SMS Kaiser Wilhelm II.
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| Ship data | ||
| Ship type | Ship of the line | |
| Ship class | Kaiser Friedrich III class | |
| Construction designation: | Replacement for Frederick the Great | |
| Keel laying : | October 26, 1896 | |
| Launching ( ship christening ): | September 14, 1897 | |
| Commissioning: | February 13, 1900 | |
| Builder: |
Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven hull number 24 |
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| Crew: | 51 officers and 675 men | |
| Building-costs: | 20.387 million gold marks | |
| 4 sister ships | ||
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SMS Kaiser Wilhelm the Great SMS Kaiser Friedrich III. |
SMS Kaiser Charlemagne SMS Kaiser Barbarossa |
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| Technical specifications | ||
| Construction displacement : | 11,097 t | |
| Maximum deployment displacement : | 11,785 t | |
| Length: | 125.30 m | |
| Width: | 20.40 m | |
| Draft : | 7.83 m | |
| Machinery: | 4 Marine Schulz water pipes and 8 transverse cylinder steam boilers with coal firing 3 vertical four-cylinder triple expansion steam engines |
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| Number of screws: | 2 three-winged (∅ 4.50 m) 1 four-winged (∅ 4.20 m) |
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| Shaft speed: | 120 min −1 | |
| Power: | Construction: 13,000 PSi Test drive: 13,922 PSi |
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| Top speed: | Construction: 17.5 kn Test drive: 17.6 kn |
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| Driving range: | approx. 3,400 nm at 10 kn | |
| Fuel supply: | Max. 1,070 tons of coal | |
| Armor | ||
| Belt armor: | 100–300 mm on 250 mm teak backing | |
| Deck: | 65 mm | |
| Towers: | 50-250 mm | |
| Front control station: | horizontal: 30 mm vertical: 250 mm |
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| Control station aft: | horizontal: 30 mm vertical: 150 mm |
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| Casemates: | 150 mm | |
| Pages: | Cork dams | |
| Armament | ||
| Guns 24 cm L / 40 C / 1894: | 4 in 2 twin towers on turntable mount C / 1897 | |
| Gun range 24 cm : | 16.9 km at 30 ° | |
| Guns Sk 15 cm L / 40 C / 1896 : | 12 in casemates 6 in individual towers |
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| Gun range 15 cm: | 13.7 km at 20 ° | |
| Guns Sk 8.8 cm L / 30 : | 12 in casemates | |
| 3.7 cm revolver cannons : | up to 12 in individual installation | |
| Torpedo tubes ∅ 45 cm: | 5 under water (1 in the bow, 2 on each side) 1 over water (stern) |
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SMS Kaiser Wilhelm II was a ship of the line in the Imperial Navy . The ship was laid down in 1896 at the Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven as an armored ship I. Class "Ersatz Friedrich der Große " . In 1899 it was reclassified as a ship of the line.
history
The ship was christened when it was launched by the brother of the emperor and namesake, Prince Heinrich of Prussia .
After the shipyard trial and acceptance runs, the ship officially entered service with the 1st Squadron of the Active Battle Fleet on February 13, 1900 and also became a fleet flagship. In this association it performed its fleet service, took part in maneuvers and training trips and fulfilled the representative duties of the fleet flagship on trips abroad and at receptions. This role lasted until the new flagship SMS Deutschland was commissioned in 1906.
Subsequently, the Kaiser Wilhelm II. Was the flagship of the I. Squadron until it was decommissioned in 1908. In the following two years, extensive modernization measures and conversions were carried out at the shipyard. Thereafter, the Kaiser Wilhelm II. Was the parent ship of the Reserve Division Baltic Sea.
With the outbreak of war in 1914, it was reactivated and assigned to the 5th Squadron. Its use was initially limited to coastal protection in the North Sea and sporadic activities in the Baltic Sea. From March 1915 the ship (together with the other ships of the Kaiser Friedrich III class ) was pulled out of the front, the crew was reduced and the artillery expanded. On March 5, 1915, the company was relocated to Wilhelmshaven and there on April 26 of that year the function of the command ship of the high seas fleet. The term stabsarche was coined as a joke .
The final decommissioning was on September 10, 1920, the deletion from the list of warships on March 17, 1921. The ship was then scrapped until 1922 at the Köhlbrand shipyard in Hamburg-Altenwerder. The ship's bell is located in the Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr in Dresden.
modification
During the major reconstruction from 1908 to 1910, the appearance of the ship was significantly changed. The midship superstructure, two decks high, was removed, and the chimney cladding was restricted to the lower half. The battle masts were replaced by slim pole masts. The four 15-cm matte guns in the battery deck were expanded, the light artillery reinforced by two 8.8-cm guns and their placement changed, while the twelve revolver cannons were removed. The swiveling 45 cm surface torpedo tube in the stern was also removed. The formerly clumsy and top-heavy ships made a pretty bare impression after the renovation.
literature
- Jochen Brennecke , Herbert Hader: Ironclad ships and ships of the line 1860-1910 . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1987, ISBN 3-7822-0116-7 .
- Robert Gardiner: Conway's All the world's fighting ships 1860-1905 . Conway Maritime Press, London 1979, ISBN 0-85177-133-5 .
- Erich Gröner : The German warships 1815-1945 . Volume 1. Armored ships, ships of the line, battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, gunboats . Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 1998, ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 .
- Gerhard Koop, Klaus-Peter Schmolke: The liners of the Brandenburg to Germany class . Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 2001, ISBN 3-7637-6211-6 (ship classes and ship types of the German Navy. Volume 10).