Laid down in 1902 at the yard of F. Schichau, Elbing and launched in 26 August 1903 and transported to China where she was reassembled at Shanghai and commissioned on 28 May 1904. On 8 February 1914 sold in the latter town to a so-called private company to prevent that she fell in Chinese hands. She was renamed Landesvater but despite the sell was she still captured by the Chinese on 20 March 1917. As the Li Sui was she added to the Amur flotilla, in 1932 added to the Manchukuo navy, transferred to the Japanese navy and again renamed now Ju Sui. In Japanase navy was she rebuilt and her displacement was now 350 tons. In 1942 was she decommissioned and broken up. Although it’s claimed that she survived even the Second World War while returning to Hamburg, Germany in 1943, rebuilt in 1952 and renamed Batavia and still existing.
In German service numbered her crew 58 men including around 11 Chinese sailors. Her displacement was 223 (waterline)-280 (maximum) ton with as dimensions 50,1 (over all)-48,0 (waterline) x 8,0 x 0,94 (maximum) metres. The expansion engine supplied 1,300 hp driving 2 screws allowing a speed of 13 knots while she had a coil bunker capacity of 85 tons allowing with a speed of 9 knots a range of 1,630 nautical miles. The armament in German service consisted of 1-8,8cm quick firing gun and 1-5cm quick firing gun. The thickness of the steel armour was 8-12mm.
Jane’s Fighting ships for 1944-1945 mentioned that she was still in service of the navy of Manchuria as the Lisui (her Japanese name was Risui) with a full load displacement of 350 tons and as dimensions 164 x 26¼ x 2 3/5’. The armament consisted of 2 guns and 2 machine guns. The triple expansion engine supplied 1,380 ihp allowing a speed of 13 knots during the trials but in 1944-1945 was her speed reduced to just 7 knots. The boilers were manufactured by Schulz.
See also the websites http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Vaterland, http://www.deutsche-schutzgebiete.de/sms_vaterland_flusskanonenboot.htm and http://www.hmsfalcon.com/foreign/foreign.htm
The following photo can be find on the website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SMS_Vaterland.jpg
