SMS Jäger

SMS Jäger was the lead ship of the Jäger class of steam gunboats built for the Prussian Navy in the late 1850s and early 1860s. The ship was ordered as part of a program to strengthen Prussia's coastal defense forces, then oriented against neighboring Denmark. She was armed with a battery of three guns. The ship saw limited time in service. She was activated during the Second Schleswig War in 1864 and saw brief action against Danish naval forces in July. Jäger next recommissioned at the start of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, and was stationed in the mouth of the Elbe river, but she saw no combat with French forces. In poor condition by that time, Jäger was struck from the naval register in 1872. She was initially used as a target ship and later a coal storage hulk. The ship was eventually broken up in the early 1880s.