SMS Panther was one of six s built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the late 1890s and early 1900s. The ships were built to modernize the German gunboat force that was used to patrol the German colonial empire. They were ordered in three groups of two ships, each pair incorporating design improvements. Panther, along with , was armed with a main battery of two guns, had a top speed of , and could cruise for .
Panther spent most of her career abroad, where she was involved in a number of international disputes. She was initially sent to the East American Station after entering service in 1902, and she was soon sent to intervene in the Markomannia incident, where she sank the . Panther was next involved in the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903, during which she participated in the bombardment of Fort San Carlos. Panther returned to Haiti in 1904 to pressure the Haitian government to pay a settlement after an attack on a German diplomat in the country. In 1905 and 1906, the ship toured South America, steaming as far south as Paraguay. She was transferred to German West Africa in mid-1907.
The ship patrolled Germany's West African colonies for the next four years, largely uneventfully. Recalled to Germany for repairs in 1911, she stopped in Agadir, Morocco, at the request of the Foreign Office, touching off the Agadir Crisis, the most significant incident that involved Panther. The resulting international uproar created a war scare that significantly worsened Anglo-German relations. After repairs in Germany, Panther returned to Africa for another tour from 1912 to 1914, arriving back in Germany weeks before the start of World War I. She was used as a patrol vessel in the western Baltic Sea during the war, but she saw no action. After the war, she was retained by the new (Navy of the Realm) for use as a survey ship. Decommissioned in 1926, she was eventually sold to ship breakers in 1931 and dismantled.
Design
The German (Imperial Navy) abandoned gunboat construction for more a decade after , launched in 1887, instead focusing on larger unprotected cruisers beginning with the . By the mid-1890s, the navy began planning replacements for the older vessels of the and es. The new ships were scheduled to begin construction by 1900, but the loss of the gunboat in a storm necessitated an immediate replacement, which was added to the 1898 naval budget. The new ship was planned to patrol the German colonial empire; requirements included engines powerful enough for the ship to steam up the Yangtze in China, where the new gunboat was intended to be deployed. Six ships were built in three identical pairs; each pair incorporated incremental improvements over the preceding set, and Panther was one of the last pair, along with .
Panther was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced as designed and at full load. The ship had a raised forecastle deck and a straight stem. Her superstructure consisted primarily of a conning tower with an open bridge atop it. She had a crew of 9 officers and 121 enlisted men.
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. Exhaust was vented through two funnels located amidships. Panther could steam at a top speed of at as designed. The ship had a cruising radius of about at a speed of .
Panther was armed with a main battery of two SK L/40 guns, with 482 rounds of ammunition. One was placed on the forecastle and the other at the stern. She also carried six Maxim guns. The only armor protection carried by the ship was of steel plate on the conning tower.
Service history Panther, named after the eponymous cat genus, was laid down at the (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig in July 1900 under the contract designation "A". She was launched on 1 April 1901, and at the launching ceremony, she was christened by the wife of General August von Lentze, the commander of XVII Corps; the director of the shipyard, (Captain at Sea) Curt von Prittwitz und Gaffron gave a speech at the event. She was commissioned on 15 March 1902 to begin sea trials, which lasted until early May, when she went to the in Kiel for final fitting out. Her first commander was (KK—Corvette Captain) Richard Eckermann. On the order of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Panther was sent along with the dispatch boat to represent the Imperial Navy at the . The two ships sailed to Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where they entered the Rhine. They arrived in Düsseldorf on 7 June; they were the first large German warships to visit the area, and they created such a stir in the populace that their visit was extended to 3 July. After departing, Panther stopped for two days in Duisburg, before arriving back in Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea coast on 13 July. There, her crew began preparations for her first overseas deployment, which included repainting the ship from gray to white and yellow.
East American Station Panther sailed from Germany on 31 July 1902, bound for the East American Station. She arrived in Saint Thomas in the Danish West Indies on 30 August, where she joined the flagship of the station, the protected cruiser . The latter's commander, (Commodore) Georg Scheder ordered Panther to steam to Haiti, where a revolt had broken out. The rebels, who controlled the gunboat , seized the German HAPAG steamer , which was carrying a shipment of weapons to the Haitian government. Panther was to intervene in the Markomannia incident and retrieve the captured ship. On 6 September, Panther located Crête-à-Pierrot in Gonaïves; she fired a warning shot that prompted most of the crew to abandon ship, but Admmiral Hammerton Killick remained board. He detonated ammunition in the stern of the ship, which would prevent her from being captured by the Germans. Panther then sank the wrecked ship with gunfire. Panthers guns both quickly failed after having fired five rounds and twenty-four shells from the forward and aft gun, respectively; the forward gun broke down completely, and the aft mounting proved to be too weak for the recoil of the 10.5 cm gun. The recoil began to pull apart the deck planking, which forced the crew to cease firing. There were concerns about how the United States would view the action in the context of the Monroe Doctrine. But despite legal advice describing the sinking as "illegal and excessive", the US State Department endorsed the action. The New York Times declared that "Germany was quite within its rights in doing a little housecleaning on her own account". The Haitian government later officially thanked the German government for destroying the rebel gunboat.
Vineta arrived to relieve Panther on 25 September, allowing the latter to sail to visit Venezuela. She steamed about up the Orinoco river to visit the city of Ciudad Bolívar. By this time, tensions between Venezuela and Britain, Germany, and Italy had risen significantly over measures that the Venezuelan president, Cipriano Castro, had imposed to try to suppress a rebellion, including a blockade of several coastal cities. Castro also suspended payments toward foreign debts, which sparked the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903. The German naval command instructed their ships in the region to free any German merchant vessels that were seized by the Venezuelan Navy by force if necessary. No incidents involving German ships materialized, however, but the European powers concluded an agreement on 1 December to put an end to the blockade. For its part, Germany had assembled the East American Cruiser Division, led by Scheder aboard Vineta, and which also included Panther, the cruisers and , and the training ships and .
On 7 December, the Europeans gave Castro an ultimatum, which he ignored. Scheder then began to seize or neutralize Venezuelan warships, along with the British protected cruiser and the destroyer , which were placed under his command. The ships carried out operations against the Venezuelan Navy between 10 and 14 December. Panther went to La Guaira on 10 December, where she captured the customs patrol vessel Zamorra, and then provided gunfire support to a landing party composed of men from Vineta and British vessels. Panther then moved to Maracaibo to enforce the blockade there along with Falke. On 17 January 1903, the Germans chased a merchant schooner, which had evaded the blockade and entered Lake Maracaibo, but were blocked from entering the lake by Venezuelan coastal fortifications. In retaliation, Panther bombarded Fort San Carlos, near Maracaibo. She was repulsed after the problems with her 10.5 cm guns reappeared and could not be returned to action; she could not maneuver in the confined waters to bring her other guns to bear, so she was forced to withdraw. The Venezuelans viewed the action as a victory, as the German ship had been compelled to retreat without inflicting any damage; the Germans viewed it as an affront to their honor that must be corrected. Accordingly, therefore was sent to silence the guns on 21 January. The Venezuelan gunners had already evacuated and suffered no casualties. The United States, which viewed itself as the protector of South America under the Monroe Doctrine, had initially ignored the European intervention but took an increasingly hostile view toward the Europeans as they became more aggressive, particularly after the attack on Fort San Carlos. The Europeans nevertheless requested the United States to arbitrate a settlement, which resulted in an agreement that Venezuela would receive all of the naval and civilian vessels that had been seized in return for resuming debt payments.
Panther thereafter sailed to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where unrest had broken out. From there, she sailed to Newport News, Virginia, in the United States for an overhaul, along with permanent repairs to her main battery guns to correct the deficiencies originally identified during the action with Crête-à-Pierrot. While there in June, Eckermann left the ship, leaving (KL—Captain Lieutenant) Hans Seebohm (the executive officer) in command until KL Paul Jantzen arrived the following month to take permanent command. In late July, she joined the rest of the division for a cruise to visit Canadian ports. Panther later sailed to visit Veracruz, Mexico, in January 1904. While there, some of her crew traveled inland to Mexico City. In June, she sailed back to Newport News, where she received orders to return to Haiti. The German and French consuls in Port-au-Prince had been attacked by Haitian soldiers, and Panther was sent to obtain a settlement from the Haitian government. She was joined there by the large French protected cruiser . The presence of the vessels pressured the government to reach an acceptable agreement over the incident. On 19 October, the ship sailed to Willemstad, Curaçao, to assist the HAPAG steamer , which had run aground while attempting to help a British vessel.
On 15 March 1905, the naval command disbanded the East American Cruiser Division, leaving Panther to patrol the region by herself. In mid-1905, she toured several ports in southern Brazil. In February 1906, the ship cruised to the Rio de la Plata and visited Asunción, Paraguay. While there, the ship's captain (KK Timme) met with Cecilio Báez, the president of Paraguay. Panther arrived back in the Caribbean by mid-May, and she thereafter returned to Canadian waters; this time, she sailed into the St. Lawrence River to visit Montreal, Canada. On 21 December, Panther and the light cruiser sailed to Kingston, Jamaica, to try to rescue the wrecked HAPAG steamer , but they were unsuccessful. In early July 1907, Panther received orders to transfer to the West African station; she departed the region on 5 August and began the voyage across the Atlantic, arriving in Las Palmas on 3 September.
African Station