SMS Wacht SMS " Wacht " was an aviso of the Imperial German Navy , the lead ship of her class . She had one sister ship , . " Wacht " was built by the AG Weser shipyard ; she was laid down in 1886 , launched in August 1887 , and commissioned in August 1888 . She served in the active fleet through the 1890s and participated in numerous training exercises . Her career was cut short on 4 September 1901 , when she collided with the old ironclad . The latter ' s ram bow holed " Wacht " under the waterline and caused her to rapidly sink . Her crew was safely rescued , however , and there were no casualties . Design . " Wacht " was long overall and had a beam of and a maximum draft of forward . She displaced at full combat load . Her propulsion system consisted of two angled 3 - cylinder triple expansion engines . Steam for the engines was provided by four coal - fired locomotive boiler s . The ship ' s propulsion system provided a top speed of and a range of approximately at . " Wacht " had a crew of 7 officers and 134 enlisted men . As built , the ship was armed with three K L / 35 guns placed in single pivot mounts . The guns were supplied with a total of 180 rounds of ammunition . " Wacht " also carried three torpedo tube s , one mounted submerged in the bow and the other two in deck - mounted launchers on the broadside . In 1891 , four 8 . 8 cm SK L / 30 gun s in single mounts were added . The ship was the first German aviso to carry armor : a thick deck , along with of armor plating for the conning tower . Service history . " Wacht " was laid down in 1886 at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen . She was launched on 27 August 1887 and commissioned into the German fleet on 9 August 1888 . In 1889 , Franz von Hipper served aboard the ship as her watch officer . In early 1889 , " Wacht " was assigned to the Maneuver Squadron , which at the time consisted of the old ironclads , , and and the protected cruiser . The Squadron was commanded by Prince Heinrich . In May , the Maneuver Squadron conducted mock combat exercises with the Training Squadron in the Baltic Sea . In late 1889 , " Wacht " joined a squadron of four old ironclads — , , , and — that cruised the Mediterranean Sea along with Kaiser Wilhelm II ' s yacht " Hohenzollern " and the protected cruiser , which carried Prince Heinrich . The squadron visited numerous ports in the Mediterranean , including state visits to Italy and the Ottoman Empire . Wilhelm II also stopped in Greece , where he attended the wedding of his sister Sophie to the Greek crown prince Constantine . The squadron remained in the Mediterranean until April 1890 , when it returned to Germany . The ship led the torpedo boat flotilla in the Maneuver Squadron in 1893 . In early 1894 , " Wacht " was assigned to the II Division of the Maneuver Squadron as the divisional dispatch vessel . The division was commanded by Rear Admiral Otto von Diederichs . During the 1896 annual maneuvers , " Jagd " was assigned to the I Division . On 4 September 1901 , " Wacht " collided with the ironclad while on extensive training maneuvers with the rest of the fleet . " Wacht " was sunk , but the crew was safely evacuated and neither ship suffered casualties . During the maneuvers , " Wacht " attempted to pass between " Sachsen " and . However , " Wacht " s helmsman misjudged the distance and passed too closely in front of " Sachsen " . " Sachsen " immediately attempted to reverse course to avoid ramming the ship , but the two vessels collided . " Sachsen " s ram bow tore a large hole in " Wacht " , which began to slowly sink . The battleship attempted to tow " Wacht " to shallow water , but several of " Wacht " s internal bulkheads collapsed under the strain and the ship quickly sank . Nevertheless , her crew was taken off safely ; neither ship suffered any casualties .