SMS Niobe (1849)

SMS Niobe was a Diamond-class frigate 28-gun sixth-rate sailing frigate built for the Royal Navy in the 1840s. She was never commissioned into the Royal Navy, which was converting to steam power, and was sold to Prussia in 1862. She was named after Niobe, a figure from Greek mythology. She served with the Prussian Navy, the Norddeutsche Bundesmarine and the Kaiserliche Marine as a training ship until stricken and hulked in 1890. Niobe was eventually broken up in 1919.

Description and career
Niobe was a three-masted, ship-rigged frigate that had a sail area of 1650 sqm. Her maximum speed was 14 kn. The ship was considered to be a very good sea boat and very manoeuvrable, although she did suffer from severe pitching. Niobe was designed for a crew of 240 officers and enlisted men, but her crew numbered 34 officers and 316 enlisted men in Prussian service.

Measured at the gundeck, Niobe had a length of 140 ft, a beam of 42 ft and a depth of hold of 11 ft. She was 1051 $1⁄94$ tons burthen in size and displaced 1590 LT. Forward, the ship had a draught of 5.05 m and 5.39 m aft.

In British service, Niobe was intended to be armed with twenty 32-pounder (45 cwt) smoothbore on the upper deck. The ship was also fitted with one 68-pounder (56 cwt) smoothbore shell gun and ten short 32-pounder guns on her quarterdeck and another 68-pounder and four more short 32-pounders on her forecastle. All of these 32-pounders were of the lighter 25 cwt model. The Prussians rearmed her with sixteen 68-pounder guns and four 30-pounder smoothbore guns. Niobe was later rearmed with six 22-calibre 15 cm rifled guns. These were later replaced by six 23-calibre 12 cm rifled guns.

Niobe was laid down in May 1847 at the Devonport Dockyard and launched on 18 September 1849. Completed on 5 October, the ship was never commissioned in the Royal Navy. She was sold to Prussia on 9 July 1862 for the price of £15,892 and used as a training ship for naval cadets from 12 October. In 1865, Niobe was commanded by the future admiral, Carl Ferdinand Batsch and among its cadets were seven future admirals, Alfred von Tirpitz, Wilhelm Büchsel, Oscar Klausa, Iwan Oldekop, Otto von Diederichs, Richard Geissler, and Oscar Boeters. Accompanied by the brig SMS Rover, the ship visited Plymouth, Madeira, the Cape Verde Islands, Cadiz, and Lisbon from 30 September 1865 to 15 May 1866. After serving in the successive navies of the emerging German state, Niobe was stricken from the navy list on 18 November 1890 and hulked at Kiel, eventually being broken up in 1919. The ship's figurehead survives and is located at the Naval Academy at Mürwik.