SMS Hertha was a member of the of steam frigates built for the Prussian Navy in the 1860s. The class comprised five ships, and were the first major steam-powered warships ordered for the Prussian Navy. The ships were ordered as part of a major construction program to strengthen the nascent Prussian fleet, under the direction of Prince Adalbert, and were intended to provide defense against the Royal Danish Navy. Hertha was armed with a battery of twenty-eight guns, and was capable of steaming at a speed of . Hertha was laid down in 1860, launched in 1864, and commissioned in 1865.
The ship was activated during the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, but saw no action during the brief conflict. Next reactivated in 1867 into what was now the North German Federal Navy, Hertha made a cruise to the Mediterranean Sea that concluded in 1868. During the voyage, her crew assisted in the recovery of the grounded French corvette . Hertha next returned to the Mediterranean in 1869 for the opening ceremonies of the Suez Canal, after which she sailed on for a tour of East Asia. She was still there in mid-1870 when the Franco-Prussian War broke out. Hertha was quickly trapped in Yokohama, Japan, along with the corvette , by superior French naval forces. As a result, she saw no action during that war. She returned home after the war ended in 1871.
Hertha went another major overseas cruise in 1874 for a circumnavigation of the globe, during which she spent a significant amount of time in East Asia and the central Pacific Ocean. There, her captain, Eduard von Knorr, negotiated trade agreements with Tonga and Samoa before returning to Germany in mid-1877. A shorter cruise in the Mediterranean followed from mid-1877 to early 1878. In late 1880, she embarked on her last major overseas voyage, which again took the ship to East Asia and the Pacific. The voyage concluded with a cruise around Africa, after which Hertha returned to Germany in late 1882. She was struck from the naval register in 1884, converted into a coal storage hulk, and used in that capacity until 1902, when she was broken up.
Design
In the immediate aftermath of the First Schleswig War against Denmark, Prince Adalbert began drawing up plans for the future of the Prussian Navy; he also secured the Jade Treaty that saw the port of Wilhelmshaven transferred to Prussia from the Duchy of Oldenburg, and which provided the Prussian fleet with an outlet on the North Sea. Adalbert called for a force of three screw frigates and six screw corvettes to protect Prussian maritime trade in the event of another war with Denmark. Design work was carried out between 1854 and 1855, and the first two ships were authorized in November 1855; a further pair was ordered in June 1860, and the final member of the class was ordered in February 1866.
Hertha was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced as designed and at full load. The ship had short forecastle and sterncastle decks. Her superstructure consisted primarily of a small deckhouse aft. She had a crew of 35 officers and 345 enlisted men.
Her propulsion system consisted of a single horizontal single-expansion steam engine driving a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by four coal-burning fire-tube boilers. Exhaust was vented through a single funnel located amidships. Hertha was rated to steam at a top speed of , but she significantly exceeded this speed, reaching from . The ship had a cruising radius of about at a speed of . To supplement the steam engine on long voyages abroad, she carried a full-ship rig with a total surface area of . The screw could be retracted while cruising under sail.
Hertha was armed with a battery of twenty-eight 68-pounder guns. By 1869, she had been rearmed with a battery of seventeen RK L/22 guns and two K L/23 guns.
Service history Hertha, named for a misreading of the old Germanic goddess Nerthus, was laid down at the (Royal Dockyard) in Danzig on 1 September 1860. Work on the ship was delayed due to shortages of wooden timbers for her hull. Budget shortages in October 1862 further delayed completion of the ship, and the (state diet) refused to grant further funds for the ship. Only after the threat of war with Denmark over the Schleswig–Holstein question became increasingly likely in late 1863 did work on the ship resume. It was hoped that the ship could be completed in time for the imminent war with Denmark, but work had been delayed too long. She was launched on 1 October 1864, after the Second Schleswig War was all but over. After completing fitting out work, she was commissioned into active service for sea trials on 1 November 1865. Initial testing was carried out in Danzig Bay, after which she moved to the recently conquered port of Kiel in Schleswig on 16 November. Additional tests were carried out over the following week, and on 22 November, she had her crew reduced, though she remained in service through the winter months.
As war with Austria became increasingly likely by Spring 1866, preparations were made to reactivate Hertha, and (KK—Corvette Captain) Franz Kinderling arrived to take command of the vessel in March. She had her crew replenished on 12 May, and on 15 May, King Wilhelm I ordered the fleet to mobilize. Hertha joined a squadron commanded by (Rear Admiral) Eduard von Jachmann, which he commanded from Herthas sister ship ; the unit also included their sister , the ironclad warships and , the corvettes and , and several screw gunboats. Hertha took the training ships , , and under tow further east to Darßer Ort; from there, the three ships sailed on their own to Danzig. Most of Jachmann's squadron remained in the Baltic Sea and did not see combat during the Austro-Prussian War, as the Austrian Navy remained in the Adriatic Sea and none of the hostile German states possessed a navy of their own. After the short war ended in Prussian victory, Jachmann's squadron was disbanded and Hertha returned to Danzig, where she was decommissioned on 6 October.
1867–1868 Mediterranean cruise Hertha next recommissioned on 10 April 1867, into service with what was now the North German Federal Navy, initially to conduct training cruises in the western Baltic. At this time, she came under command of (KzS—Captain at Sea) Eduard Heldt. From 2 to 25 August, she served as the flagship Jachmann, commander of a newly formed Training Squadron, which at that time only included the corvette ; Jachmann had planned to commission Gazelle and the corvette , but neither were in mechanical condition to be reactivated. This was the first time the Training Squadron was activated. The two ships were sent to the Mediterranean Sea later that year, still under Jachmann's command, in part to represent Prussia at the marriage of King George I of Greece to Olga Constantinovna of Russia, but also in response to the Cretan Revolt. The conflict threatened Germans living on the island of Crete, and the ships were to protect them. Hertha and Medusa left Kiel on 14 September, carrying additional men, who were transferred to the newly built ironclad when they stopped in Portsmouth, United Kingdom, on 1 October. By 2 November, Hertha had arrived in Piraeus, Greece, while Medusa sailed directly to Crete. Hertha joined her there by 8 December, and the gunboat had arrived as well, further strengthening the German contingent.
Heldt transferred to Medusa to sail to Constantinople to request permission to pass through the Bosporus and cruise in the Black Sea, leaving Herthas executive officer, (Lieutenant Captain) Louis von Blanc temporarily in command. While Heldt was away on 25 December, Blanc received a request from the German consul at Smyrna to come to the assistance of the French corvette , which had run aground off Chios. Hertha and Blitz sailed to help the French vessel, and the Norwegian corvette came to assist as well. Between the four ships, their crews worked to lighten Roland, by which time the French steamer and the corvette had arrived; initial attempts to pull Roland free failed. On 28 December, the French frigate arrived, carrying Admiral Simon, who took charge of the salvage effort. The following day, the international effort succeeded in refloating Roland. To thank the Germans for their efforts, the French government awarded the Legion of Honour to Blanc and wrote a formal letter of thanks to the crew; Prince Adalbert also wrote a letter of thanks.
Medusa joined the two ships in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire, on 12 January 1868, where Heldt returned to Hertha. The ships cruised in the Aegean Sea over the following days, making stops at Salonika and the island of Syros before returning to Smyrna on 24 January. Upon arriving, they received instructions to return home, as tensions between the North German Confederation and France had grown over the latter's demand to annex Luxembourg as compensation for Prussia's expansion after the Austro-Prussian War. Hertha and Medusa sailed from Smyrna on 16 February, but they traveled independently; Hertha stopped in Malta, while Medusa first made for Alexandria. Hertha arrived in Kiel on 22 April, and was decommissioned there on 15 May. On the night of 14–15 June, a fire broke out aboard the ship and damaged much of her interior; she was unable to be taken to Danzig for repairs, so workers and materials were transferred to Kiel, where the work was done, which lasted until 8 October. At this time, the ship was rearmed with modern guns.
1869–1872 East Asia cruise
As German economic activity in East Asia continued to grow in the 1860s, the government decided to establish a permanent East Asia Squadron in 1868, which was to include Hertha and Medusa. But for budgetary reasons, the ships could not depart until the following year. Hertha was recommissioned on 17 July 1869, under the command of KzS Heinrich Köhler. The two ships got underway together once again on 8 September, and while in Plymouth, United Kingdom on 23 September, they received amended orders diverting them to Ottoman Egypt to participate in the opening ceremonies of the Suez Canal. Hertha stopped first in Corfu to embark Crown Prince Friedrich and his entourage, which included General Albrecht von Stosch, but a storm prevented them from boarding there on 19 October. Instead, Hertha sailed to Piraeus, where the group came aboard three days later. Hertha, sailing with the aviso and the gunboat , stopped first in Constantinople on 24 October so that Friedrich could pay respects to Sultan Abdulaziz before visiting the canal. Four days later, the ships departed south, stopping in Jaffa, Rhodes, and Beirut over the next two weeks. On 14 November, Herthas sister joined the squadron at Beirut, after which the German vessels departed for Port Said at the northern end of the canal. Arcona had also arrived by this time, completing the German squadron.
A fleet of around sixty ships from numerous countries had gathered in Port Said for the opening ceremony, which took place on 17 November. Friedrich transferred to Grille for the event, which was the third vessel to pass through the canal, behind the French yacht L'Aigle (carrying Empress Eugénie) and the Austro-Hungarian aviso (with Kaiser Franz Joseph aboard). Most of the ships sailed only to Ismailia, halfway through the canal, before returning north; only the smaller vessels continued on to Suez at the southern end of the canal.. In early December, Friedrich and his entourage left the squadron, which dispersed to resume their previous activities. Hertha passed through the canal completely, which required removing some cargo at Ismailia so she could reach Suez by 12 December. Her progress through the canal had been slowed by several other ships that had run aground. By early January 1870, she had departed Suez, bound for Asia. Hertha stopped in Aden and British Ceylon on the way to Singapore, which she reached on 12 February. There, Köhler assumed command of the East Asia Squadron.