SMS Regensburg"SMS" stands for "Seiner Majestät Schiff", or "His Majesty's Ship" in German. was a light cruiser

Light cruiser

A light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck...

 built for the German

German Empire

The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...

 Imperial Navy

Kaiserliche Marine

The Imperial German Navy was the German Navy created at the time of the formation of the German Empire. It existed between 1871 and 1919, growing out of the small Prussian Navy and Norddeutsche Bundesmarine, which primarily had the mission of coastal defense. Kaiser Wilhelm II greatly expanded...

 by AG Weser

AG Weser

Aktien-Gesellschaft Weser was one of the great German shipbuilding companies, located at the Weser River in Bremen. Founded in 1873 it was finally closed in 1983. Altogether, AG Weser built about 1400 ships of different types, including many war ships...

 in Bremen

Bremen

The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...

 shortly before World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. She was laid down in 1912, launched on 25 April 1914, and completed by 3 January 1915. Regensburg served in the Scouting Group of the High Seas Fleet

High Seas Fleet

The High Seas Fleet was the battle fleet of the German Empire and saw action during World War I. The formation was created in February 1907, when the Home Fleet was renamed as the High Seas Fleet. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was the architect of the fleet; he envisioned a force powerful enough to...

 during the war. She was ceded to France in 1920 and renamed Strasbourg. In 1928 she took part in the Arctic rescue operations searching for the Airship Italia

Airship Italia

Airship Italia was a semi-rigid airship used by Italian engineer Umberto Nobile in his second series of flights around the North Pole.-Design and specifications:...

. In 1940 she was recaptured by the Germans at Brest. She was scrapped in 1944.

Dimensions and machinery

Regensburg was 139 m at the waterline, and 142.2 m overall. The ship had a beam of 13.7 m, a draught of 5.79 m, and displaced 4,900 tonne

Tonne

The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...

s with a normal load, and 6,191 tonnes at full load. She had the typical propulsion system for German light cruisers at the time: 2 shaft Navy turbines, which delivered 26,000 shp, and a top speed of 27.5 knots.

Armament

Graudenz had a primary armament of twelve 105mm (4.1in) SK L/45 Cal. guns placed in single mounts.In Imperial German Navy gun nomenclature, "SK" (Schnelladekanone) denotes that the gun is quick loading, while the L/45 denotes the length of the gun. In this case, the L/45 gun is 45 calibers, meaning that the gun is 45 times long as it is in diameter. The guns fired a 38.5 lb shell at a muzzle velocity of 2329 feet per second. The guns could be elevated to 30 degrees, for a maximum range of 13,900 yards. The ship also carried two 500mm (19.7in) torpedo tubes. During the First World War, the ship's 105mm guns were replaced with seven 150mm (5.9in) guns and two 88mm (3.4in) anti-aircraft guns. During the rearmament, Graudenz was also given the capability to carry and deploy 120 mines

Naval mine

A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, an enemy vessel...

.

Armor

The ship had an armored belt that ranged in thickness from a half inch to 2.5 inches thick. The thicker portions of the belt protected important areas of the ship, such as the ammunition magazines, while less critical areas, such as the bow and stern, received much less armor protection. The deck was protected by armor ranging in thickness from 1 inch to 2.5 inches.