SMS Hansa (1872)

SMS Hansa  was a German ironclad warship built in 1868–1875. She was the first ironclad built in Germany; all previous German ironclads had been built in foreign shipyards. She was named after the Hanseatic League, known in Germany simply as Hanse, Latinized Hansa. The ship was launched in October 1872 and commissioned into the German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) in May 1875. Designed for overseas service, Hansa was classed as an armored corvette and armed with eight 21 cm guns in a central battery.

Hansa served abroad for the first nine years of her career in the German navy. In 1884, it was found that her iron hull was badly corroded, which rendered the ship unfit for further active service. She was therefore removed from active duty and used for a variety of secondary roles. From 1884 to 1888, she served as a guard ship in Kiel, where she also trained engine and boiler room personnel. In 1888, she was stricken from the naval register and used as a barracks ship in Kiel. She was moved to Mönkeberg in 1905, where she continued to train boiler room personnel, until 1906 when she was sold to ship-breakers and dismantled for scrap.

General characteristics and machinery
Hansa was 71.73 m long at the waterline and 73.5 m long overall. She had a beam of 14.1 m and a draft of 5.74 m forward and 6.8 m aft. The ship was designed to displace 3950 MT at a normal loading, and up to 4404 MT with a combat load. The ship's hull was formed with transverse iron frames and mixed iron and timber construction. The underwater portion of the hull was plated with copper to reduce fouling. It contained six watertight compartments.

The German navy found the ship to be very stiff in her sea-keeping qualities. Hansa was very maneuverable and was easily controlled while under sail; under steam the ship remained highly maneuverable but control suffered. The ship's crew numbered 28 officers and 371 enlisted men. She carried a number of smaller boats aboard, including two launches, one pinnace, two cutters, one yawl, and one dinghy. The ship also carried an unknown number of picket boats and barges. Anti-torpedo nets were briefly fitted to the ship from 1885 to 1888.

Hansa was powered by a single horizontal three-cylinder single-expansion steam engine built by AG Vulcan in Stettin. The engine drove a single three-bladed screw that was 6 m in diameter. Steam, at a pressure of at 2 atm, was supplied by four trunk boilers in a single boiler room. The boilers were ducted into a single large funnel that could be retracted when the ship was operated under sail. The powerplant was rated at 450 nominal horsepower with a top speed of 12 kn. On trials, her propulsion system managed 3275 ihp and 12.7 kn. The ship carried 310 MT of coal for the boilers, which enabled a maximum range of 1330 nmi at a cruising speed of 10 kn. Hansa was fully rigged, and had a sail area of 1760 m2. Steering was controlled by a single rudder.

Armament and armor
Hansa was armed with eight 21 cm L/19 hooped guns, each of which was provided with 110 rounds of ammunition. The guns were placed in a two-story arrangement amidships; four were mounted in a broadside casemate, two on either side of the ship. The other four guns were mounted in casemates on the corners of the lower casemate, which gave the ship a degree of end-on fire capability. The lower guns could depress to −5° and elevate to 13°; at maximum elevation, the guns could reach targets out to 3200 m. The upper guns had a wider range of elevation; they could depress to −8° and elevate to 14°. At maximum elevation, the guns had a range of 5700 m.

Hansa's armor consisted of teak-backed wrought iron, which was manufactured in Great Britain. Her armored belt was 152 mm thick amidships, where it protected the ship's vitals. On the bow and stern, the belt was reduced to 114 mm in thickness. The entire belt was backed with 306 mm of timber. The casemates were armored with 114 mm thick sloping iron plates. The lower battery casemate had 114 mm thick transverse armored bulkheads on either end of the side armor.

Service history
Hansa was laid down at the Royal Dockyard in Danzig in 1868. She was the first ironclad warship to be built in a German shipyard; her predecessors had all been built in French and British shipyards. The ship was launched on 26 October 1872 and moved to the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin for fitting out work. The work proceeded very slowly, and Hansa was not commissioned into the German fleet until 19 May 1875, two and a half years after her launch. By comparison, all of the earlier foreign-built ironclads were completed in less than a year.

Designed for overseas service protecting Germany's maritime trade, Hansa spent the first nine years of her career abroad. In 1884, it was found that her hull was badly corroded; this stemmed from the lengthy construction period, during which the iron had already begun to corrode. As a result of the poor shape of her hull, Hansa was removed from active service in 1884 and used as a guard ship in Kiel. While in Kiel, she was also used as a training ship for engine-room personnel and stokers. She was formally stricken from the naval register on 6 August 1888. She was then used as a floating barracks in Kiel, until 1905. Hansa was then moved to Mönkeberg, hulked, and used to train stokers. The ship did not last long in this service, and was sold in March 1906 for 96,000 marks. Hansa was broken up later that year in Swinemünde.