SMS ("His Majesty's Ship ") was the sixth of seven s of the Imperial German Navy, named after the city of Leipzig. She was begun by AG Weser in Bremen in 1904, launched in March 1905 and commissioned in April 1906. Armed with a main battery of ten guns and two torpedo tubes, was capable of a top speed of .
spent her career on overseas stations; at the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, she was cruising off the coast of Mexico. After rejoining with the East Asia Squadron, she proceeded to South American waters, where she participated in the Battle of Coronel, where the German squadron overpowered and sank a pair of British armored cruisers. A month later, she again saw action at the Battle of the Falkland Islands, which saw the destruction of the East Asia Squadron. was chased down and sunk by the cruisers and ; the majority of her crew was killed in the battle, with only 18 survivors.
Design
The German 1898 Naval Law called for the replacement of the fleet's older cruising vessels—steam corvettes, unprotected cruisers, and avisos—with modern light cruisers. The first tranche of vessels to fulfill this requirement, the , were designed to serve both as fleet scouts and as station ships in Germany's colonial empire. They provided the basis for subsequent designs, beginning with the that was designed in 1901–1903. The principle improvements consisted of a larger hull that allowed for an additional pair of boilers and a higher top speed.
was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced as designed and up to at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of two triple-expansion steam engines with steam provided by ten coal-fired Marine-type water-tube boilers. Her propulsion system was rated at for a top speed of . carried up to of coal, which gave her a range of at . She had a crew of 14 officers and 274–287 enlisted men.
The ship was armed with ten SK L/40 guns in single mounts. Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle, six were located amidships, three on either side, and two were placed side by side aft. The guns could engage targets out to . They were supplied with 1,500 rounds of ammunition, for 150 shells per gun. For defense against torpedo boats, she carried ten Maxim guns in individual mounts. She was also equipped with two torpedo tubes with five torpedoes. They were submerged in the hull on the broadside. She was also fitted to carry fifty naval mines. The ship was protected by an armored deck that was up to thick. The conning tower had thick sides, and the guns were protected by thick gun shields.
Service history
was ordered under the contract name "N" and was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen on 12 July 1904 and launched on 21 March 1905, after which fitting-out work commenced. Work on the ship was completed, save the installation of her armament, by February 1906, when she underwent builder's trials. The ship then moved to Wilhelmshaven to have her guns installed. She was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 20 April 1906 for sea trials that lasted until mid-June. During this period, (FK—Frigate Captain) Franz von Hipper served as the ship's first commanding officer. The ship concluded the initial period of service as the escort for Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was traveling on his annual summer cruise aboard the HAPAG steamer . Hipper thereafter left the ship.
Peacetime career in East Asia
was assigned to the East Asia Squadron, and her crew began preparations for the voyage overseas on 19 August. She sailed from Wilhelmshaven on 8 September and, after passing through the Dutch East Indies, arrived in Hong Kong on 6 January 1907. There, she met the protected cruiser , another member of the East Asia Squadron. From 25 January to 10 March, lay as a guard ship at Qingdao, the capital of the Jiaozhou Bay Leased Territory. She later steamed up the Yangtze river with the squadron commander aboard, (VAdm—Vice Admiral) Carl von Coerper; the gunboat and the torpedo boat accompanied on the trip. In June, she joined the rest of the cruisers of the squadron for a tour of northern ports in the region. In the first half of 1908, the East Asia Squadron embarked on another lengthy cruise in northern East Asian waters. made a shorter voyage in the Yellow Sea in August; that month, (KK—Corvette Captain) Richard Engel took command of the ship. In September and October, she visited Shanghai, China, and made another trip up the Yangtze. On 17 November, she represented Germany at a major naval review held in Kobe, Japan. That month, KK Karl Heuser relieved Engel as the ship's captain.