SMS Lorraine

German Empire German Empire
Ship of the line Lorraine
Ship data
Ship type	Ship of the line
Ship class	Braunschweig class
Construction designation:	New building M
Keel laying :	December 1, 1902
Launch :	May 27, 1904
Commissioning:	May 18, 1906
Builder:	Schichau-Werke in Gdansk Building no. 716
Crew:	35 officers and 708 men
Building-costs:	23.801 million gold marks
Coat of arms of the SMS Lorraine
4 sister ships
SMS Braunschweig SMS Hessen	SMS Prussia SMS Alsace
Technical specifications
Construction displacement :	13,208 t
Maximum deployment displacement :	14,394 t
Length:	127.70 m
Width:	22.20 m
Draft :	8.16 m
Machinery:	8 marine water tube and 6 cylinder steam boilers with coal firing 3 standing three-cylinder triple expansion steam engines
Number of screws:	2 three-winged ( 4.80 m) 1 four-winged ( 4.50 m) ${\ displaystyle \ varnothing}$ ${\ displaystyle \ varnothing}$
Shaft speed:	110 min ⁻¹
Power:	Construction: 16,000 PSi Test drive: 16,478 PSi
Top speed:	Construction: 18.0 kn Test drive: 18.7 kn
Driving range:	approx. 5,010 nm at 10 kn
Fuel supply:	Max. 1,670 tons of coal
Armor
Belt armor:	100 - 225 mm on 100 mm teak backing
Deck:	40 mm
Towers:	50 - 280 mm
Front control station:	horizontal: 50 mm vertical: 300 mm
Control station aft:	horizontal: 30 mm vertical: 140 mm
Casemates:	150 mm
Pages:	Cork dams
Armament
Guns 28.0 cm L / 40 C / 1901:	4 in 2 twin towers on turntable carriage C / 1901
Gun range 28.0 cm:	18.8 km at 30 °
Guns 17 cm L / 40 C / 1901:	10 in casemates 4 in single towers
Gun range 17.0 cm:	14.5 km at 22 °
Guns 8.8 cm L / 35 C / 1902:	18 in casemates
Guns 3.7 cm automatic cannons:	up to 4 in individual installation
Torpedo tubes 45 cm: ${\ displaystyle \ varnothing}$	6 under water (1 in the bow, 2 on each side, 1 in the stern)
Commanders
Sea captain Ernst van Semmern	October 19, 1906 to April 20, 1907

The SMS Lorraine was a battleship of the Imperial Navy and the Imperial Navy . It was named after a part of the realm of Alsace-Lorraine . The ship was an expansion building based on the First Naval Law of 1898.

technology

Armament

The Lorraine and its sister ships of the Braunschweig class were the first ships of the line of the Imperial Navy to carry newly developed fast-loading cannons with a caliber of 28 cm. Thanks to the newly developed quick-loading system with a wedge lock and brass cases, these were able to achieve a significantly higher rate of fire than the ten-year-old jacket-ring cannons of the Brandenburg class with the same caliber and barrel length.

A novelty was the raising of the middle artillery caliber from 15.0 cm to 17.0 cm. Parallel to this increase in caliber, other navies introduced a so-called intermediate caliber to strengthen firepower. The Imperial Navy did not go this way, but only increased the caliber of the middle artillery. The selected size represented the highest permissible manually loaded bullet weight. A 17.0 cm shell weighed approx. 70 kg, and with a targeted volley rate of 5 rounds / min, the loading staff was physically demanding. A new model was also introduced for the light artillery: the elongated barrels allowed the 8.8 cm anti-torpedo guns to fire a larger range.

history

The Prussia launched after the conversion to the mother ship for FM boats

After commissioning on May 18, 1906, the ship belonged to the 2nd Squadron of the High Seas Fleet from July 1, 1906 . The usual stations followed: fleet service, training, exercises, maneuvers and travel. In February 1912 used as an icebreaker in the Baltic Sea. The decommissioning planned for August 17, 1914 was canceled because the First World War had broken out in the meantime. Lorraine was used in the coastal protection of the North Sea. However, the decommissioning took place on March 18, 1916 due to the inadequate underwater protection and the weak armament. The heavy artillery was dismissed. In July 1916 it was put into service again with a reduced crew and was used until September 1917 as a guard ship for the entrances to the Baltic Sea ("Sund Monitoring"). The ship was then used as a drill and machine training ship in Wilhelmshaven until December 1918. The provisional Reichsmarine took over Lorraine and had the ship converted into a mother ship for shallow minesweeping boats (FM boats) in early 1919 . She carried a total of 14 of these small vehicles at stands on the upper deck. On March 2, 1920, the ship was finally decommissioned and remained in reserve status until it was deleted from the list of warships on March 31, 1931. After that, it was sold and subsequently demolished in Wilhelmshaven.

Known crew members

Friedrich Ruge (1894–1985) was the first inspector of the Navy from 1956 to 1961

literature

Breyer, Siegfried: The Navy of the Weimar Republic . Marine-Arsenal special issue, Vol. 5, Podzun-Pallas Verlag, Friedberg 1992. ISBN 3-7909-0464-3
Breyer, Siegfried: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905-1970 , JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1970. ISBN 3-88199-474-2
Erich Gröner : The German warships 1815-1945. Volume 1. Armored ships, ships of the line, battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, gunboats. Bonn: Bernard & Graefe 1998 ISBN 3-7637-4800-8
Gerhard Koop, Klaus-Peter Schmolke: The liners of the Brandenburg to Germany class. Ship classes and types of the German Navy. Volume 10. Bonn: Bernard & Graefe 2001 ISBN 3-7637-6211-6

Web links

A squadron of the German High Seas Fleet: Braunschweig class liner (foreground), other liners and a maritime reconnaissance zeppelin