 On 27 January 1907 , Sperber was present in Lomé for the opening of the first railroad line in German Togoland . Between 1908 and 1909 , she conducted an extensive survey of the west @-@ African coast . In February 1909 , she visited the ruins of Groß Friedrichsburg , the old capital of the Brandenburger Gold Coast , a colony founded by Frederick William I of Prussia in the 17th century . She thereafter returned to survey work in Kamerun and Southwest Africa . On 6 March 1910 , she was transferred to German East Africa to replace Bussard . While en route , her crew helped to put out a major fire in Lüderitz Bay on 15 April . After arriving in East Africa , Sperber conducted the normal routine of visiting ports in the colony . She went to Cape Town for an overhaul from 26 October to 3 December . On 6 March 1911 , she received orders to return to Germany for a second time . She arrived in Wilhelmshaven on 29 June , and was decommissioned again on 6 July . She was stricken from the naval register on 16 March 1912 and was thereafter used as a target ship until 1918 . She was sold on 7 August 1920 and broken up for scrap in Hamburg in 1922 . 
