SMS Crocodill (1879)

The keel for Crocodill was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen in 1878 under the provisional name "H",^[a] and she was launched on 13 September 1879. Named for the earlier wooden gunboat Crocodill, she was delivered to the navy on 26 May 1880. She remained out of service initially, before being commissioned on 20 September for sea trials under the command of Kapitänleutnant (KL—Captain Lieutenant) Emil Freiherr von Lyncker. Her initial testing was completed by 20 October, when she was decommissioned in Kiel and allocated to the Marinestation der Ostsee (Baltic Sea Naval Station).^[3][6]

Crocodill was commissioned for her first active period of fleet duty on 22 April 1884, under the command of KL Ernst von Frantzius. She joined her sister ships Hummel, Camaeleon, Natter, and Biene in the newly created Armored Gunboat Division. They carried out unit training over the summer, and they joined the rest of the main fleet for the annual maneuvers in August and September. Crocodill was decommissioned again on 30 September. The ship remained out of service for the next decade, and in the early 1890s, she underwent a modernization.^[6] The work included installing a pair of 8.7 cm (3.4 in) L/24 built-up guns, a pair of 37 mm (1.5 in) Hotchkiss revolver cannon, and two 35 cm (14 in) torpedo tubes in her bow, both of which were below the waterline.^[7] Crocodill next returned to service on 13 October 1894, assigned to the Armored Gunboat Reserve Division, which was based in Danzig. She served as the flagship of the division until 5 May 1895, when she was replaced by her sister Mücke. Crocodill was decommissioned at that time for periodic maintenance at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig.^[6]

On 3 August 1897, Crocodill was recommissioned under the command of KL Richard Koch. She remained in service through 1 October, during which time she resumed flagship duties for the gunboat division. She remained in reserve for the next two years, before recommissioning for her last period of active service, which lasted from 27 July to 24 September 1900. KL Siegfried von Jachmann captained the ship that year, and she once again served as the divisional flagship.^[6] Crocodill was struck from the naval register on 18 March 1911 and then used as a target ship. In 1913, she was converted into a floating workshop, and was based in Wilhelmshaven. The ship was broken up after 1918.^[7]

• Dodson, Aidan (2016). The Kaiser's Battlefleet: German Capital Ships 1871–1918. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-229-5.
• Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships: 1815–1945. Vol. I: Major Surface Vessels. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-790-6.
• 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. 2. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8364-9743-5.
• 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. 8. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag.
• Lyon, David (1979). "Germany". In Gardiner, Robert; Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M. (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 240–265. ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5.
• Sondhaus, Lawrence (1997). Preparing for Weltpolitik: German Sea Power Before the Tirpitz Era. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-745-7.