SMS Hyäne (1878)

SMS Hyäne was the second member of the Wolf class of steam gunboats built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the 1870s. The ship was ordered as part of a construction program intended to begin replacing the old Jäger-class gunboats that had been built a decade earlier. Unlike the older ships, Hyäne was intended to serve abroad to protect German economic interests overseas. The ship was armed with a battery of two medium-caliber guns and five lighter weapons, and had a top speed of 8.5 knots (15.7 km/h; 9.8 mph).

Immediately after entering service in late 1879, Hyäne began the first of three extended cruises abroad. She sailed first for South America before moving to the South Pacific, where she served as one of the station ships in Samoa until 1879. Her next overseas voyage began in 1882, which also took the ship to the Pacific. On the way, she stopped in Easter Island to examine the island. While in the South Pacific, Hyäne took part in the establishment of the colony of German New Guinea. She moved to eastern Africa in early 1886 to support attempts to establish a colony there before returning home in late 1887.

The ship's final deployment overseas began in 1888 and lasted until 1897. During this period, Hyäne operated in Kamerun in Central Africa and routinely supported efforts to suppress rebellions against German rule. After returning to Germany, Hyäne was converted into a survey ship for use in home waters, a role she filled from 1899 to 1906 and then from 1911 to 1914. She served briefly as a guard ship early in World War I, but by 1916, she had returned to survey duties. After the war, she was sold into commercial service in 1919 and converted into a cargo ship, but was accidentally destroyed by fire in 1924 in Dieppe, France.