SMS Bavaria (1878)
_Gartenlaube_1889.jpg) Drawing by SMS Bayern 1889
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The SMS Bayern was the second ship in the Sachsen class , a class of four armored corvettes of the Imperial Navy . Just like her sister ships Sachsen , Württemberg and Baden , the Bayern was also designed as a citadel ship . The keel laying of the ship, designated as Panzerschiff A during construction , took place in July 1874 at the Kaiserliche Werft in Kiel . The launch took place on May 13, 1878, the commissioning on August 4, 1881.
Construction and first years of service
Of the four armored corvettes planned according to the fleet construction plan of 1873, two each were awarded to the Kaiserliche Werft Kiel ( A and C ) and the AG Vulcan Stettin ( B and D ). Despite the order placed around five months later, the new building B was ready for launch ten months earlier than the later Bavaria built by the Staatswerft and thus became the type ship of the class under the name of Sachsen .
Material that was produced by German industry was to be used primarily in the construction of the ships. In the case of armor plates, this was not possible because the Dillinger Hütte commissioned with the production was not yet able to produce them in the required quality. A British make was therefore used.
The head of the Admiralty , Admiral Albrecht von Stosch , invited all members of the Reichstag to the launch of the ship , but only one delegation took part for reasons of cost. The baptism speech and the baptism itself was performed by the Vice President of the Reichstag, Baron Franz August Schenk von Stauffenberg .
Bayern spent the first few years after completion with test drives and in reserve. From 1884 the ship was used for active fleet service and mostly performed the task as the parent ship of the Reserve Division. During this time, a trip to the North Atlantic was undertaken and the first remote shooting exercise of the Imperial Navy was carried out, which, however, did not bring the desired results due to the insufficient elevation of the pipe (the pipes hit the casemate ceiling ). On May 15, 1886, the Bayern was temporarily decommissioned because major machine repairs were due. In addition to the torpedo tubes, the Bayern was the first combat ship of the Imperial Navy to receive electrical interior lighting from Siemens and Halske .
After the overhaul was completed, the Bayern was put back into service on November 21, 1887 and reassigned to the Reserve Division. With the formation of the maneuver fleet on May 2, 1890, it was a member of this association for the summer until 1895, in order to switch back to the reserve division by spring after the autumn maneuver.
Remodeling and further service
On October 6, 1895, the Bayern was decommissioned to be the first ship of its class to be converted, which was carried out at the Danzig Schichau shipyard . Measures were taken to reduce weight and increase speed. However, the combat value of the old ships could not be increased significantly. The clearest external feature of the renovation was the combination of the originally four chimneys, which were originally set up in pairs (because of them, the ships were jokingly referred to as cement factories ) into a single, larger chimney.
After completion of the work and the test drives, the Bayern was put into service again on May 28, 1898 and joined the II. Division. In the winter of 1898/99 she was temporarily the flagship of the 1st Squadron under Vice Admiral August von Thomsen . On February 25, 1899, the ship was reclassified as a ship of the line , after the designation of the ship type as armored ship in 1884 and armored ship III in 1893. Class had been changed. During the spring maneuver, which led as far as Lisbon , the Bayern suffered a serious accident in the North Sea and was repaired in Wilhelmshaven . From December 14, 1899 to January 27, 1900, the Bayern sailed again as a squadron flagship and was decommissioned on February 12, 1900.
Whereabouts
The Bavaria was transferred from Wilhelmshaven to Kiel in 1903 and belonged to the local naval station of the Baltic Sea from January 2, 1904, as well as to the first standby until 1906 and later until 1909 the second.
On February 19, 1910, the Bayern was finally deleted from the list of warships. After appropriate renovation, its hull was used as a target ship off the Kiel Fjord until 1919 , including for bombing aircraft from 1913. This last purpose ended on May 5, 1919 with the sale of the hull, which was subsequently scrapped in Kiel.
Commanders
| August 4, 1881 to January 4, 1882 | unknown |
| April 22 to October 18, 1884 | Sea captain Bartholomäus von Werner |
| May 1, 1885 to May 15, 1886 | Sea captain Karl August Deinhard |
| November 21, 1887 to April 4, 1888 | Sea captain Franz von Kyckbusch |
| April 4 to September 20, 1888 | Sea captain Gustav von Senden-Bibran |
| September 21, 1888 to February 21, 1889 | Sea captain Max Plüddemann |
| February 21 to March 28, 1889 | Corvette Captain Alfred Gruner (deputy) |
| May 2 to September 30, 1890 | Sea captain Hugo von Schuckmann |
| January 11th to April 30th, 1891 | Sea captain Richard von Geissler |
| April 30 to September 20, 1891 | Sea captain Hugo von Schuckmann |
| September 21, 1891 to September 24, 1893 | Corvette captain / captain at sea Hunold von Ahlefeld |
| September 25, 1893 to September 17, 1895 | Sea captain Hermann Kirchhoff |
| September 18 to December 6, 1895 | Corvette Captain Carl Derzewski (deputy) |
| May 28, 1898 to February 12, 1900 | Sea captain Georg Scheder |
literature
- Gröner, Erich / Dieter Jung / Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945 . tape 1 : Armored ships, ships of the line, battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, gunboats . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 , p. 32 f .
- Hildebrand, Hans H. / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . tape 2 : Ship biographies from Baden to Eber . Mundus Verlag, Ratingen, S. 42-44 .
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