SMS Camaeleon was an ironclad gunboat of the Wespe class built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the 1870s.

The ships, which were armed with a single 30.5 cm (12 in) MRK L/22 gun, were intended to serve as part of a coastal defense fleet.

The decision was finalized based on the fleet plan conceived by General Albrecht von Stosch, the new Chief of the Kaiserliche Admiralität (Imperial Admiralty), in the early 1870s.

He envisioned a fleet oriented on defense of Germany's Baltic and North Sea coasts, which would be led by the ironclad corvettes of the Sachsen class.

The ship was fitted with a waterline armor belt that was 102 to 203 mm (4 to 8 in) thick, with the thickest section protecting the propulsion machinery spaces and ammunition magazine.

Alexander Georg Mosle, the director of the shipyard and also a member of the Reichstag (Imperial Diet), gave a speech during the launching ceremony.

After trials were completed, the navy decided to station Camaleon in the Baltic Sea, and so on 8 September, she left to sail around Denmark.

[6] The ship next commissioned on 22 April 1884 for training exercises with the newly created Armored Gunboat Flotilla, which was led by the aviso Grille.

She was decommissioned there on 4 September for the work, and she was assigned to the Marinestation der Nordsee (North Sea Naval Station) at that time.