SMS Beowulf
 The Beowulf
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The SMS Beowulf was the second ship of the Siegfried class , a class of eight coastal armored ships of the German Imperial Navy . Until 1899 the ships were designated as armored ships IV class.
construction
Bremer Werft AG Weser began building the armored ship IV. Class P in January 1890. The new building was ready for launch on November 8 of the same year. He was baptized by the director of the naval department in the Reichsmarineamt , Rear Admiral Hans Koester , after the main character of an Anglo-Saxon heroic poem in the name of Beowulf . The completion of the ship dragged on until autumn 1891. The shipyard test drives were then started, although the exact date is unknown.
commitment
Peace time
1892 to 1900
The Beowulf was officially commissioned for the first time on April 1, 1892 under the command of Prince Heinrich of Prussia , brother of Kaiser Wilhelm II . Although further test drives had to be undertaken, the ship was assigned to the maneuver squadron to replace the Siegfried, which had failed after a boiler tube explosion . In April the ship made a trip from Wilhelmshaven via Helgoland to Nordenham , during which Emperor Wilhelm II, Hereditary Grand Duke Friedrich August von Oldenburg and the State Secretary of the Reichsmarinamt, Vice Admiral Friedrich Hollmann , were on board. The test drives from Kiel continued from May onwards. On June 7th, the ship took part in a naval parade on the occasion of a visit by Tsar Alexander III. part. During this time, the Tsar and the Emperor visited the Beowulf .
With the end of the test drives on June 19, the ironclad began service in the maneuvering squadron and was relocated to the North Sea at the beginning of July. From July 30th to August 8th, the Beowulf served as an escort ship for the imperial yacht Kaiseradler . On this the Kaiser took part in Cowes Week . After a four-day stay off Amrum , the coastal armored ship returned to the maneuver squadron on August 17th. With this association, the Beowulf took part in the first major autumn maneuvers. After its completion, the ship changed from the maneuvering squadron, henceforth called the 1st Division, to the 2nd Division, previously called the Exercise Squadron, and replaced the Frederick the Great . In this association, the Beowulf was used until the end of the autumn maneuvers in 1893.
From October 1, 1893, the ironclad belonged to the newly formed reserve division of the North Sea, initially as a ship with a reduced crew. From February 1, 1894, the Beowulf took over the function of the parent ship of the Reserve Division and thus also the training of changing crews from the Frithjof . For the autumn maneuvers, the three ships of the North Sea Reserve Division formed the IV Division of the temporarily formed II Squadron, under the command of Rear Admiral Iwan Friedrich Julius Oldekop . Division flagship became the Hildebrand . Due to leaks in the boiler system, the Beowulf was decommissioned after the end of the maneuvers on October 2 and was repaired at the Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven in the following period .
On August 1, 1895, the ship could be put back into service. Initially, it was used in the IV. Division of the II. Squadron under Rear Admiral Otto von Diederichs during the autumn maneuvers. After its end, the Beowulf replaced her sister ship Hildebrand as the parent ship of the North Sea Reserve Division. In October and November there was a practice trip to the Baltic Sea. During the autumn maneuvers of 1896, the ship again belonged to the II. Squadron, which was under the command of Rear Admiral Carl Barandon that year. On October 13, 1896, the Beowulf suffered a serious machine breakdown. After an emergency repair in Kiel, the ship was relocated to Wilhelmshaven and decommissioned there on November 13th for final repairs.
The Beowulf was reactivated on August 3, 1897 and used during the autumn maneuvers. On September 13th, another engine failure forced the Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven to call, which repaired the ship by October 1st. Various exercises were performed during the rest of the year. From November 15th to 18th the port of Arendal had to be called because of bad weather . In 1898, in addition to exercises by the entire reserve division of the North Sea, a training trip together with the Frithjof took place. This began on May 31 in Wilhelmshaven and ended on June 11. During the trip Molde , Ålesund and Stavanger were called. In addition to the deployment during the autumn maneuvers, a trip to Gravesend took place from November 12th to 19th as a change from normal duty. In 1899, only the participation in the autumn maneuvers in the association of the II. Squadron under Rear Admiral Paul Hoffmann is to be mentioned as a special feature. On March 23, 1900, the Beowulf was finally decommissioned in Danzig .
modification
Like the other ships of the Siegfried class, the Beowulf was rebuilt in the following months by the Kaiserliche Werft Danzig . The biggest change was the extension of the fuselage by a centrally inserted section. The work required for this began on May 15, 1900. In addition, a new boiler system was installed, the generators for the ship's power supply were renewed and changes to the armament were made. Instead of the 3.7 cm automatic cannons previously on board, two additional 8.8 cm L / 30 rapid loading cannons were installed and three of the 35 cm torpedo tubes were replaced by 45 cm diameter ones. Due to the larger number of boilers, the ship received a second chimney, which together with the extension resulted in a significantly different appearance. The conversion, which was completed in mid-1902, made it possible to slightly increase the ship's top speed and significantly increase its range. The latter was achieved by increasing the fuel supply to up to 580 tons of coal.
1902 to 1909
After completion of the conversion and the subsequent shipyard test drives, the Beowulf was put back into service on July 1, 1902 to take part in the autumn maneuvers. After its completion, the ship was decommissioned on September 25th. Contrary to the original plan, the Beowulf was reactivated on July 8, 1903 to replace the Hagen , which had failed due to a machine breakdown . This was followed by the deployment in the II. Squadron, which was last formed only temporarily for the autumn maneuvers. On September 22nd the formation of the active battle fleet, renamed the high seas fleet in 1907 , as well as the II. Squadron under Rear Admiral Ernst Fritze , which also existed until August 1917 , to which the Beowulf belonged. In addition to the usual association exercises, a trip to Dutch and Norwegian waters took place in July and August 1904. After the autumn maneuvers of 1904, the Beowulf was replaced by the Wörth and decommissioned on September 23rd.
The coastal armored ship was henceforth part of the reserve squadron. A last activation of the ship in peacetime took place on July 22, 1909. The reserve squadron belonged for the time of the autumn maneuvers as III. Squadron to the reserve fleet formed from all ships in the reserve under Vice Admiral Hugo Zeye . After the end of the maneuvers, the reserve fleet was disbanded and the Beowulf decommissioned.
First World War
When the First World War broke out , the coastal armored ships were reactivated on August 12, 1914 and in the VI. Squadron grouped under Rear Admiral Richard Eckermann . The squadron was used for coastal protection in the North Sea. The Beowulf was ordered to the Baltic Sea on May 4, 1915, where she took part in the bombardment and capture of Libau three days later . From May 10th to May 21st the ship was in front of Memel , then in front of Libau. On June 28th, the Beowulf targeted targets in Windau under fire. After the arrival of the Wörth and the Brandenburg , the coastal armored ship left Libau on July 12 and entered Danzig. The Imperial Shipyard there re-piped the boiler by September 8th. During this time, on August 31, the VI was dissolved. Geschwaders and the Beowulf were officially assigned to the coastal defense division of the Ems . From September 11, 1915 to February 28, 1916, the ship performed the outpost service in the North Sea, mainly staying in the roadstead off Borkum .
From March 2, 1916, the Beowulf served with a reduced crew as a target ship for submarines and as a ship for the Hamburg , the flagship of the leader of the submarines. A year later, on March 12, 1917, the coastal armored ship was finally decommissioned in Danzig.
Since there was a lack of icebreakers in the Baltic Sea at the end of 1917 , the Beowulf was put back into service on December 12th. From January 1918, the ship, mostly from Libau or Windau, took over the function of an icebreaker. From March 11th, the Beowulf served as a guide ship for the head of the Baltic Sea Search Association, frigate captain Hugo von Rosenberg, during the Finland intervention . During the layover in Turku , the crew put the two Russian gunboats Golub and Pingvin into service as minesweepers Beo and Wulf . The latter was later handed over to the new Finnish Navy as Hämeenmaa . On May 19, the function as a master ship ended and the Beowulf left Helsingfors in the direction of Libau, where she was at the shipyard from May 27 to July 24.
On June 1, the post of the Commander in Chief of the Baltic Waters (BBG) was created and occupied by Rear Admiral Ludolf von Uslar . East of the Rixhöft - Öland line, the BBG was both sea and land commander and directly subordinated to the command of the Baltic Sea naval station . The Beowulf was named the flagship of the BBG and reached another high point at the end of its career. Rear Admiral von Uslar stayed only a little on board the coastal armored ship. The Beowulf ran from Libau to Helsingfors and Reval on August 8 and was ready for the Schlussstein company , whose planning was discontinued on September 1. After the end of the war, the ship went to Gdansk, where it was finally decommissioned on November 30th.
Whereabouts
The Beowulf was removed from the list of warships on June 17, 1919. The ship was sold to the Norddeutsche Tiefbaugesellschaft in Berlin and scrapped in Gdansk in 1921.
Commanders
| April 1 to September 1892 | Sea captain Heinrich of Prussia |
| September to December 1892 | Corvette Captain von Kries |
| December 1892 to September 1893 | Corvette Captain Rudolf von Eickstedt |
| September 1893 to January 1894 | Kapitänleutnant Otto Hoepner (reduced crew) |
| February to October 2, 1894 | Corvette captain / sea captain Alfred Gruner |
| August 1 to September 1895 | Corvette Captain Karl Ascher |
| September 1895 to September 1896 | Corvette Captain Eduard Holzhauer |
| September 13th to November 13th 1896 | Corvette Captain August von Heeringen |
| August 3 to October 1897 | Corvette Captain August von Dassel |
| October 1897 to July 1898 | Corvette Captain Hugo Emsmann |
| July to September 1898 | Frigate Captain Wilhelm Kindt |
| September to November 1898 | Corvette Captain Hugo Emsmann |
| November 1898 to March 23, 1900 | Corvette Captain Hermann Lilie |
| July 1 to September 25, 1902 | Frigate Captain Carl Paschen |
| July 8 to September 1903 | Frigate Captain Hartwig von Dassel |
| September 1903 to September 23, 1904 | Corvette Captain / Frigate Captain Franz von Holleben |
| July 22 to September 15, 1909 | Sea captain Gottfried Freiherr von Dalwigk zu Lichtenfels |
| August 12, 1914 to March 1916 | Frigate Captain Paul Ebert |
| March 1916 to March 12, 1917 | Captain Franz Strauch |
| December 12, 1917 to July 1918 | Captain Franz Wilde |
| July to November 30, 1918 | Corvette Captain Erich Schultze-Jena |
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. 34-36 .
- 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. 51-54 .
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ a b c d e Hildebrand / Röhr / Steinmetz: The German warships. Volume 2, p. 52.
- ↑ Hildebrand / Röhr / Steinmetz: The German warships. Volume 2, p. 51.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Hildebrand / Röhr / Steinmetz: The German warships. Volume 2, p. 53.
- ↑ a b Gröner / Jung / Maass: The German warships. Volume 1, pp. 34f.
- ↑ Hildebrand / Röhr / Steinmetz: The German warships . tape 4 : Ship biographies from Greif to Kaiser . Mundus Verlag, Ratingen, S. 161 (Approved licensed edition by Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg, approx. 1990).