GERMAN WARSHIP SPERBER.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 482, 21 June 1890, Page 4

GERMAN WARSHIP SPERBER.

ENGAGEMENTS ON THE AFRICAN COAST. SHIP ORDERED TO THE PACIFIC. A modern fighting ship of th 6 German navy arrived in Port Jackson last week. She is named the Sperber, and has the distinction of being the second of an entirely new class of ship recently introduced in the navy of the Fatherland. Her sister ship is the Schwalbe, which is now doing patrol duty in company with the cruiser Carola off the coast of Africa. Before coming to Australia the Sperber was attached to the East Coast station, and with the other ships mentioned she was engaged punishing the natives near Zanzibar for recent outrages committed on members of Major Wissman’s expedition. There was considerable bloodshed on the side of the natives, and during one of the engagements on shore the Germans lost five petty officers. In all these engagements the Germans were greatly outnumbered by the natives, and had the latter been good marksmen, it is said, the loss on the German side must have been far greater. As it happened, the fighting took place inland, so that the heavy ordnance on board the Sperber was nob called into requisition. For a vessel of her class the Sperber is heavily armed. Chief among her armament is a gun for the discharge of torpedoes. This is mounted on the ’tween , decks amidships and discharges its destructive machines by means of air through side ports. Besides this torpedo discharger the Sperber carries eight ilin. Krupp guns and four quick-firing guns of the Hotchkiss type. The heavy guns are broadside mounted on the main deck. There is, of course, the usual proportion of breech-load-ing rifles and revolvers, cutlasses and bayonets and other contrivances. In general appearance the Sperber somewhat resembles the Calliope, of Samoan fame. She is composite-built, with a powerful ram and short, straight bowsprit, but instead of being barque-rigged like the Calliope, she is a three-masted schooner. The Sperber was constructed in ISBB at one of the Government dockyards at Wilhelmshaven, and appears to have had thorough justice done her by the builders. In length she measures 236 ft. Her beam is 29ft Sin, and draught 12ft 6in. This gives her a displacement of 1,120 tons. The Sperber is a twin screw vessel, and consequently has two sets of engines. These are on the compound principle, of 1,500 horse power, and are capable of driving l the ship at the rate of 15 knots per hour. Thus ib will be seen that, with the exception of the flagship Orlando, the Sperber is as fast as the best of the British ships on the Australian station. It is a noticeable fact that since the terrible loss sustained by the Gormans at Samoa more powerful vessels have been sent out to represent the Fatherland on the Pacific station.

The Sperber is under orders to relieve the Alexandrine on the South Pacific station. The latter at last accounts was cruising among the Marshall Islands. She is expected at Sydney shortly, and will after a brief stay sail for the far east to join the China squadron. The Sperber is expected to make a lengthy stay on the South Pacific station—the officers say seven years —and a relief crew for her will be sent out some time next year. In the meantime she will make a cruise amongst the islands of the Pacific in the interests of Germany. Samoa will be her headquarters in the Pacific. Her stay in Sydney may extend over five or six weeks, and the opportunity will be taken by her captain to place her in dry dock for cleaning and painting. The Sperber is commanded by Captain Foss, who was here several years ago in the Bismarck, and the first or captain’s lieutenant, as is the term in the German navy, is Herr Hibern. The other officers are Lieutenants Zimmermann, Behring, Von Kiihlwetter. The chief engineer is Herr Hempel, who was out here in the Carola; the medical officer is Dr. Lotseh and the paymaster Herr Gotrschow. The crew number lid, the sailors and marines being a really fine body of men. There was a good deal of sickness on board whilst the ship was cruising along the coast of Africa, and no less than 40 of the crew were attacked with influenza.