SMS Wörth
Encyclopedia
SMS Wörth was one of four German
pre-dreadnought
battleship
s of the Brandenburg class
, built in the early 1890s. The ships were the first ocean-going battleships built by the Kaiserliche Marine
(Imperial Navy). Wörth was laid down at the Germaniawerft
dockyard in Kiel
in May 1890. The ship was launched on 6 August 1892 and commissioned into the fleet on 31 October 1893. Wörth and her three sisters were unique for their time in that they carried six heavy guns instead of the standard four in other navies. She was named for the Battle of Wörth at the start of the Franco-Prussian War
of 1870–71.
Wörth took part in the German naval expedition to China in 1900 to suppress the Boxer Rebellion
, though by the time the fleet reached China the siege of Peking had already been lifted. As a result, the ship saw little direct action in China. Obsolete by the start of World War I, Wörth, along with her sister ship Brandenburg
, served in a limited capacity in the Imperial German Navy, primarily as barracks ships. Following the end of the war, the Wörth was scrapped in the port of Danzig.
in 1890. Initial work on the ship proceeded the slowest of all four vessels of the class; her hull was not launched until 6 August 1892, more than two-thirds of a year after the other three ships. However, fitting out work proceeded quickly, and she was commissioned on 31 October 1893, the first ship of the class to enter active duty.
The ship was 115.7 metre long, with a beam
of 19.5 metre and a draft of 7.6 metre. Wörth displaced 10013 t (9,854.8 LT) as designed, and up to 10670 t (10,501.5 LT) at full combat load. She was equipped with two sets of 3-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engines that produced 10000 ihp and a top speed of 16.9 knots on trials. Steam was provided by twelve transverse cylindrical boiler
s. She had a maximum range of 4300 nautical miles (7,963.6 km) at a cruising speed of 10 knots.
Wörth was armed with a main battery of six 28 cm (11 in) guns of two types. The forward and rear turret guns were 40 caliber
s long, while the amidships guns were only 35 calibers; this was necessary to allow them to train to either side of the ship. Her secondary armament initially consisted of seven 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns, though an additional gun was added during the modernization in 1901. She also carried eight 8.8 cm (3.45 in) guns and six 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes.
. The senior watch officer aboard the ship in 1894 was Franz von Hipper
, who went on to command the German battlecruiser squadron during World War I and later the entire High Seas Fleet
. Wörth represented Germany during the Fleet Review for Queen Victoria in 1897.
On 25 November 1899, Wörth was conducting gunnery training in the Bay of Eckernförde
when she struck a rock. The rock tore a 22 ft (6.7 m) wide hole in the hull which flooded three of her watertight compartments. The ship was sent to Wilhelmshaven
for repair work. Before repairs could be begun, about 500 t (492.1 LT) of coal had to be unloaded to lighten the ship. Temporary steel plates were riveted to cover the hole on the starboard side, while the hull plates on the port side had to be re-riveted. The work was completed in time for the ship to join the fleet for the annual training cruise to Norway one week later.
in 1900, Chinese nationalists laid siege to the foreign embassies in Peking and murdered Baron Clemens von Ketteler, the German minister. The widespread violence against Westerners in China led to a creation of an alliance between Germany and seven other Great Powers: the United Kingdom, Italy, Russia, Austria-Hungary, the United States, France, and Japan. Those soldiers who were in China at the time were too few in number to defeat the Boxers; in Peking there was a force of slightly more than 400 officers and infantry from the armies of the eight European powers. At the time, the primary German military force in China was the East Asia Squadron
, which consisted of the protected cruiser
s , , and , the small cruisers and , and the gunboats and . There was also a German 500-man detachment in Taku; combined with the other nations' units the force numbered some 2,100 men.
These 2,100 men, led by the British Admiral Edward Seymour
, attempted to reach Peking but due to heavy resistance were forced to stop in Tientsin. As a result, the Kaiser determined an expeditionary force would be sent to China to reinforce the East Asia Squadron. Hela was part of the naval expedition, which included the four pre-dreadnought battleships, sent to China to reinforce the German flotilla there. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz
opposed the plan, which he saw as unnecessary and costly. The force was sent in spite of von Tirpitz's objections; it arrived in China in September 1900. By that time, the siege of Peking had already been lifted. As a result, the task force suppressed local uprisings around Kiaochow. In the end, the operation cost the German government more than 100 million marks.
Following her return from China in 1901, Wörth was taken into the drydocks at the Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven for a major reconstruction. Her sisters followed suit: Weißenburg went in 1902, Brandenburg in 1903, and Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm entered the shipyard in 1904. During the modernization, a second conning tower was added in the aft superstructure, along with a gangway. Wörth and the other ships had their boilers replaced with newer models, and also had the hamper amidships reduced.
After emerging from the dry dock after modernization, Wörth and the other Brandenburg class battleships were assigned to the II Battle Squadron of the fleet and replaced the old s and the armored frigates and . The s, which began to enter service in 1906, replaced Wörth and her three sister-ships in the battle fleet. Wörth and Brandenburg were put into reserve, joining the Siegfried class ships. Wörths other sisters, Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm and Weißenburg, were sold to the Ottoman Empire in 1910.
. Both Wörth and Brandenburg were struck from the naval register on 13 May 1919 and sold for scrapping. The two ships were purchased by Norddeutsche Tiefbauges, a shipbreaking firm headquartered in Berlin. Wörth was then broken up for scrap in Danzig.
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...
pre-dreadnought
Pre-dreadnought
Pre-dreadnought battleship is the general term for all of the types of sea-going battleships built between the mid-1890s and 1905. Pre-dreadnoughts replaced the ironclad warships of the 1870s and 1880s...
battleship
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
s of the Brandenburg class
Brandenburg class battleship
The four Brandenburg-class pre-dreadnought battleships were Germany's first ocean-going battleships. They were also the first German warship, of any type, to be fitted with wireless communications. The class comprised , , , and . All were laid down in 1890 and completed by 1893, except for...
, built in the early 1890s. The ships were the first ocean-going battleships built by the Kaiserliche Marine
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...
(Imperial Navy). Wörth was laid down at the Germaniawerft
Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft
Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft was a German shipbuilding company, located in the harbour at Kiel, and one of the largest and most important builders of U-boats for the Kaiserliche Marine in World War I and the Kriegsmarine in World War II.-History:The company was founded in 1867 by Lloyd Foster, as...
dockyard in Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
in May 1890. The ship was launched on 6 August 1892 and commissioned into the fleet on 31 October 1893. Wörth and her three sisters were unique for their time in that they carried six heavy guns instead of the standard four in other navies. She was named for the Battle of Wörth at the start of the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
of 1870–71.
Wörth took part in the German naval expedition to China in 1900 to suppress the Boxer Rebellion
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also called the Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" , or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" , in China between...
, though by the time the fleet reached China the siege of Peking had already been lifted. As a result, the ship saw little direct action in China. Obsolete by the start of World War I, Wörth, along with her sister ship Brandenburg
SMS Brandenburg
SMS Brandenburg was the lead ship of the Brandenburg-class pre-dreadnought battleships, which included , , and built for the German Kaiserliche Marine in the early 1890s. She was the first pre-dreadnought built for the German Navy; earlier, the Navy had only built coastal defense ships and...
, served in a limited capacity in the Imperial German Navy, primarily as barracks ships. Following the end of the war, the Wörth was scrapped in the port of Danzig.
Construction
Wörth was ordered as battleship B, and was laid down at Germaniawerft in KielKiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
in 1890. Initial work on the ship proceeded the slowest of all four vessels of the class; her hull was not launched until 6 August 1892, more than two-thirds of a year after the other three ships. However, fitting out work proceeded quickly, and she was commissioned on 31 October 1893, the first ship of the class to enter active duty.
The ship was 115.7 metre long, with a beam
Beam (nautical)
The beam of a ship is its width at the widest point. Generally speaking, the wider the beam of a ship , the more initial stability it has, at expense of reserve stability in the event of a capsize, where more energy is required to right the vessel from its inverted position...
of 19.5 metre and a draft of 7.6 metre. Wörth displaced 10013 t (9,854.8 LT) as designed, and up to 10670 t (10,501.5 LT) at full combat load. She was equipped with two sets of 3-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engines that produced 10000 ihp and a top speed of 16.9 knots on trials. Steam was provided by twelve transverse cylindrical boiler
Boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications.-Materials:...
s. She had a maximum range of 4300 nautical miles (7,963.6 km) at a cruising speed of 10 knots.
Wörth was armed with a main battery of six 28 cm (11 in) guns of two types. The forward and rear turret guns were 40 caliber
Caliber (artillery)
In artillery, caliber or calibredifference in British English and American English spelling is the internal diameter of a gun barrel, or by extension a relative measure of the length....
s long, while the amidships guns were only 35 calibers; this was necessary to allow them to train to either side of the ship. Her secondary armament initially consisted of seven 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns, though an additional gun was added during the modernization in 1901. She also carried eight 8.8 cm (3.45 in) guns and six 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes.
Service history
Wörth was assigned to the I Division of the I Battle Squadron upon her commissioning, alongside her three sisters. The squadron was completed with the four older s, though by 1901–2, the Sachsens were replaced by the new s. After she joined the fleet, Wörth was commanded by Prince HeinrichPrince Heinrich of Prussia
Prince Henry of Prussia was a younger brother of German Emperor William II and a Prince of Prussia...
. The senior watch officer aboard the ship in 1894 was Franz von Hipper
Franz von Hipper
Franz Ritter von Hipper was an admiral in the German Imperial Navy . Franz von Hipper joined the German Navy in 1881 as an officer cadet. He commanded several torpedo boat units and served as watch officer aboard several warships, as well as Kaiser Wilhelm II's yacht Hohenzollern...
, who went on to command the German battlecruiser squadron during World War I and later the entire 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...
. Wörth represented Germany during the Fleet Review for Queen Victoria in 1897.
On 25 November 1899, Wörth was conducting gunnery training in the Bay of Eckernförde
Eckernförde
Eckernförde is a German city in Schleswig-Holstein, Kreis Rendsburg-Eckernförde at the Baltic Sea near Kiel. The population is about 23,000.All German submarines are stationed in Eckernförde....
when she struck a rock. The rock tore a 22 ft (6.7 m) wide hole in the hull which flooded three of her watertight compartments. The ship was sent to Wilhelmshaven
Wilhelmshaven
Wilhelmshaven is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea.-History:...
for repair work. Before repairs could be begun, about 500 t (492.1 LT) of coal had to be unloaded to lighten the ship. Temporary steel plates were riveted to cover the hole on the starboard side, while the hull plates on the port side had to be re-riveted. The work was completed in time for the ship to join the fleet for the annual training cruise to Norway one week later.
Boxer Rebellion
During the Boxer RebellionBoxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also called the Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" , or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" , in China between...
in 1900, Chinese nationalists laid siege to the foreign embassies in Peking and murdered Baron Clemens von Ketteler, the German minister. The widespread violence against Westerners in China led to a creation of an alliance between Germany and seven other Great Powers: the United Kingdom, Italy, Russia, Austria-Hungary, the United States, France, and Japan. Those soldiers who were in China at the time were too few in number to defeat the Boxers; in Peking there was a force of slightly more than 400 officers and infantry from the armies of the eight European powers. At the time, the primary German military force in China was the East Asia Squadron
German East Asia Squadron
The German East Asia Squadron was a German Navy cruiser squadron which operated mainly in the Pacific Ocean between the 1870s and 1914...
, which consisted of the protected cruiser
Protected cruiser
The protected cruiser is a type of naval cruiser of the late 19th century, so known because its armoured deck offered protection for vital machine spaces from shrapnel caused by exploding shells above...
s , , and , the small cruisers and , and the gunboats and . There was also a German 500-man detachment in Taku; combined with the other nations' units the force numbered some 2,100 men.
These 2,100 men, led by the British Admiral Edward Seymour
Edward Hobart Seymour
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Edward Hobart Seymour, GCB, OM, GCVO , was a Royal Navy officer who became Commander-in-Chief, China Station.- Early life :...
, attempted to reach Peking but due to heavy resistance were forced to stop in Tientsin. As a result, the Kaiser determined an expeditionary force would be sent to China to reinforce the East Asia Squadron. Hela was part of the naval expedition, which included the four pre-dreadnought battleships, sent to China to reinforce the German flotilla there. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz
Alfred von Tirpitz
Alfred von Tirpitz was a German Admiral, Secretary of State of the German Imperial Naval Office, the powerful administrative branch of the German Imperial Navy from 1897 until 1916. Prussia never had a major navy, nor did the other German states before the German Empire was formed in 1871...
opposed the plan, which he saw as unnecessary and costly. The force was sent in spite of von Tirpitz's objections; it arrived in China in September 1900. By that time, the siege of Peking had already been lifted. As a result, the task force suppressed local uprisings around Kiaochow. In the end, the operation cost the German government more than 100 million marks.
Reconstruction and later service
After emerging from the dry dock after modernization, Wörth and the other Brandenburg class battleships were assigned to the II Battle Squadron of the fleet and replaced the old s and the armored frigates and . The s, which began to enter service in 1906, replaced Wörth and her three sister-ships in the battle fleet. Wörth and Brandenburg were put into reserve, joining the Siegfried class ships. Wörths other sisters, Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm and Weißenburg, were sold to the Ottoman Empire in 1910.
World War I
At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Wörth was assigned to coastal defense duties along with Brandenburg. Due to the age of the ships, this lasted only until 1915, when they were withdrawn from active service. That year, both ships were put into service as barracks ships; Wörth was stationed in Danzig while Brandenburg was placed in LibauLiepaja
Liepāja ; ), is a republican city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea directly at 21°E. It is the largest city in the Kurzeme Region of Latvia, the third largest city in Latvia after Riga and Daugavpils and an important ice-free port...
. Both Wörth and Brandenburg were struck from the naval register on 13 May 1919 and sold for scrapping. The two ships were purchased by Norddeutsche Tiefbauges, a shipbreaking firm headquartered in Berlin. Wörth was then broken up for scrap in Danzig.