SMS Hertha SMS " Hertha " was a protected cruiser of the " Victoria Louise " class , built for the German Imperial Navy ( " Kaiserliche Marine " ) in the 1890s . " Hertha " was laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in 1895 , launched in April 1897 , and commissioned into the Navy in July 1898 . The ship was armed with a battery of two 21 cm guns and eight 15 cm guns and had a top speed of . " Hertha " served abroad in the German East Asia Squadron for the first six years of her career ; she served briefly as the Squadron flagship in 1900 . She contributed a landing party to the force that captured the Taku Forts during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 . After returning to Germany in 1905 , she was modernized and used as a training ship in 1908 , following the completion of the refit . She conducted a series of training cruises , and several notable officers served aboard the ship as cadets , including Karl Dönitz and Ernst Lindemann . At the outbreak of World War I , " Hertha " was mobilized into the 5th Scouting Group , but served in front - line duty only briefly . She was used as a barracks ship after 1915 , and ultimately sold for scrapping in 1920 . Design . " Hertha " was ordered under the contract name " K " and was laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin in 1895 . She was launched on 14 April 1897 , after which fitting - out work commenced . She was commissioned into the German navy on 23 July 1898 . The ship was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward . She displaced at full combat load . Her propulsion system consisted of three vertical 4 - cylinder triple expansion engines powered by twelve coal - fired Belleville boiler s . Her engines provided a top speed of and a range of approximately at . She had a crew of 31 officers and 446 enlisted men . The ship was armed with two 21 cm SK L / 40 guns in single turrets , one forward and one aft . The guns were supplied with supplied with 58 rounds of ammunition each . They had a range of . " Hertha " also carried eight 15 cm SK L / 40 guns . Four were mounted in turrets amidships and the other four were placed in casemate s . These guns had a range of . She also carried ten 8 . 8 cm SK L / 35 guns . The gun armament was rounded out by machine guns . She was also equipped with three torpedo tube s with eight torpedoes , two launchers were mounted on the broadside and the third was in the bow , all below the waterline . Service history . " Hertha " served as a colonial cruiser after she was completed , starting in 1899 . After arriving on the East Asia station , she temporarily served as the flagship of Vice Admiral Felix von Bendemann , the commander of the East Asia Squadron , which included the cruisers , , , and . After the new armored cruiser reached the Asia station , she relieved " Hertha " as the Squadron flagship . As part of the East Asia Squadron during the Boxer Rebellion , the ship made a noteworthy contribution in the Battle of the Taku Forts . In June 1900 , " Hertha " , along with " Hansa " , " Gefion " , and " Irene " landed detachments of " Seebataillone " ( marines ) to seize the Taku Forts . The marines joined detachments sent from warships of several other countries . A total of around 450 German troops were contributed to the multi - national force , which totaled around 2 , 200 officers and men . During the attack on the forts , " Hertha " s commanding officer was shot and killed . In September , " Hertha " carried Alfred von Waldersee to Shanghai , arriving on the 21st , where he took command of the international forces suppressing the rebellion . " Hertha " was detached from the East Asia Squadron and returned to Germany in 1905 . In 1906 , she went to dry dock at the Imperial Dockyard in Danzig for a refit , during which she was re - boilered . " Hertha " originally had three stacks , and during the modernization they were trunked into two funnels . The refit was finished by 1908 , at which point " Hertha " became a cadet training ship ; several prominent naval officers trained aboard the ship during this period . In September – October 1909 , " Hertha " , , and traveled to the United States to represent Germany during the Hudson - Fulton Celebration . In 1910 , Karl Dönitz , the future commander of the Kriegsmarine during the Second World War , served as a cadet on " Hertha " for a year . The ship cruised in the western Mediterranean in the autumn of 1912 , along with her sister . The old cruiser was also in the region . The future commander of the battleship " Bismarck " , Ernst Lindemann , served aboard the ship as a cadet in 1913 . The ship conducted a training cruise in the Baltic and North Seas in late May to early July , stopping in a number of foreign ports , including Stockholm , Visby , and Bergen . The ship then embarked on a seven month training cruise into the Atlantic Ocean ; during the voyage , " Hertha " called on numerous ports , including Vera Cruz , Mexico , Port - au - Prince , Haiti , Kingston , Jamaica , and Halifax , Canada . The cruise lasted from mid - August 1913 to mid - March 1914 . " Hertha " had a short career during World War I . At the outbreak of hostilities , she was briefly mobilized into the 5th Scouting Group , which was tasked with training cadets in the Baltic Sea . By the end of 1914 , however , the ships were again removed from service . She was then put into service as a coastal defense ship . After 1915 , she was withdrawn from front - line duty again and employed as a barracks ship for the seaplane base in Flensburg . She was stricken from the naval register on 6 December 1919 and sold to ship - breakers in Audorf - Rendsburg . She was scrapped the following year .