Career
Name:	SMS Panther
Builder:	Kaiserliche Werft, Danzig
Laid down:	1900
Launched:	1 April 1901
Commissioned:	15 March 1902
Decommissioned:	31 March 1931
Fate:	Sold and scrapped 1931
General characteristics
Class and type:	Iltis-class gunboat
Displacement:	977 t (962 long tons) (designed) 1,193 t (1,174 long tons) (maximum)
Length:	66.9 m (219 ft 6 in) o/a 64.1 m (210 ft 4 in) w/l
Beam:	9.7 m (31 ft 10 in)
Draught:	3.3 m (10 ft 10 in)
Propulsion:	4 × charcoal steam boilers 2 × 3-cylinder steam engines (1344 psi) 2 × 3-blade 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) propellers
Speed:	13.5 knots (15.5 mph; 25.0 km/h)
Range:	3,400 nmi (6,300 km) at 9 kn (10 mph; 17 km/h)
Complement:	121
Armament:	• 2 × 105 mm (4 in) L/40 SK guns (range 12,200 m, 482 rounds) • 6 × 37 mm (1.5 in) cannons

SMS Panther was one of six gunboats of the Iltis-class of the Kaiserliche Marine and, like her sister ships, 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.

[edit] Service history

In 1905, the Panther was deployed to the Brazilian Port of Itajahy, where her crew conducted an unauthorized search and the kidnapping of a German dissident on Brazilian soil. This incident became known as the "Panther Affair" ("Caso Panther"). ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]}

The Panther became notorious in 1911 when she was deployed to the Moroccan 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.

The ship was scrapped in 1931.

[edit] See also

• Agadir Crisis
• List of naval ships of Germany

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• SMS Panther - Kanonenboot der Kaiserlichen Marine (German)
• Chronique des Faits Internationaux (Allemagne et Bresil) 200-206 (French)
• A noite em que a Alemanha invadiu o porto de Itajai (Portuguese)

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