SMS Scorpion (1860)

Scorpion's sister Fuchs
History
NameScorpion
Operator
BuilderDomcke, Grabow
Laid down1859
Launched14 February 1860
Commissioned25 June 1861
Decommissioned24 May 1871
Stricken9 January 1877
General characteristics
TypeGunboat
Displacement
Length41.2 m (135 ft 2 in)
Beam6.69 m (21 ft 11 in)
Draft2.2 m (7 ft 3 in)
Installed power
Propulsion
Speed9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph)
Complement
  • 2 officers
  • 38 enlisted
Armament
  • 1 × 24-pounder gun
  • 2 × 12-pounder guns

SMS Scorpion was a steam gunboat of the Jäger class 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 very little activity during her career. She was activated during the Second Schleswig War against Denmark in 1864, and she saw brief action during the Battle of Jasmund on 17 March. Scorpion was commissioned during the Austro-Prussian War in 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, but she did not engage any enemy forces during either conflict. The navy disposed of the ship in 1877 and she was later used as a coal storage barge. Her ultimate fate is unknown.