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Source: L ILLUSTRATION N°2790 DU 15.08.1896 See original French document here. THE SINKING OF THE “JLTIS” The German gunboat lltis was lost on July 23 last in the Yellow Sea, following a violent typhoon, about 9 miles from the cape designated on the maps by the name of Southeast-Promontory, near the town of Tsi-Hi-Fou. Lieutenant Otto Braun, commander of the gunboat, all the officers and sixty-three sailors perished in this lamentable catastrophe. Commander Braun, was a worthy officer whose loss was keenly felt by the entire German navy. The Iltis had been launched at Danzig in 1878; built in iron, it measured 42 meters between perpendiculars and 7 m. 60 wide with 3 meters of average draft. Her displacement was 489 tons and her engine power 370 stated horsepower. She had a maximum speed of 9 1/2 knots. Its armament consisted of two cannons of 12 1/2 centimeters, two of 8 centimeters and four revolvers of 37 millimeters. She was not armored and carried, in addition to her commander, 4 officers, 78 crewmen and 3 Chinese servants. Experiments made in 1893 on the stability of this small ship had given very satisfactory results. It is therefore not to a lack of stability, no more than of construction, no doubt, that we must attribute the loss of the Iltis, but rather to its small dimensions and the relative weakness of its machine which have it, put in a state of inferiority in its fight against the typhoon. As soon as the disaster was known. Lieutenant Buchard, Naval Attaché of the French Embassy in Berlin, went to Kiel on board the yacht Hohenzollem where the Emperor of Germany was, on his return from his trip to Norway. He was responsible for expressing to His Majesty the part taken by the President of the French Republic in this painful event. F.M. |