SMS Zähringen
Encyclopedia
SMS Zähringen ("His Majesty's Ship Zähringen") was third ship of the Wittelsbach-class
of pre-dreadnought
battleship
s of the German Imperial Navy
. Laid down in 1899 at the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel
, she was launched on 12 June 1901 and commissioned on 25 October 1902. Her sisters were Wittelsbach
, Wettin
, Schwaben
and Mecklenburg
; they were the first capital ships built under the Navy Law of 1898, brought about by Admiral
Alfred von Tirpitz
.
Zähringen saw active duty in the I Squadron of the German fleet for the majority of her career. The ship was rapidly superseded by new "all-big-gun"
warships, however, and as a result served for less than eight years before being decommissioned on 21 September 1910. After the start of World War I in August 1914, Zähringen was brought back to active duty in the IV Battle Squadron. The ship saw limited duty in the Baltic Sea against Russian forces, though the threat from British submarines forced the ship to withdraw by 1916.
Zähringen was converted into a target ship in 1917 for the remainder of the war. In the mid 1920s, Zähringen was heavily reconstructed and equipped for use as a radio-controlled target ship. She served in this capacity until 1944, when she was sunk in Gotenhafen by British bombers during World War II. The retreating Germans raised the ship and moved it to the harbor mouth where they scuttled it to block the port. Zähringen was broken up in situ in 1949–50.
's Germaniawerft dockyard in Kiel
. She was ordered under the contract name "E", as a new unit for the fleet. The Wittelsbach class was the first battleship class built under the terms of the Navy Law of 1898, the chief proponent of which was Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz
. Zähringen was launched on 12 June 1901 and commissioned on 25 October 1902.
Zähringen was 126.8 metre long overall and had a beam
of 22.8 metre and a draft
of 7.95 m (26.1 ft) forward. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple expansion engines that drove three screws. Steam was provided by six naval and six cylindrical boilers. Zähringens powerplant was rated at 14000 ihp, which generated a top speed of 18 knots (9.8 m/s).
Zähringens armament consisted of a main battery of four 24 cm (9.4 in) SK L/40 guns in twin gun turret
s,In Imperial German Navy gun nomenclature, "SK" (Schnellfeuerkanone) denotes that the gun quick firing, while the L/40 denotes the length of the gun. In this case, the L/40 gun is 40 calibers, meaning that the gun is 40 as times long as it is in diameter. one fore and one aft of the central superstructure
. Her secondary armament consisted of eighteen 15 cm (5.9 inch) SK L/40 guns and twelve 8.8 cm (3.45 in) SK L/30 quick-firing guns. The armament suite was rounded out with six 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes, all in above-water swivel mounts.
s and six protected cruiser
s.
The s—the most powerful battleships yet built in Germany—were beginning to enter service by 1907. This provided the Navy with enough ships to form two full battle squadrons of eight ships each. The fleet was then renamed the Hochseeflotte (High Seas Fleet). On 21 September 1910, Zähringen was decommissioned and her crew was transferred to the new dreadnought
, which had recently been completed. In 1912, Zähringen and her sisters were recommissioned as the III Squadron of the High Seas Fleet to augment the forces available for the annual summer fleet maneuvers in the North Sea. The exercises began on 2 September and were conducted in the area between Wilhelmshaven, Helgoland, and Cuxhaven. While on maneuvers southwest of Helgoland on 14 September 1912, Zähringen accidentally rammed the torpedo boat . The torpedo boat was cut in half and quickly sank; six men drowned and a seventh died after being pulled from the sea.
By 1914, Zähringen and her sisters were removed from active service and placed in the reserve squadron. However, after the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Zähringen and the rest of her class were mobilized to serve in the IV Battle Squadron, under the command of Vice Admiral Ehrhard Schmidt. Starting on 3 September, the IV Squadron, assisted by the armored cruiser
, conducted a sweep into the Baltic. The operation lasted until 9 September and failed to bring Russian naval units to battle. In May 1915, IV Squadron, including Zähringen, was transferred to support the German Army in the Baltic Sea area. Zähringen and her sisters were then based in Kiel
.
On 6 May, the IV Squadron ships were tasked with providing support to the assault on Libau
. Zähringen and the other ships stood off Gotland
in order to intercept any Russian cruisers that might try to intervene in the landings, which the Russians did not attempt. On 10 May, after the invasion force had entered Libau, the British submarines and spotted the IV Squadron, but were too far away to make an attack. Zähringen and her sisters were not included in the German fleet that assaulted the Gulf of Riga
in August 1915, due to the scarcity of escorts. The increasingly active British submarines forced the Germans to employ more destroyers to protect the capital ships.
By 1916, the increasing threat from British submarines in the Baltic convinced the German navy to withdraw the elderly Wittelsbach class ships from active service. Zähringen was initially used as a training ship in Kiel. In 1917, the ship was used to train stokers but then became a target ship.
, Zähringen and her sisters were to be demilitarized. This would permit the newly reorganized Reichsmarine
to retain the vessels for auxiliary purposes. Zähringen was therefore stricken from the navy list on 11 March 1920 and disarmed. She was then used as a hulk
in Wilhelmshaven until 1926.
In 1927–28, the Reichsmarine rebuilt the ship as a radio-controlled target vessel
. The ship had its engine system overhauled; the three-shaft arrangement was replaced by a pair of vertical 3-cylinder triple expansion engines. These were supplied with steam by two naval oil-fired boilers. The system was designed to be operated remotely via wireless telegraph. The new propulsion system provided a top speed of 13.5 kn (7.3 m/s). The superstructure was also cut down and the hull was filled with cork. When the conversion was completed, Zähringen displaced 11800 metric tons (11,613.6 LT). While not in use as a target, the ship was manned by a crew of 67. She served as a target vessel for the Reichsmarine and then the Kriegsmarine
, together with the old battleship .
On 18 December 1944, the old ship was hit by bombs during an air raid on Gotenhafen (now Gdynia
) and sank in shallow water. She was temporarily refloated and towed to the harbor entrance, where she was scuttled to block the port on 26 March 1945. The wreck was broken up in situ starting in 1949; work lasted until 1950.
Wittelsbach class battleship
The Wittelsbach-class battleships were a group of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the German Kaiserliche Marine . They were the first battleships produced under the Navy Law of 1898. The class was composed of the lead ship, , , , and . All five ships were laid down between 1899 and 1900, and...
of 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 German Imperial Navy
Imperial Navy
The phrase Imperial Navy may refer to:*The Austro-Hungarian Navy*The German Navy between 1872 and 1918*The Imperial Japanese Navy from 1869 until 1947*The Imperial Navy of Imperial Qing government*The Imperial Navy from the fictional Star Wars universe....
. Laid down in 1899 at the Germaniawerft shipyard 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...
, she was launched on 12 June 1901 and commissioned on 25 October 1902. Her sisters were Wittelsbach
SMS Wittelsbach
SMS Wittelsbach was the lead ship of the Wittelsbach-class of pre-dreadnought battleships of the Kaiserliche Marine. Wittelsbach was built at Wilhelmshaven Navy Dockyard. She was laid down in 1899 and completed in October 1902, at the cost of 22,740,000 marks...
, Wettin
SMS Wettin
SMS Wettin was a German pre-dreadnought battleship of the Wittelsbach class of the Kaiserliche Marine. She was built in Schichau, in Danzig. Wettin was laid down in November 1899, and completed October 1902, at the cost of 22,597,000 marks...
, Schwaben
SMS Schwaben
SMS Schwaben was the fourth ship of the Wittelsbach-class of pre-dreadnought battleships of the German Imperial Navy. Schwaben was built at Wilhelmshaven Navy Dockyard. She was laid down in 1900, and completed in April 1904, at the cost of 21,678,000 marks...
and Mecklenburg
SMS Mecklenburg
SMS Mecklenburg was fifth ship of the Wittelsbach-class of pre-dreadnought battleships of the German Imperial Navy. Laid down in 1899 at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin, she was finished in May 1903...
; they were the first capital ships built under the Navy Law of 1898, brought about by Admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
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...
.
Zähringen saw active duty in the I Squadron of the German fleet for the majority of her career. The ship was rapidly superseded by new "all-big-gun"
Dreadnought
The dreadnought was the predominant type of 20th-century battleship. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her were referred to as "dreadnoughts", and earlier battleships became known as pre-dreadnoughts...
warships, however, and as a result served for less than eight years before being decommissioned on 21 September 1910. After the start of World War I in August 1914, Zähringen was brought back to active duty in the IV Battle Squadron. The ship saw limited duty in the Baltic Sea against Russian forces, though the threat from British submarines forced the ship to withdraw by 1916.
Zähringen was converted into a target ship in 1917 for the remainder of the war. In the mid 1920s, Zähringen was heavily reconstructed and equipped for use as a radio-controlled target ship. She served in this capacity until 1944, when she was sunk in Gotenhafen by British bombers during World War II. The retreating Germans raised the ship and moved it to the harbor mouth where they scuttled it to block the port. Zähringen was broken up in situ in 1949–50.
Construction
Zähringens keel was laid in November 1899, at Friedrich KruppFriedrich Krupp
Friedrich Krupp was a German steel manufacturer and founder of the Krupp family commercial empire that is now subsumed into ThyssenKrupp AG. He launched the family's metal-based activities, building a small steel-foundry in Essen in 1811. He was the father of the arms manufacturer Alfred Krupp....
's Germaniawerft 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...
. She was ordered under the contract name "E", as a new unit for the fleet. The Wittelsbach class was the first battleship class built under the terms of the Navy Law of 1898, the chief proponent of which was 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...
. Zähringen was launched on 12 June 1901 and commissioned on 25 October 1902.
Zähringen was 126.8 metre long overall and had 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 22.8 metre and a draft
Draft (hull)
The draft of a ship's hull is the vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of the hull , with the thickness of the hull included; in the case of not being included the draft outline would be obtained...
of 7.95 m (26.1 ft) forward. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple expansion engines that drove three screws. Steam was provided by six naval and six cylindrical boilers. Zähringens powerplant was rated at 14000 ihp, which generated a top speed of 18 knots (9.8 m/s).
Zähringens armament consisted of a main battery of four 24 cm (9.4 in) SK L/40 guns in twin gun turret
Gun turret
A gun turret is a weapon mount that protects the crew or mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon and at the same time lets the weapon be aimed and fired in many directions.The turret is also a rotating weapon platform...
s,In Imperial German Navy gun nomenclature, "SK" (Schnellfeuerkanone) denotes that the gun quick firing, while the L/40 denotes the length of the gun. In this case, the L/40 gun is 40 calibers, meaning that the gun is 40 as times long as it is in diameter. one fore and one aft of the central superstructure
Superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships...
. Her secondary armament consisted of eighteen 15 cm (5.9 inch) SK L/40 guns and twelve 8.8 cm (3.45 in) SK L/30 quick-firing guns. The armament suite was rounded out with six 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes, all in above-water swivel mounts.
Imperial Navy
After she was commissioned into the German fleet in October 1902, Zähringen was assigned to the I Squadron of the Active Battle Fleet. In 1905 the German fleet was reorganized into two squadrons of battleships. Zähringen was assigned to the I Division of I Squadron, alongside her sisters and . The German fleet at that time consisted of another three-ship division in the I Squadron and 2 three-ship divisions in the II Squadron. This was supported by a reconnaissance division, composed of two armored cruiserArmored cruiser
The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Like other types of cruiser, the armored cruiser was a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship, and fast enough to outrun any battleships it encountered.The first...
s and six 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.
The s—the most powerful battleships yet built in Germany—were beginning to enter service by 1907. This provided the Navy with enough ships to form two full battle squadrons of eight ships each. The fleet was then renamed the Hochseeflotte (High Seas Fleet). On 21 September 1910, Zähringen was decommissioned and her crew was transferred to the new dreadnought
Dreadnought
The dreadnought was the predominant type of 20th-century battleship. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her were referred to as "dreadnoughts", and earlier battleships became known as pre-dreadnoughts...
, which had recently been completed. In 1912, Zähringen and her sisters were recommissioned as the III Squadron of the High Seas Fleet to augment the forces available for the annual summer fleet maneuvers in the North Sea. The exercises began on 2 September and were conducted in the area between Wilhelmshaven, Helgoland, and Cuxhaven. While on maneuvers southwest of Helgoland on 14 September 1912, Zähringen accidentally rammed the torpedo boat . The torpedo boat was cut in half and quickly sank; six men drowned and a seventh died after being pulled from the sea.
By 1914, Zähringen and her sisters were removed from active service and placed in the reserve squadron. However, after the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Zähringen and the rest of her class were mobilized to serve in the IV Battle Squadron, under the command of Vice Admiral Ehrhard Schmidt. Starting on 3 September, the IV Squadron, assisted by the armored cruiser
Armored cruiser
The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Like other types of cruiser, the armored cruiser was a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship, and fast enough to outrun any battleships it encountered.The first...
, conducted a sweep into the Baltic. The operation lasted until 9 September and failed to bring Russian naval units to battle. In May 1915, IV Squadron, including Zähringen, was transferred to support the German Army in the Baltic Sea area. Zähringen and her sisters were then based 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...
.
On 6 May, the IV Squadron ships were tasked with providing support to the assault on Libau
Liepaja
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...
. Zähringen and the other ships stood off Gotland
Gotland
Gotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...
in order to intercept any Russian cruisers that might try to intervene in the landings, which the Russians did not attempt. On 10 May, after the invasion force had entered Libau, the British submarines and spotted the IV Squadron, but were too far away to make an attack. Zähringen and her sisters were not included in the German fleet that assaulted the Gulf of Riga
Battle of the Gulf of Riga
The Battle of the Gulf of Riga was a World War I naval operation of the German High Seas Fleet against the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea in August 1915...
in August 1915, due to the scarcity of escorts. The increasingly active British submarines forced the Germans to employ more destroyers to protect the capital ships.
By 1916, the increasing threat from British submarines in the Baltic convinced the German navy to withdraw the elderly Wittelsbach class ships from active service. Zähringen was initially used as a training ship in Kiel. In 1917, the ship was used to train stokers but then became a target ship.
Reichsmarine and Kriegsmarine
As of April 1919, Zähringen lay in the harbor in Danzig; the ship had been decommissioned but retained its armament. According to Article 181 of the Treaty of VersaillesTreaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
, Zähringen and her sisters were to be demilitarized. This would permit the newly reorganized Reichsmarine
Reichsmarine
The Reichsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Weimar Republic and first two years of Nazi Germany. It was the naval branch of the Reichswehr, existing from 1918 to 1935...
to retain the vessels for auxiliary purposes. Zähringen was therefore stricken from the navy list on 11 March 1920 and disarmed. She was then used as a hulk
Hulk (ship)
A hulk is a ship that is afloat, but incapable of going to sea. Although sometimes used to describe a ship that has been launched but not completed, the term most often refers to an old ship that has had its rigging or internal equipment removed, retaining only its flotational qualities...
in Wilhelmshaven until 1926.
In 1927–28, the Reichsmarine rebuilt the ship as a radio-controlled target vessel
Target ship
A target ship is a vessel — typically an obsolete or captured warship — used for naval gunnery practice or for weapons testing.-Rationale:Sinking redundant warships is an effective way of testing new weapons and warships in as realistic a manner as possible. Whilst practice torpedoes are fired...
. The ship had its engine system overhauled; the three-shaft arrangement was replaced by a pair of vertical 3-cylinder triple expansion engines. These were supplied with steam by two naval oil-fired boilers. The system was designed to be operated remotely via wireless telegraph. The new propulsion system provided a top speed of 13.5 kn (7.3 m/s). The superstructure was also cut down and the hull was filled with cork. When the conversion was completed, Zähringen displaced 11800 metric tons (11,613.6 LT). While not in use as a target, the ship was manned by a crew of 67. She served as a target vessel for the Reichsmarine and then the Kriegsmarine
Kriegsmarine
The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...
, together with the old battleship .
On 18 December 1944, the old ship was hit by bombs during an air raid on Gotenhafen (now Gdynia
Gdynia
Gdynia is a city in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland and an important seaport of Gdańsk Bay on the south coast of the Baltic Sea.Located in Kashubia in Eastern Pomerania, Gdynia is part of a conurbation with the spa town of Sopot, the city of Gdańsk and suburban communities, which together...
) and sank in shallow water. She was temporarily refloated and towed to the harbor entrance, where she was scuttled to block the port on 26 March 1945. The wreck was broken up in situ starting in 1949; work lasted until 1950.