I would like to show a Reservistengrug from a person who served 3 years in the Imperial Navy or Kaiserliche Marine. This is the only not Bavarian Stein, that I have.
It has the typical design from this part of the Imperial Armed Forces, with the image of the ship in between 2 Sailors right in front. Another characteristic is the sailor on the top of the lid, with an Imperial German Navy flag. The design of the lid is quite elaborated, showing the German Navy during manoeuvres. In this type of Jar, it is normal to find on the sides, scenes of the soldier going to the Reserve, the sentence Es lebe der Reservemann can be found in many of the Beer Steins all across the German army.
A couple of common things that can be found in most of the Stein are; the years, when the soldier stayed in the army and the list of soldiers (or in this case, sailors), that ordered this type of Reservistenkrug as Souvenir or Erinnerung. As we can see, in this case, there were just 3 sailors, who took part on the Bierkrug.
This is a Stein from a person, who made the mandatory military service in the Aviso SMS Grille. He was one of the very last recruits to serve in this ship between 1911 and 1914, because in this year, it was taken out for good of the service. Well, for good?
But before talking about the end of this ship, let start from the beginning of “his”time in the navy, well before any victory or glorious moments, that came in the second half of the 19th Century, before the creation of the Empire itself.
The SMS Grille was launched in 1857 and commissioned a year later, on the 3rdof June 1858. It was constructed in France and made by Chantiers et Ateliers Augustin Normand. A few years later, it would fight against that same land.
A few years earlier and as the result of the first war against the Danes (First Schleswig War), the Prussian Army planned to make a stronger Fleet, as it was weaker, in comparison with the Danish one.
The SMS Grille was used as Royal Yatch and unarmed. But it was armed with 2 guns (12 Pounds) during the Second Schleswig war in 1864 and also reinforced for the French-Prussian War in 1870-1871. In both of the conflicts, it participated in some skirmishes, with no result at all, nor negative or positive. Somehow, attempted to attack minor ships, but it ended up attracting bigger, more powerful und devastating enemy ships, so it had to flee looking for safe waters. For Example, this happens in the Battle of Hiddensee, in the Baltic See, where the most powerful frigate of the French Baltic Fleet, the Ocean, was sent against “him”.
The last quarter of the 19th century brought news of the ship to be broke up., because the new Yatch, Hohenzollern entered in Service. But sometimes, there are second chances and the ship was modernized and rearmed to be valid as gun boat ship. Even took part on the attack to a Norwegian merchant ship. As explained before, SMS Grille was not the Royal Yatch anymore, but it was still been used for royal events, like a meeting with the Czar Alexander III.
Before the start of the First World War, it served as a cruise and school ship in the Baltic see, been modernized a couple of times.
As it was said at the beginning, 1914 would have been “his” last service year, but it came the war, and the SMS Grille was reactivated in 1915 to serve as tender for the SMS Freya. In this role, it was used until “his” decommission in December 1918, been sold soon after and broken up in 1920.
That was the sad end for the ship with the longest service in the Imperial Fleet.
PS: I have used “his” or “him” to refer to the ship to respect the German Grammar, which refers the ship as 3rd Person Masculine: Der Schiff.