men. She was powered by a single marine steam engine that drove one 2-bladed screw propeller, with steam provided by four coal-fired fire-tube boilers, which gave her a top speed of at . She had a cruising radius of at a speed of . As built, was equipped with a full ship rig, but this was later reduced.
was armed with a battery of ten 22-caliber (cal.) quick-firing guns and two 30-cal. guns. She also carried six Hotchkiss revolver cannon.
Service history
was the first member of the to be laid down; construction began in July 1875 under the contract name at the (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig. Work proceeded more slowly on than her sister , since the government shipyards were not as experienced as the private builders like that built ; proved to be the fourth member of the class to be launched and the class bore s name rather than s as a result. At the launching ceremony for on 18 October 1877, Admiral Albrecht von Stosch christened the ship with the ship's namesake, (Field Marshal) Helmuth von Moltke, in attendance. Fitting-out work was completed by April 1878, and on the 16th she was commissioned for initial service. She was transferred to Kiel on 28–29 April, where her armament and other final pieces of equipment were installed. She began sea trials on 18 November, which were completed on 21 December.
Deployment to South America
was formally activated on 1 April 1881 for an overseas deployment to South America, which she began on 17 April. After arriving in Valparaiso, Chile on 14 July, she replaced the corvette and proceeded to Coquimbo, Chile, where riots due to the Peruvian victory in the War of the Pacific threatened Germans in the city. She arrived there on 19 July and remained there until mid-September, when she toured several port cities in Peru over the following two months. thereafter went further north and visited cities in Central America, including San José, Costa Rica. On 16 February 1882, returned to Valparaiso and on 14 March sailed north to Coquimbo. She remained there until 17 May, when she departed for Montevideo, Uruguay, but due to severe storms in the Strait of Magellan forced her to wait, and she was able to reach Montevideo only in late June.