SMS Niobe[a] was the second of ten Gazelle-class light cruisers that were built for the German Kaiserliche Marine ('Imperial Navy') in the late 1890s and early 1900s.

She was disarmed in 1917, but as one of the cruisers permitted to the postwar Reichsmarine (Navy of the Realm) by the Treaty of Versailles, she was modernized and rearmed in the early 1920s.

There, she was renamed Dalmacija and served in the Royal Yugoslav Navy until April 1941, when she was captured by the Italians during the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia.

She was used in the Adriatic Sea briefly until December 1943, when she ran aground on the island of Silba, and was subsequently destroyed by British motor torpedo boats.

[4] Her propulsion system consisted of two four-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines manufactured by AG Germania in Tegel, driving a pair of screw propellers.

Niobe carried 500 t (490 long tons) of coal, which gave her a range of 3,570 nautical miles (6,610 km; 4,110 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

[6] Niobe was ordered under the contract name "B" and was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen on 30 August 1898 and launched on 18 July 1899, after which fitting-out work commenced.

Named after Niobe, a figure from Greek mythology, she was commissioned on 25 June 1900 to begin sea trials, which lasted until 22 August.

On 11 April 1901, the ship returned to service and was assigned as the flagship of I Torpedo-boat Flotilla on the 18th, replacing the elderly aviso Blitz, which was by then worn out.

The Navy initially planned on sending Niobe to reinforce the squadron participating in the naval blockade of Venezuela of 1902–1903, but the incident concluded before she could be sent.

On 31 January 1909, Niobe steamed out of the main German port in the region, Qingdao, and made the return voyage to Germany.

The commander of the torpedo-boat flotillas returned to Niobe on 14 January 1916, as his previous flagship, the old coastal defense ship Siegfried, was decommissioned.

Kommodore (Commodore) Ludwig von Reuter, the commander of the IV Scouting Group, and his staff briefly used Niobe as a headquarters ship, from 6 June to 3 July.

Starting on 20 August, she became the headquarters ship for now-Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) von Hipper, the commander of the I Scouting Group.

[14] The BSN remained aboard Niobe until January 1919, two months after the war ended with the Armistice; it was then transferred to the old pre-dreadnought battleship Kaiser Wilhelm II, also in use as a headquarters ship.

[13] Niobe was among the ships permitted by the Treaty of Versailles after the end of the war, and so she continued on in service with the newly reorganized Reichsmarine.

[15] The copper sheathing of her hull was a significant factor in the purchase, as naval infrastructure in the new state was very limited, and it was not expected that she could be dry docked regularly.

[17] There, she was rebuilt as a training cruiser, based on a design developed by a KSCS naval commission, with the work supervised by the Dutch Piet van Wienen Company, which had also been responsible for the negotiating the purchase contract.

[16] She was renamed Dalmacija (Dalmatia), and also received her new armament before she entered Royal Yugoslav Navy service, though the details are uncertain.

[17] According to the naval historian Zvonimir Freivogel, six Škoda M27 8.35 cm (3.29 in) L/55 anti-aircraft guns were ordered in Czechoslovakia and fitted by the arsenal in Tivat.

These open sponson mounts were below main deck level and had an outward folding plate that allowed the crew to serve the gun from all sides.

[22] In 1930, the ship underwent a minor refit and her foremast was modified, including by the addition of supporting struts that converted it into a tripod mast.

Some forty years old by that time, the ship was kept in port as a harbor defense vessel, since her relatively heavy anti-aircraft armament could be used to defend against air attacks.

[23] Early on 6 April, the first day of the invasion, Dalmacija steamed to a position within the Bay of Kotor between the towns of Perast and Prčanj and engaged Axis aircraft.

[24] Cattaro served as a target ship for the submarine school at Pola and Italian torpedo bombers based at Gorizia.

[27] On 31 July 1942, the cruiser was attacked by the British submarine HMS Traveller south of the village of Premantura on the Istrian coast, but all of the torpedoes missed.

[28][29] In May 1943, the ship shelled Yugoslav Partisan positions near Karlobag, along with the armed steamship Jadera, and the artillery pontoon GM 240 towed by the tug Ponderoso.

She returned to German service in September 1943 after Italy surrendered to the Allies, which significantly reduced the warships operating in the Adriatic Sea.

[21] Aidan Dodson concurs that the ship remained in Italian hands until their surrender, and states that she was undergoing boiler repairs at Pola at the time.

[29] According to Freivogel, the reported names Znajm, Zniam, and Znijam do not mean anything in the Croatian language, and there was probably a confusion with the minelayer Zmaj or Zenta.