abstract
| - SMS Geier was an unprotected cruiser of the Bussard class built for the German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine). She was laid down in 1893 at the Imperial Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven, launched in October 1894, and commissioned into the fleet a year later in October 1895. She was equipped with a main battery of eight guns and had a top speed of . Geier spent the majority of her career on foreign stations, including the Caribbean and African stations. At the outbreak of World War I, the ship was in Singapore; she left the port and evaded the Allied warships searching for German raiders for several months. While at sea, she captured one British freighter, but did not sink her. In need of engine repairs and coal, Geier put into the then-neutral United States port at Honolulu, Hawaii in October 1914, where she was interned. After the American entrance into the war in April 1917, the US Navy seized Geier and commissioned her as USS Schurz and placed her on convoy duty. She was ultimately sunk following a collision off the coast of North Carolina.
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