SMS Eber was the last of the six gunboat

Gunboat

A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.-History:...

s of the Iltis-class of the German Imperial Navy

Imperial Navy

The phrase Imperial Navy may refer to:*The Austro-Hungarian Navy*The German Navy between 1872 and 1918*The Imperial Japanese Navy from 1869 until 1947*The Imperial Navy of Imperial Qing government*The Imperial Navy from the fictional Star Wars universe....

 prior to and during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. The others were Iltis, Jaguar, Tiger, Luchs and Panther

SMS Panther

SMS Panther was one of six gunboats of the Iltis-class of the Kaiserliche Marine and, like her sister ships, served in Germany's overseas colonies. The ship was launched on 1 April 1901 in the Kaiserliche Werft, Danzig...

. They were built between 1898 and 1903. All of them served primarily overseas, in the German colonies.

Eber was posted in West African waters when the war broke out. She met up with the German passenger liner Cap Trafalgar

SMS Cap Trafalgar

SMS Cap Trafalgar was a German auxiliary cruiser during World War I. The ship holds the dubious distinction of being the first armed merchant cruiser to have been sunk by a ship of the same class, having been destroyed in a furious action in the South Atlantic in September 1914 soon after the...

 off the Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

ian island of Trindade

Trindade and Martim Vaz

Trindade and Martim Vaz is an archipelago located about 1,200 kilometers east of Vitória in the Southern Atlantic Ocean, belonging to the State of Espírito Santo, Brazil. The archipelago has a total area of 10.4 km² and a population of 32...

 and transferred her guns, most of her ammunitions and some of her crew to the liner, which was then expected to operate as a commerce raider. Eber herself was interned in Brazil and scuttled by her crew on 16 October 1917 in Bahia

Bahia

Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...

 when Brazil joined the war against Germany.

SMS EBER, (Pacific Ocean)

A previous SMS Eber

SMS Eber (1887)

The SMS Eber, a 735-ton iron-hulled gunboat, was built at Kiel, Germany for gunboat diplomacy in the Pacific. It was a barque-rigged auxiliary steamer. After commissioning in September 1887 she was sent to the Pacific to serve in the German Colonial Empire. She disarmed the inhabitants of Nauru in...

 was wrecked by the 1889 Apia cyclone

1889 Apia cyclone

The 1889 Apia cyclone was a Pacific tropical cyclone, which swept across Apia, Samoa on March 15, 1889 during the Samoan crisis. The effect on shipping in the harbour was devastating, largely because of what has been described as 'an error of judgement that will forever remain a paradox in human...

.