SMS Eber (1903)

SMS Eber was the last of the six gunboats of the Iltis class built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the late 1890s and early 1900s. The ships were built to modernize the German gunboat force that was used to patrol the German colonial empire. They were ordered in three groups of two ships, each pair incorporating design improvements. Eber, along with Panther, was armed with a main battery of two 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns, had a top speed of 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph), and could cruise for 3,400 nautical miles (6,300 km; 3,910 mi).

Eber was completed in 1903, but spent the next seven years in reserve. She was activated for her first overseas deployment in 1910, to be sent to patrol the colonies in German West Africa. The next four years passed largely uneventfully for Eber, though in 1911, she participated in the Agadir Crisis in Morocco. After the start of World War I in July 1914, Eber left Africa to find a German ocean liner suitable for use as an auxiliary cruiser; she met Cap Trafalgar in late August, and she transferred both of her 10.5 cm guns to Cap Trafalgar, along with most of her crew. Eber thereafter sailed for then-neutral Brazil, where she remained until the Brazilian government entered the war on the side of the Triple Entente. To prevent her capture, the ship's remaining crew scuttled the ship on 26 October.