Vineta

SMS Vineta was a member of the Arcona class of steam frigates built for the Prussian Navy in the late 1850s and early 1860s. The class comprised five ships, and were the first major steam-powered warships ordered for the Prussian Navy. The ships were ordered as part of a major construction program to strengthen the nascent Prussian fleet, under the direction of Prince Adalbert, and were intended to provide defense against the Royal Danish Navy. Vineta was armed with a battery of twenty-eight guns, and was capable of steaming at a speed of 11.7 knots (21.7 km/h; 13.5 mph). Vineta was laid down in 1860, launched in 1863, and commissioned in 1864.
Completion of the ship was rushed in early 1864 in the run up to the Second Schleswig War against Denmark; the ship was still not complete at the start of the war, and so only saw brief action as a guard ship at Danzig. Vineta embarked on a major overseas voyage from 1865 to 1868, which saw the ship complete the first circumnavigation of the globe by a Prussian warship. By the time she had returned, Prussia had created the North German Confederation, a step during the unification of Germany, and as a result, Vineta passed into the North German...