SMS Hansa ( 1898 ) SMS " Hansa " was a protected cruiser of the " Victoria Louise " class , built for the German Imperial Navy ( " Kaiserliche Marine " ) in the 1890s , along with her sister ships , , , and . " Hansa " was laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin in 1896 , launched in March 1898 , and commissioned into the Navy in April 1899 . The ship was armed with a battery of two 21 cm guns and eight 15 cm guns and had a top speed of . " Hansa " served abroad in the German East Asia Squadron for the first six years of her career . She contributed a landing party to the force that captured the Taku Forts during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 . In August 1904 , she participated in the internment of the Russian battleship " Tsesarevich " after the Battle of the Yellow Sea during the Russo - Japanese War . After returning to Germany in 1906 , she was modernized and used as a training ship in 1909 , following the completion of the refit . At the outbreak of World War I , " Hansa " 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 . " Hansa " was ordered under the contract name " N " and was laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin in 1896 . She was launched on 12 March 1898 , after which fitting - out work commenced . She was commissioned into the German navy on 20 April 1899 . 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 Dürr boilers . 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 . " Hansa " 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 . Following her commissioning in 1899 , " Hansa " was deployed to Germany ' s overseas possessions . " Hansa " s first commander on the China station was Hugo von Pohl , who went on to command the High Seas Fleet during World War I . 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 , " Hansa " , along with " Hertha " , " 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 . On 11 July 1903 , the ship steamed into the British naval base at Weihaiwei , along with the Chinese cruiser " Hai Chi " . " Hansa " left the port two days later . On 16 January 1904 , " Hansa " visited Mirs Bay outside of Hong Kong and departed after two days in the harbor . In February , the Russo - Japanese War broke out ; " Hansa " was sent from Che Foo for Port Arthur , which was under attack by Japanese forces . " Hansa " evacuated the German civilians in the port . In early March , she was again in Hong Kong , and was joined there by the flagship of the East Asia Squadron , on the 8th . In August , the badly damaged Russian battleship " Tsesarevich " and three destroyer s sought refuge in the German naval base at Tsingtao following the Russian defeat in the Battle of the Yellow Sea . As Germany was neutral , the East Asia Squadron interned " Tsesarevich " and the destroyers . On 13 August , the Russian ships restocked their coal supplies from three British steamers , but " Hansa " and " Fürst Bismarck " cleared for action to prevent them from leaving the port . The two cruisers were joined by , , and the gunboat s and . " Hansa " returned to Germany in 1906 . The following year , 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 1909 , at which point " Hansa " became a cadet training ship . From 1911 to 1912 , Günther Lütjens served aboard " Hansa " as commander of the naval cadets that trained on the ship . Lütjens went on to command the task force composed of " Bismarck " and " Prinz Eugen " in World War II . In early January , " Hansa " cruised into the Atlantic and visited Bermuda . " Hansa " 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 Imperial Dockyard in Kiel . 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 .