SMS Elisabeth was a member of the Arcona class of steam frigates built for the Prussian Navy in the 1860s. The class comprised five ships, and were the first major steam-powered warships ordered for the Prussian Navy. The ships were ordered as part of a major construction program to strengthen the nascent Prussian fleet, under the direction of Prince Adalbert, and were intended to provide defense against the Royal Danish Navy. Elisabeth was armed with a battery of twenty-eight guns, and was capable of steaming at a speed of 12.1 knots (22.4 km/h; 13.9 mph).

In the immediate aftermath of the First Schleswig War against Denmark, Prince Adalbert began drawing up plans for the future of the Prussian Navy; he also secured the Jade Treaty that saw the port of Wilhelmshaven transferred to Prussia from the Duchy of Oldenburg, and which provided the Prussian fleet with an outlet on the North Sea. Adalbert called for a force of three screw frigates and six screw corvettes to protect Prussian maritime trade in the event of another war with Denmark. Design work was carried out between 1854 and 1855, and the first two ships were authorized in November 1855; a further pair was ordered in June 1860, and the final member of the class was ordered in February 1866.^[1][2] The last vessel, Elisabeth, was modified slightly compared to the rest of the class, with a slightly larger hull, a different stern shape, and a smaller number of guns (albeit of a more modern type).^[3]

Elisabeth was 79.3 meters (260 ft 2 in) long overall and had a beam of 13.2 m (43 ft 4 in) and a draft of 5.5 m (18 ft 1 in) forward. She displaced 2,454 metric tons (2,415 long tons) as designed and 2,912 t (2,866 long tons) at full load. The ship had short forecastle and sterncastle decks. Her superstructure consisted primarily of a small deckhouse aft. She had a crew of 35 officers and 345 enlisted men.^[4]

Her propulsion system consisted of a single horizontal single-expansion steam engine driving a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by four coal-burning fire-tube boilers. Exhaust was vented through a single funnel located amidships. Elisabeth was rated to steam at a top speed of 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph), but she significantly exceeded this speed, reaching 12.1 knots (22.4 km/h; 13.9 mph) from 2,440 metric horsepower (2,410 ihp). The ship had a cruising radius of about 1,900 nautical miles (3,500 km; 2,200 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). To supplement the steam engine on long voyages abroad, she carried a full-ship rig with a total surface area of 2,200 m² (24,000 sq ft).^[4] The screw could be retracted while cruising under sail.^[5]

Elisabeth was armed with a battery of twenty-eight 68-pounder guns. By 1869, she had been rearmed with a battery of seventeen 15 cm (5.9 in) RK L/22 guns.^[4]

The keel for Elisabeth was laid down at the Königliche Werft (Royal Dockyard) in Danzig in 1866. She was launched on 18 October 1868 and named after Elisabeth, the dowager queen. The wife of General Edwin Freiherr von Manteuffel performed the christening ceremony. By that time, Prussia had begun the process of German unification, and Elisabeth was the first ship to be launched under the flag of the North German Confederation. After completing fitting out work, she was commissioned into active service on 29 September 1869, under the command of Korvettenkapitän (KK—Corvette Captain) Hermann Robert Przewisinski. Sea trials were skipped so that Elisabeth could be sent as part of the squadron that represented North Germany at the opening of the Suez Canal; the other vessels included her sister ships Hertha and Arcona, the aviso Grille, and the gunboat Delphin. Elisabeth was only partially armed by that time, and part of her battery deck was converted to accommodation space for Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm and his entourage.^[6][7]

On 4 October, Elisabeth ailed from Neufahrwasser, stopping briefly in Kiel to embark a pair of engineers, who were to evaluate the ship's engine on the first leg of the voyage. By the time she reached Plymouth, United Kingdom, the engineers had determined that the engine had been installed badly and would require repairs. The ship nevertheless continued on to the Mediterranean Sea, stopping in Valletta, Malta; and Limassol and Beirut in the Ottoman Empire. On 15 November, Elisabeth joined the rest of the German squadron in Port Said, Ottoman Egypt, and the northern end of the Suez Canal. After the conclusion of the opening ceremonies on 1 December, the squadron was disbanded and Elisabeth embarked Friedrich Wilhelm and his entourage to carry them first to Naples, Italy.^[3]

She then sailed on to La Spezia, where the group returned to the ship. Elisabeth carried them to Villefranche-sur-Mer, France, and then returned to Italy to pick up a 70 t (69 long tons; 77 short tons) block of marble in Civitavecchia; the Pope had donated it for use in the Aachen Cathedral. During a subsequent stop in Cannes, France, Elisabeth was inspected by Prince Heinrich and Prince Wilhelm. The ship stopped in Portsmouth, United Kingdom, on the way home, where it was found she needed to have her screw replaced; the work took six weeks to complete. During that time, a contingent from her crew were sent to bring the ship of the line Renown to Germany, which had been purchased from the Royal Navy for use as a training ship. Elisabeth then sailed to Vlissingen, the Netherlands, where the marble block was unloaded. From there, she sailed on to Kiel, arriving on 4 April, and she was decommissioned there on 23 April. After the voyage, Friedrich Wilhelm instructed General Albrecht von Stosch, a member of his party, to write a report on their experience aboard the ship. Stosch was very critical of the ship's condition and the state of training of the crew.^[8]

On 10 July 1870, Elisabeth was recommissioned for service during the Franco-Prussian War; the crew of the training ship Niobe were used to reactivate Elisabeth. The navy initially planned to deploy Elisabeth to its North Sea naval base at Wilhelmshaven, but reports of French warships already approaching the port led to a change of orders. Instead, the ship would be used to defend the mine barrier protecting the entrance to Kiel at Friedrichsort. She was supported in this role by Renown and the aviso Preussischer Adler. The French briefly attempted to impose a blockade of the German coast, but after they withdrew, the Germans made plans to send Elisabeth to attack French shipping as a commerce raider. In early October, she, Grille, and several gunboats sailed to Wilhelmshaven, and during the voyage, they evaded French vessels in heavy fog. Elisabeth's propulsion system proved to be problematic once again, and she was forced to stop in Glückstadt after her screw broke. Repairs were carried out, but after departing on 21 October, the propeller shaft broke, forcing the ship to be towed to Wilhelmshaven. After repairs were completed, Elisabeth was ordered in mid-January 1871 to sail to the Caribbean Sea (taking a route around the United Kingdom to avoid the French coast) to support the gunboat Meteor, but by that time, a ceasefire had come into effect that ended the fighting. Instead, Elisabeth was sent back to Kiel in company with the ironclad warship Arminius on 29 March, though severe storms delayed their arrival. Elisabeth was decommissioned there on 21 April.^[9]

Elisabeth was recommissioned on 18 December 1871, under the command of KK Paul von Reibnitz. She was to join a squadron of warships being sent to Central and South America, in part in response to mistreatment of the crew of the corvette Nymphe by Brazilian police in Rio de Janeiro. But Stosch, who had become the first Chief of the German Imperial Admiralty after the Prussian victory in 1871 saw the creation of the German Empire, canceled the planned operation, and Elisabeth was accordingly decommissioned on 26 January 1872. At this time, she was placed in the category of First Reserve, which kept the ship in a state of readiness that allowed reactivation within five days.^[10]

Over the course of 1872, attacks on Germans in Haiti and Colombia prompted Stosch to reconsider his decision to cancel the deployment of warships to Central America, and on 1 October, Elisabeth was recommissioned, along with the ironclad Friedrich Carl and the gunboat Albatross. The squadron was placed under the command of Kommodore Reinhold von Werner; at that time, Elisabeth's captain was KK Otto Livonius. The three ships sailed from Wilhelmshaven on 10 October, and by 3 December, had reached Bridgetown, Barbados, where they joined Elisabeth's sisters Vineta and Gazelle. The five ships cruised through the Caribbean over the next few months until early March 1873, when Werner received orders to take the squadron to the coast of Spain to protect Germans during the Third Carlist War.^[10]

Elisabeth and the rest of the squadron arrived off the coast of Spain on 1 May, which the ships patrolled through late February 1874. At that point, the squadron was dissolved, and Elisabeth was ordered to East Asia. She sailed from Lisbon, Portugal, on 3 March, but had to stop in Valletta for repairs on the way. The ship arrived in Singapore on 26 May, and while en route to Hong Kong, she weathered a storm that nearly dismasted her. Elisabeth thereafter cruised in Japanese waters, and later in 1874, she went to Hakodate after the German consul there was murdered. On 4 January 1875, Livonius received orders to bring his ship home, and by 17 January, the ship had gotten underway. She arrived in Kiel on 13 April and moved to Danzig later that month, where she was decommissioned on 1 May. She thereafter underwent a major overhaul, which was completed by mid-1876. She was moved to Kiel on 28 May, where preparations for another extended voyage abroad, which was planned to complete a circumnavigation of the globe.^[11]

Kapitän zur See (Captain at Sea) Wilhelm von Wickede took command of Elisabeth when she was recommissioned on 1 October 1876. She sailed from Kiel on 14 October, cruising south through the Atlantic Ocean, around the southern tip of Africa and across the Indian Ocean. Upon arriving in Singapore on 20 February 1877, Wickede took command of the ships in East Asian waters, as he was the senior-most captain in the region; this included Vineta, the corvette Luise, and the gunboats Nautilus and Cyclop. Elisabeth remained in Singapore for more than a month, eventually departing on 23 March. From there, she stopped in the Sulu Archipelago to settle disputes between German merchants and the local Spanish colonial government. The ship returned to Japanese waters, cruising through the Seto Inland Sea, and stopping in Yokohama in July. While the ship was in Yokohama, members of her crew fought men from the French ironclad Atalante. Elisabeth sailed on 30 July to assist a pair of barques, one Danish and the other German, that had wrecked nearby. Later that year, the ship conducted surveys of Ise Bay and the Tsugaru Strait.^[12]

On 5 December, Elisabeth received orders to sail to Central America. While in Honolulu, Hawaii, Wickede met with King Kalākaua on 12 January 1878. The ship then sailed on to Acapulco, Mexico, and on the way, her crew conducted depth soundings. She thereafter sailed south to visit Panama, where on 5 March, her crew helped to fight a major fire. There, she joined the corvettes Leipzig and Ariadne. Wickede took command of this temporarily formed squadron on 9 March with the title of Kommodore.^[13]

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• Hildebrand, Hans H.; Röhr, Albert & Steinmetz, Hans-Otto (1993). Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe: Biographien – ein Spiegel der Marinegeschichte von 1815 bis zur Gegenwart [The German Warships: Biographies − A Reflection of Naval History from 1815 to the Present] (in German). Vol. 3. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7822-0211-4.
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