SMS Prinz Adalbert (1865)

The "Prinz Adalbert" was an ironclad warship of the Prussian Navy, originally ordered by the Confederate States Navy.

The "Prinz Adalbert" was built under the cover-name "Cheops" by the French shipyard of the Arman brothers in Bordeaux, a sister ship of the "Sphinx". "Sphinx" was delivered to the Confederate agents in Europe, but arrived too late to play a part in the American Civil War. The United States government sold "Stonewall", as the Confederates had named her, to Japan, where she served as the "Kōtetsu".

The Armans found a buyer for "Cheops" in the Prussian Navy, which lacked any ironclad warships, and she was delivered on 10 July 1865. The "Prinz Adalbert", named for Prince Adalbert of Prussia, was slow to work up and played no part in the Second Schleswig War, where the Royal Danish Navy enjoyed absolute control of the seas.

"Prinz Adalbert" was designed as a naval ram. She displaced some 1560 tons, was 50 metres long on the waterline, and 57 metres overall due to the large protruding ram, 10 metres in the beam, with a draft of 5 metres. She had a low freeboard, and was a singularly poor sea boat, rolling badly. Nonetheless, she was a manoeuvrable craft, essential if she was ever to make use of her ram. She was rigged for sail as a two-masted brig and had two screws, each driven from a horizontal steam engine of 150 nominal horsepower (600 indicated horsepower). At full power, 72 revolutions per minute, her speed was circa convert|10|knot|km/h.

Her armament was carried in a pentagonal armoured blockhouse at the bow and an octagonal one near the stern. As originally built she was armed with 3 36-pounder smoothbore guns in the forward blockhouse and 2 in the after one. In the summer of 1866 these were changed to Krupp rifled breech-loading guns, 2 21 cm 19-calibre forward, 2 17 cm 25-calibre midships.

"Prinz Adalbert" did not last long in service as her timber hull was found to be rotten in 1871. She was paid off on 28 May 1875 and broken up at Wilhelmshaven in 1878.

References

* Gröner, Erich, "Die deutschen Kriegsschiffe 1815–1945. Band 1: Panzerschiffe, Linienschiffe, Schlactschiffe, Fluzeugträger, Kreuzer, Kanonenboot." Bernard & Graefe Verlag, 1998. ISBN 3-7637-4800-8
* Noirsain, Serge, "La flotte européenne de la Confederation sudiste." Confederate Historical Association of Belgium, 2000. Published without ISBN