they were concluded by a visit of the fleet to Kirkwall in Orkney. The squadron returned to Kiel in early June, where preparations were under way for the opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal. Tactical exercises were carried out in Kiel Bay in the presence of foreign delegations to the opening ceremony. On 28 June, an explosion occurred on one of the ship's pinnaces killing seven crewmen and badly injuring the future VAdm Wilhelm Starke. Further training exercises lasted until 1 July, when I Division began a voyage into the Atlantic Ocean. This operation had political motives; Germany had only been able to send a small contingent of vessels—the protected cruiser , the coastal defense ship , and the screw frigate —to an international naval demonstration off the Moroccan coast at the same time. The main fleet could therefore provide moral support to the demonstration by steaming to Spanish waters. Rough weather again allowed and her sister ships to demonstrate their excellent seakeeping. The fleet departed Vigo and stopped in Queenstown, Ireland. Wilhelm II, aboard his yacht , attended the Cowes Regatta while the rest of the fleet stayed off the Isle of Wight. On 10 August, the fleet returned to Wilhelmshaven and began preparations for the autumn maneuvers later that month. The first exercises began in the Heligoland Bight on 25 August. The fleet then steamed through the Skagerrak to the Baltic; heavy storms caused significant damage to many of the ships and the torpedo boat capsized and sank in the storms—only three men were saved. The fleet stayed briefly in Kiel before resuming exercises, including live-fire exercises, in the Kattegat and the Great Belt. The main maneuvers began on 7 September with a mock attack from Kiel toward the eastern Baltic. Subsequent maneuvers took place off the coast of Pomerania and in Danzig Bay. A fleet review for Wilhelm II off Jershöft concluded the maneuvers on 14 September. went into drydock for periodic maintenance on 1 October. The ironclad temporarily replaced her as flagship until the work was completed on 20 October. The rest of the year was spent on individual ship training, with the exception of a short trip to Gothenburg from 5 to 9 November. Only three other ships accompanied on this visit: the ironclads and and the aviso . On 9 December, the squadron commander shifted his flag to while went into drydock for an