Built as a wooden screw frigate on the Königliche Werft at Danzig for the German Imperial Navy.
1866 Keel laid down
10 October 1868 launched under the name S.M.S. ELIZABETH, three sisters the ARCONA, GAZELLE and HERTHA.
Displacement; 2.468 ton, dim. 79.3 x 13 x 7.5m. Length on waterline 71.5m. Draught 6.4m. (Navicula gives a beam of 5.5m, which must be wrong.)
Powered by a 2-cyl expansion steam engine, 2.440 ihp., speed 10 knots, retractable screw.
Armament in 1869; 26 – 68pdrs smooth bore ML guns.
Crew 390.
Her oaken hull was copper sheated against the teredo worm.
Ship rigged. Sail area 2.200m².
28 Sept. 1869 she carried the Prussian Crown Prince Wilhelm for a Mediterranean cruise and Port Said for the opening ceremony of the Suez Canal, returned home 23 April 1870.
1870 Her armament replaced by 19 – 15cm breech loading Krupp guns. Two of the guns were later replaced by 12 – 5cm guns and 2 – 3.7cm guns.
18 July 1870 till 21 April 1871, German-Franco war, she took not part in any battle during this war.
01 Oct. 1872 till 01 May 1875 oversea service. 1872 in the West Indies waters. 1873 Served in the Spanish Civil War. 1874 In China and Japan.
1875 till 1876 refitted at Danzig, new boilers installed.
01 Oct. 1876 till 02 Nov. 1878, overseas service.
1876 Visited the Cabo Verde and Cape Town. 1877 in Singapore, Sulu and Japan.
1878 Hawaii, on the west coast of Middle America, her crew were used as a landings corps in Corinto, then to Montevideo.
01 October 1881 till 13 October 1883 oversea service at South America, Japan, China and West Africa.
16 April 1884 till 13 April 1886 in oversea service, on 07 August 1884 at the flag raising ceremony at Angra Pequena, South West Africa together with the SMS LEIPZIG.
03 November 1884 the German flag was raised in Friederich-Wilhelms-Hafen, German New Guinea and in some other ports along the coast.
1885 Visited China and Zanzibar. 1886 Again in Montevideo.
01 October 1886 till 29 April 1887, torpedo school ship at Kiel.
20 September 1987 stricken from the Navy list.
1887 till 1888, accommodation ship for torpedo boat crews.
1888 till 1903, hulked and used as school ship for stokers and engineers at Kiel.
1904 Sold for 83.000 Mark for scrap and scrapped at Stettin.
On Papua New Guinea 1984 45t sg 490
Source: Navicula.