SMS Natter was a steam gunboat of the Jäger class built for the Prussian Navy in the late 1850s and early 1860s.

The ship was ordered as part of a program to strengthen Prussia's coastal defense forces, then oriented against neighboring Denmark.

The Jäger class of gunboats came about as a result of a program to strengthen the Prussian Navy in the late 1850s in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Reichsflotte and in the midst of rising tensions with Denmark.

On 8 December 1863, the Prussian Navy ordered the fleet to mobilize, as tensions between Prussia and Denmark over the Schleswig–Holstein question rose sharply.

[6] Natter was commissioned for the first time on 1 March 1864, under the command of Fahnrich zur See (Ensign) Carl von Eisendecher, shortly after the start of the Second Schleswig War.

[7] Eisendecher remained aboard the ship for only a short period, and later that month he was replaced by Leutnant zur See (Lieutenant at Sea) Second Class Eduard von Knorr.

LzS Otto von Diederichs was sent to reactivate Natter that day, and the crew readied the vessel to be recommissioned on 24 July.

After arriving there, she received orders to move further east to defend the mouth of the Ems river, along with her sister Wespe.

Natter saw no combat during the war, mainly because the French squadron in the North Sea focused its attention on the area near Helgoland.