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.

Wespe saw little active service after her initial sea trials in 1877, being commissioned for short training periods in 1880, 1881, and 1885.

In 1911, she was sold to the Dutch firm Hollandsche Aanneming Maatschappij and converted into a cutter suction dredger.

While being towed from the Dutch East Indies to Australia in 1926, she sank in a storm off Newcastle, New South Wales; all three of her crew survived.

Through the 1860s, the Federal Convention examined various proposals, which included plans to build at least eight vessels, to as many as eighteen armored warships.

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 Wespes were intended to beach themselves on the sandbars along the German coastline to serve as semi-mobile coastal artillery batteries.

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.

From 1892 to 1894, she was modernized with a new, armored conning tower and an additional two 8.7 cm (3.4 in) L/24 built-up guns and a pair of 37 mm (1.5 in) Hotchkiss revolver cannon.

[5][6] In 1911, Wespe was converted into a cutter suction dredger and sold into commercial service with the Hollandsche Aanneming Maatschappij, where she was renamed H.A.M.