Laid down on 24 August 1850 at the yard of J.W. Klawitter at Danzig using a design of the British engineer John Scott Russell (1) as the first steamship for the Prussian navy. Klawitter used the wood for her hull from the environments of Danzig, although the needed iron was imported from England. She was to be build in United Kingdom but prince Adalbert (2), the great man behind the Prussian navy ordered that she was build in Prussia. The Danzig was completed in June 1853 and finally stricken on 1 September 1862 and sold to the British firm Dorset and Blythe for the sum of56,000 taler. Since 1859 was she in worse condition and unserviceable with badly damaged hull caused by dry rot. As the Eagle she steamed towards the United Kingdom where she was sold to Japan and commissioned as the Kaiten Maru in the Japanese Imperial navy. Beached at the Aomori Bay near Hakodate on 6 May 1869 and burned by her crew on 20 June to prevent her being captured.
With a displacement of 710 long tons/721 tons were her dimensions 68,4 x 10,6 metres or 224’5”x 34’9”. Her engine provided 400 ihp allowing a speed of 12 knots while she was also full rigged. In German service numbered her crew 153 men and was she armed with 13 guns. In July 1853 were 10-68pdrs at Deptford loaded on board as part of her armament.
Notes
1. (Parkhead, Glasgow 9 May 1808- Ventnor, Isle of Wight 8 June 1882) builder of the famous British merchant steamship Great Eastern.
2. Heinrich Wilhelm Adalbert prince of Prussia (Berlin 29 October 1811-Karlsbad 6 June 1873) was an admiral until 1871 and well known with naval theories, author of Denkschrift über die Bildung einer deutsche Flotte published in 1848, founder of the first real German fleet dating from 1858 and became in 1850’s involved in establishing the navy of Prussia.
