 SMS Panther |
|
| Career (Germany) |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | ? |
| Laid down: | 1900 |
| Launched: | April 1 1901 |
| Commissioned: | March 15 1902 |
| Decommissioned: | March 31 1931 |
| Fate (Status): | sold and scrapped 1931 |
| General characteristics | |
| Shipyard: | Kaiserliche Werft, Danzig |
| Designation: | Kanonenboot A |
| Class: | Iltis |
| Displacement: | 977 t (designed) 1,193 t (maximum) |
| Length: | 66.90 m (219 ft 6 in) overall 64.10 m (210 ft 4 in) waterline |
| Beam: | 9.70 m (31 ft 10 in) |
| Draft: | 3.30 m (10 ft 10 in) |
| Propulsion and power: | 4 charcoal steam boilers 2 three-cylinder steam engines |
| Performance: | 1344 psi |
| Propellers: | 2 three-blade Ø 2.40 m (7 ft 10 in) |
| Steering: | ? |
| Speed: | 13.5 knots (25 km/h) |
| Range: | 3,400 nautical miles (6,300 km) at 9 knots (17 km/h) |
| Complement: | 121 |
| Armament: | 2 x 105 mm (4") L/40 Sk cannons (122 hm, 482 rounds) 6 x 37 mm (1.5") cannons |
| Sister ships: | SMS Iltis, SMS Jaguar, SMS Tiger, SMS Luchs, SMS Eber |
SMS Panther was one of six gunboats of the Iltis-class of the Kaiserliche Marine and, like her sisters, served in Germany's overseas colonies. The ship was launched on 1 April 1901 in the Kaiserliche Werft, Danzig. She had a crew of 9 officers and 121 men. The Panther became notorious in 1911 when she was deployed to the Morrocan port of Agadir during the "Agadir Crisis" (also called the "Second Moroccan Crisis"). Germany did this because they wanted to reinforce their demand of the French for regions of French Equatorial Africa. This led to the term "gunboat diplomacy" which was used especially by the British. It involves, originally the deployment of a gunboat but now refers to any armed service, to a region to reinforce a request or demand made diplomatically. It can be said that this boat helped to increase the tension leading up to the First World War and did help to cause it in the end. The Panther was supposedly sent to protect German citizens in the port but actually piled pressure onto the French concerning their attempted colonization of Morocco. Years earlier, in 1905, the Panther was also deployed to the Brazilian Port of Itajahy, where her crew conducted an unauthorized search and the kidnapping of a German dissident on Brazilian soil. That incident became known as the "Panther Affair" ("Caso Panther"). The ship was scrapped in 1931.
