SMS Freya (1897)

SMS Freya was a protected cruiser of the Victoria Louise class, built for the German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) in the 1890s, along with her sister ships Victoria Louise, Hertha, Vineta, and Hansa. Freya was laid down at the Imperial Dockyard in Danzig in 1895, launched in April 1897, and commissioned into the Navy in October 1898. The ship was armed with a battery of two 21 cm guns and eight 15 cm guns and had a top speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph). Though the five Victoria Louise-class cruisers proved to be disappointing in some ways, they marked the beginning of a decade of German cruiser construction.

Freya served as a gunnery training ship for the German fleet for the initial years of her career, unlike her sister ships, all of which served abroad on foreign stations. As a result, she led a fairly uneventful career; in addition to conducting shooting practice, she also participated in training exercises with the fleet between 1901 and 1904. After a modernization in 1905–1907, Freya was used as a school ship for cadets, and over the next several years embarked on training cruises. Two major cruises to the Mediterranean took place in 1908 and 1909, and in 1910, Freya crossed the Atlantic to visit Mexico, along with islands in the Caribbean Sea.

Another major refit followed between 1911 and 1913, after which she was placed in the reserve fleet. At the outbreak of World War I, Freya was mobilized into V Scouting Group, but served in front-line duty only briefly. After a serious accident that nearly sank the ship in August 1914, she was returned to use as a training ship, a role she filled for the rest of the war. She was ultimately sold for scrapping in 1921.