SMS Hay (1860)

Hay was built at the J. W. Klawitter shipyard in Danzig. Her keel was laid down in 1859 and she was launched on 14 February 1860.^[2] The ship was named after sharks.^[a] During the launching ceremony, the chain used to lower the ship down the slipway broke, but the ship was not damaged in the accident. After completion in late 1860, Hay was moved to Stralsund and was then laid up on the nearby island of Dänholm.^[4] While out of service, her copper sheathing was removed from her hull so ventilation holes could be cut into the outer planking. Her entire propulsion system, including the masts and the funnel, was removed and a roof was erected over the hull to keep the elements out.^[5]

The ship remained out of service for the next few years. On 8 December 1863, the Prussian Navy ordered the fleet to mobilize, as tensions between Prussia and Denmark over the Schleswig–Holstein question rose sharply. Mobilization meant that Hay and the rest of the gunboats at Stralsund would have to be reconstructed.^[6] After the start of the Second Schleswig War in February 1864, Hay was recommissioned on 1 March to join I Flotilla Division.^[4] The Prussian gunboat divisions were assigned to guard the main Prussian ports on the Baltic coast, namely Stralsund, Stettin, and Swinemünde after the Royal Danish Navy imposed a blockade of the ports.^[7]

The gunboat flotilla was deployed on 17 March to support Captain Eduard von Jachmann's corvettes as they attempted to break the Danish blockade, but the gunboats were only lightly engaged during the ensuing Battle of Jasmund. Jachmann had ordered them to take up a position closer to land to cover a potential withdrawal, and so they were too far to take part in the main action. Nevertheless, as the Danish steam frigate Tordenskjold arrived to reinforce the main squadron, Hay and the other gunboats fired on her from afar. Tordenskjold's commander ignored the gunboats and continued south to join the fight with Jachmann's corvettes, firing only a few broadsides at the gunboats in passing, with neither side scoring any hits. As the Danes continued south in pursuit of Jachmann's ships, the gunboats withdrew back to Stralsund,^[8] though Hay's engines broke down and she had to be taken under tow by her sister Sperber. Hay was decommissioned in Stralsund in October and placed back in reserve.^[4] The combatants signed the Treaty of Vienna on 20 October, formally ending the war.^[9]

The Prussian naval command initially planned on mobilizing Hay at the start of the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, but the war ended quickly in a Prussian victory and activating the ship proved to be unnecessary. The ship was instead eventually recommissioned on 1 July 1869 to serve as a tender for the Marinestation der Ostsee (Baltic Sea Naval Station), based in Kiel. During this period, Hay and the transport Elbe carried a Mine Detachment to Bremerhaven; these mines would later be used to defend the entrance to Jade Bight during the Franco-Prussian War the following year. Hay was then placed back into reserve at Kiel on 20 November. The ship next returned to service on 18 July 1870, under the command of Leutnant zur See (LzS—Lieutenant at Sea) Iwan Friedrich Julius Oldekop, after the start of hostilities with France. Six days later, she joined Sperber and the gunboat Comet to steam to the North Sea, passing around Denmark and arriving in the mouth of the Elbe river on 28 July. The ship saw no action while patrolling Prussia's North Sea coast, and on 4 April 1871, she left Wilhelmshaven to return to Kiel, this time passing through the Eider Canal.^[4]

After arriving in Kiel on 12 April, she resumed tender duties for the naval station there, and she also served as the tender for the artillery training ship Renown. Hay was decommissioned on 4 July 1872, but already on 22 July, she was recommissioned to replace her sister Schwalbe, which was by then no longer fit for service. At this time, LzS Richard Aschenborn took command of the ship. After completing the shooting practice exercise on 5 August, Aschenborn left the ship, and Hay was then moved to Wilhelmshaven and decommissioned there on 7 October.^[10] There, Hay underwent a refit that included replacing her main gun with a more modern, iron 15 cm (5.9 in) RK L/22 gun. Her sailing rig was removed and a simple pole mast was fitted for signaling purposes.^[5] The ship never returned to active service, however, and on 7 September 1880, she was struck from the naval register and thereafter converted into a storage hulk in Wilhelmshaven. Her ultimate fate is unknown.^[11]

• Embree, Michael (2007). Bismarck's First War: The Campaign of Schleswig and Jutland 1864. Solihull: Helion & Co Ltd. ISBN 978-1-906033-03-3.
• Greene, Jack & Massignani, Alessandro (1998). Ironclads at War: The Origin and Development of the Armored Warship, 1854–1891. Pennsylvania: Combined Publishing. ISBN 978-0-938289-58-6.
• 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. 4. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7822-0382-1.
• 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.
• Nottelmann, Dirk (2022). "The Development of the Small Cruiser in the Imperial German Navy Part III: The Gunboats". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2022. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. pp. 63–79. ISBN 978-1-4728-4781-2.