SMS Meteor (1865)
Painting of Meteor in battle with Bouvet | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | Meteor |
| Operator | |
| Builder | Königliche Werft, Danzig |
| Laid down | 27 June 1861 |
| Launched | 17 May 1865 |
| Commissioned | 6 September 1869 |
| Stricken | 27 November 1877 |
| Fate | Sunk as a target |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Camäleon-class gunboat |
| Displacement | 422 t (415 long tons) |
| Length | 43.28 m (142 ft) |
| Beam | 6.96 m (22 ft 10 in) |
| Draft | 2.67 m (8 ft 9 in) |
| Installed power | 320 PS (320 ihp) |
| Propulsion | 1 × Marine steam engine |
| Speed | 9.3 knots (17.2 km/h; 10.7 mph) |
| Complement | 71 |
| Armament |
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SMS Meteor was a Camäleon-class gunboat of the North German Federal Navy (later the Imperial German Navy) that was launched in 1865. A small vessel, armed with only three light guns, Meteor took part in the Battle of Havana in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War. There, she battled the French aviso Bouvet; both vessels were lightly damaged, though Bouvet was compelled to disengage after a shot from Meteor disabled her engine. After the war, Meteor returned to Germany, where her career was limited; she served briefly as a survey vessel. From 1873 to 1877, she was deployed to the Mediterranean Sea as a station ship in Constantinople during a period of tensions in the Ottoman Empire. After returning to Germany in 1877, she was decommissioned, converted into a coal hulk and expended as a target ship some time later.