SMS Jaguar

SMS Jaguar was the second member of the of gunboats built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the late 1890s and early 1900s.

Design
Jaguar was 65.2 m long overall and had a beam of 9.1 m and a draft of 3.59 m forward. She displaced 1048 MT at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of a pair of horizontal triple-expansion steam engines each driving a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by four coal-fired Thornycroft boilers. Jaguar could steam at a top speed of 14.6 kn at 1378 ihp. The ship had a cruising radius of about 3080 nmi at a speed of 9 kn. She had a crew of between 9 officers and 121 enlisted men. Jaguar was armed with a main battery of four 8.8 cm SK L/30 guns, with 1,124 rounds of ammunition. She also carried six machine guns.

Service history
The keel for Jaguar was laid down at the Schichau-Werke shipyard in Danzig in early 1898. Her completed hull was launched on 19 September 1898 and after completing fitting-out work, the new gunboat was commissioned into the German fleet on 4 April 1899. After entering service, Jaguar was sent abroad, to Germany's main naval force in Asia, the East Asia Squadron. Shortly thereafter, the Boxer Rebellion broke out in China. At the time, the East Asia Squadron also included the protected cruisers SMS Kaiserin Augusta, SMS Hansa, SMS Hertha, and SMS Irene, the unprotected cruiser SMS Gefion, and the gunboat SMS Jaguar. Kaiser Wilhelm II decided that an expeditionary force was necessary to reinforce the Eight Nation Alliance that had formed to defeat the Boxers. The expeditionary force consisted of the four s, six cruisers, 10 freighters, three torpedo boats, and six regiments of marines, under the command of Marshal Alfred von Waldersee.

In concert with the unprotected cruiser SMS Condor, Jaguar participated in the suppression of unrest in the Marshall Islands in September and October 1908. During this operation, the ships carried a contingent of Melanesian infantry to the island of Pohnpei to suppress tensions between rival factions on the island. In early 1909, unrest broke out in Apia; Jaguar and the light cruisers SMS Leipzig and SMS Arcona were sent to suppress the uprising.

Iltis was scuttled on 7 November 1914 at the German colony in the Kiautschou Bay concession, on the final day of the Siege of Tsingtao. Three of her sisters were also scuttled during the siege.