 The unprotected cruiser Falke , which had been assigned to German Southwest Africa , was ordered to replace Sperber in November 1893 . Sperber was in turn ordered to return to Germany , and she departed the South Seas Station on 6 November . While en route , however , her orders were changed and she was instead sent to Southwest Africa . She stopped in Cape Town , South Africa for an overhaul , and finally arrived in Kamerun on 28 May 1894 . Her shallower draft , compared to her predecessor Falke , permitted her to routinely cross the sandbar in the mouth of the Kamerun River . At this time , the only other German warship on the station was the gunboat Hyäne , though the government steamer Nachtigal and the hulked gunboat Cyclop were also available in the colony . Sperber was thereafter responsible for conducting patrols of the colony . 
