# SMS Crocodill (1879)

SMS Crocodill 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.

## Design

Development of the Wespe class of ironclad gunboats began in the 1850s, after the first ironclads were introduced during the Crimean War. Through the 1860s, the Federal Convention examined various proposals, which included plans to build at least eight vessels, to as many as eighteen armored warships. The decision was finalized based on the fleet plan conceived by General Albrecht von Stosch, the new Chief of the Kaiserliche Admiralität (Imperial Admiralty), in the early 1870s. He envisioned a fleet oriented on defense of Germany's Baltic and North Sea coasts, which would be led by the ironclad corvettes of the Sachsen class. These were to be supported by larger numbers of small, armored gunboats, which became the Wespe class.
Crocodill was 46.4 meters (152 ft 3 in) long overall, with a beam of 10.6 m (34 ft 9 in) and a draft of 3.2 to 3.4 m (10 to 11 ft). She displaced 1,098 metric tons (1,081 long tons) as designed and 1,163 t (1,145 long tons) at full load. The ship's crew consisted of 3 officers and 73 to 85 enlisted men. She was powered by a pair of double-expansion steam engines that drove a pair of 4-bladed screw propellers, with steam provided by four coal-fired cylindrical fire-tube boilers, which gave her a top speed of 11.2 knots (20.7 km/h; 12.9 mph) at 800 metric horsepower (790 ihp). At a cruising speed of 7 knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph), she could steam for 700 nautical miles (1,300 km; 810 mi).
The ship was armed with one 30.5 cm (12 in) MRK L/22 gun in a barbette mount that had a limited arc of traverse. In practice, the gun was aimed by turning the ship in the direction of fire. The Wespes were intended to beach themselves on the sandbars along the German coastline to serve as semi-mobile coastal artillery batteries. The armored barbette was protected by 203 mm (8 in) of wrought iron, backed with 210 mm (8.3 in) of teak. The ship was fitted with a waterline armor belt that was 102 to 203 mm (4 to 8 in) thick, with the thickest section protecting the propulsion machinery spaces and ammunition magazine. The belt was backed with 210 mm of teak. An armor deck that consisted of two layers of 22 mm (0.87 in) of iron on 28 mm (1.1 in) of teak provided additional protection against enemy fire.

## Service history

The keel for Crocodill was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen in 1878, and she was launched on 13 September 1879. Named for the earlier wooden gunboat Crocodill, she was delivered to the navy on 26 May 1880. She remained out of service initially, before being commissioned on 20 September for sea trials under the command of Kapitänleutnant (KL—Captain Lieutenant) Emil Freiherr von Lyncker. Her initial testing was completed by 20 October, when she was decommissioned in Kiel and allocated to the Marinestation der Ostsee (Baltic Sea Naval Station).
Crocodill was commissioned for her first active period of fleet duty on 22 April 1884, under the command of KL Ernst von Frantzius. She joined her sisters Hummel, Camaeleon, Natter, and Biene in the newly created Armored Gunboat Division. They carried out unit training over the summer, and they joined the rest of the main fleet for the annual maneuvers in August and September. Crocodill was decommissioned again on 30 September. The ship remained out of service for the next decade, and in the early 1890s, she underwent a modernization. The work included installing a pair of 8.7 cm (3.4 in) L/24 built-up guns, a pair of 37 mm (1.5 in) Hotchkiss revolver cannon, and two 35 cm (14 in) torpedo tubes in her bow, both of which were below the waterline. Crocodill next returned to service on 13 October 1894, assigned to the Armored Gunboat Reserve Division, which was based in Danzig. She served as the flagship of the division until 5 May 1895, when she was replaced by her sister Mücke. Crocodill was decommissioned at that time for periodic maintenance at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig.
On 3 August 1897, Crocodill was recommissioned under the command of KL Richard Koch. She remained in service through 1 October, during which time she resumed flagship duties for the gunboat division. She remained in reserve for the next two years, before recomissioning for her last period of active service, which lasted from 27 July to 24 September 1900. KL Siegfried von Jachmann captained the ship that year, and she once again served as the divisional flagship. Crocodill was struck from the naval register on 18 March 1911 and then used as a target ship. In 1913, she was converted into a floating workshop, and was based in Wilhelmshaven. The ship was broken up after 1918.