SMS Salamander (1880)

The keel for Salamander was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen in September 1878,^[5] under the contract designation "J".^[a] She was launched on 6 January 1880. The supervisor of the shipyard gave a speech at the launching ceremony, where the ship was named after the 1850s aviso Salamander. Work on the ship was completed later that year on 11 October, but she was not commissioned to begin sea trials until 4 September 1883. These tests only lasted for five days, after which she returned to the reserve fleet.^[3][7] By 1883, the ship had been refitted with an additional 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.^[8]

The ship's first period in service began on 20 August 1885, when she was commissioned for training exercises conducted in company with her sisters Wespe, Viper, and Mücke. They were organized into a division for exercises with the rest of the German fleet, which lasted until 14 September. She was decommissioned again that day, and thereafter served as an auxiliary ship in the Reserve Division of the North Sea. She was recommissioned on 11 May 1886 for another brief period of training with some of her sisters, which lasted until 9 June. Salamander was next recommissioned on 16 August 1887, and she joined the Ironclad Squadron for training exercises that lasted until 14 September. The year 1888 followed the same pattern; the maneuvers that year lasted from 15 August to 15 September, and included a simulated attack on the North Sea naval base at Wilhelmshaven, where Salamander served in the defending force.^[7]

Salamander was recommissioned again on 13 August 1889, under the command of Kapitänleutnant (Captain Lieutenant) Friedrich Vüllers. Training maneuvers that year lasted until 11 September, after which the ship was again decommissioned, though the Reserve Division was disbanded at that time. The ship returned to active service from 13 August to 20 September 1890 for the annual fleet maneuvers. Her last period in active service began on 4 August 1891 and lasted until 22 September, when she was decommissioned for the last time.^[7] Salamander was struck from the naval register on 28 June 1909 and sold to a firm in Düsseldorf the following year. While under tow in November, she ran aground off Castricum, Netherlands, in a storm and could not be freed. The wreck remained there for decades, and her superstructure was eventually scrapped in situ in 1936. An attempt to raise the wreck in 1938 failed, as did one in 1980. The hull remained there and eventually became buried in silt.^[7][8]

• 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.
• "Berlin, 30. Oct". Hannoverscher Kurier (in German). Hannover. 29 August 1881.
• 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. 7. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. OCLC 310653560.
• 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.