SMS Hela

SMS Hela was an aviso of the German Imperial Navy prior to and during World War I. The only ship of her class, Hela was launched on 28 March 1895 in Bremen. She was named after the Hela peninsula near Danzig (present-day Gdańsk). Hela was lightly armed for a light cruiser; her main armament consisted of just four 8.8-centimeter (3.5 in) guns. In 1899 she was re-classified to a light cruiser.

In 1900–1901, Hela was deployed to China during the Boxer Rebellion. She participated in extensive fleet maneuvers in 1902, before being significantly rebuilt from 1903–1906. From 1910, Hela was used as a fleet tender. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, she was put back into active service as a support ship for the torpedo boats stationed off Helgoland. On 13 September 1914, Hela was torpedoed and sunk by the British submarine HMS E9; two of her crew died.

Design

Hela was the culmination in the development of the aviso type in the Imperial German Navy. German avisos were developed from earlier torpedo boats and were intended for use in home waters with the fleet. The first aviso, Zieten, was purchased from a British shipbuilder in 1875; seven more ships were built in German yards before Hela was laid down in 1893. The aviso type culminated in what would later be referred to as the light cruiser; Hela's successors, the Gazelle-class cruisers, were the first true light cruisers built.