SMS Mecklenburg
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The SMS Mecklenburg was the last ship of the Wittelsbach class , a class of five ships of the line of the Imperial Navy .
construction
As the penultimate ship of its class, the new building F was laid on May 15, 1900 at the Stettiner Werft AG Vulcan . While held on November 9, 1901 launching of the Grand Duke of took Mecklenburg-Schwerin , Friedrich Franz IV. , The baptism of the ship in honor of the reigning there royal houses in the name of Mecklenburg ago. In the spring of 1903 the liner was handed over to the Imperial Navy.
Peace time
The Mecklenburg was put into service for the first time on June 25, 1903 and then carried out test drives until mid-December. After its completion, the ship joined the 1st squadron of the fleet. First, however, minor repairs and improvements were made by the Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven . From February 1904 the Mecklenburg was available for individual and association exercises. In June the ship took part in a fleet parade in front of Edward VII and took part in a fleet trip in the North Sea in July and August. The usual autumn maneuvers followed, as well as a training trip from November to December.
From mid-December 1904 to early March 1905, the Mecklenburg stayed at the shipyard in Wilhelmshaven and then began the march around Cape Skagen to Kiel together with the Wittelsbach . The Mecklenburg got stuck on a reef on March 3rd while crossing the Great Belt due to an incorrectly designed fairway buoy. She was towed free by the Wittelsbach , the Wettin and the small cruiser Ariadne and reached Kiel on her own. The dent in the bottom of the ship required another visit to the Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven. On April 20, 1905, the Mecklenburg was operational again and subsequently took part in the squadron's usual exercises and training trips. In August 1905 there was also a meeting with the British Canal Fleet off Swinoujscie .
In the following years the Mecklenburg continued to serve in the 1st Squadron, which took place without any particular incident. At the beginning of April 1908 there was a serious water ingress during a single trip due to a technical error in one of the torpedo wide periods. Sealing the two lateral torpedo tubes from the outside prevented the ship from sinking. The damage suffered was repaired by May.
The Mecklenburg belonged to the 1st Squadron until July 31, 1911 and took part in its maneuvers and training trips without any further special events occurring. On that day it was replaced by the new large-line ship Ostfriesland and taken out of service. The Mecklenburg initially belonged to the Reserve Division of the North Sea, but was assigned to the Reserve Division of the Baltic Sea on May 9, 1912. For the necessary transfer to Kiel, the ship was briefly put into service from 9 to 12 May. The last use of the ship in peacetime took place during the autumn maneuvers from August 14 to September 28, 1912 under the teacher at the naval academy captain at sea Eberhard von Mantey as commander in the temporarily trained III. Squadron instead. The squadron also included the sister ships Wittelsbach (parent ship of the reserve division of the Baltic Sea), Wettin (artillery school ship), Zähringen and Schwaben (both also auxiliary ships of the reserve division of the Baltic Sea), as well as Alsace , which had just left the 1st squadron .
Use in the First World War
After the outbreak of the First World War , the Mecklenburg was reactivated in early August 1914 and, like her sister ships, was assigned to the newly formed IV Squadron. Although the squadron belonged to the high seas fleet, it was initially subordinated to the Commander-in-Chief of the Baltic Sea, Grand Admiral Prince Heinrich of Prussia , and took part in forays into the eastern Baltic Sea from September 5 to 10 and from September 22 to 26.
From December 5, 1914 to April 2, 1915, the Mecklenburg was active in the outpost and security service on the Lower Elbe . Another deployment in the Baltic Sea, which led to the north of Gotland , took place from May 8th to May 12th, 1915. Subsequently, the ship was back in security service in front of Altenbruch at roadstead until July 4th .
In early July 1915, the IV. Wing was assumed permanently the commander of the Baltic Sea, since the support of the army company against the Gulf of Riga was planned. The Mecklenburg reached Kiel on July 5, from where she continued to Danzig . On July 11th as well as on July 21st and 22nd, the ship was involved in advances as far as Gotland. It reached Libau on August 2 , in order to take part in further advances from August 7 to 10, September 9 to 11 and September 21 to 23. After the end of the fighting over the bay, the Mecklenburg remained in Libau.
The inadequate protection of the old ships of the line and armored cruisers against sea mines and torpedoes as well as the threat posed by the new Russian Gangut class raised doubts about the operational capability of the ships. The sinking of the Prince Adalbert as a result of a mine hit on October 23, 1915 further increased doubts, so that on November 6, the Wettin , the Zähringen , the Swabians and the great cruiser Prinz Heinrich were ordered to Kiel and merged into the standby division. The Mecklenburg initially remained in Libau and replaced the Prinz Heinrich in the Association of Reconnaissance Forces of the Baltic Sea. On December 17, she got stuck in the central entrance of the port of Libau, but was towed free without being damaged. Due to the continued low usability of the ship and the pressing shortage of personnel in the Navy, the Mecklenburg was finally released to Kiel, where she arrived on January 7, 1916 and was decommissioned on January 24.
Whereabouts
The Mecklenburg was initially used as a prisoner accommodation ship. From the beginning of 1918 she was at the Kaiserliche Werft Kiel, in order to serve the crews of submarines in repair as a barge there until the end of the war . On January 25, 1920, the ship was struck off the list of warships, sold on August 16, 1921 for 1,750,000 marks , and in the same year it was scrapped by the German works in Kiel.
Commanders
| June 25 to December 1903 | Sea captain Johannes Wallmann |
| December 1903 to September 1904 | Sea captain Alfred Ehrlich |
| September 24, 1904 to September 29, 1906 | Sea captain Adolf Paschen |
| September 30, 1906 to March 5, 1907 | Sea captain Adolph Josephi |
| March to April 1907 | Sea captain Walter Voit |
| April 2, 1907 to October 6, 1908 | Sea captain Georg Wuthmann |
| September 1908 to October 1909 | Sea captain Wigand Bossart |
| October 4, 1909 to September 15, 1910 | Sea captain Gisberth Jasper |
| September 16, 1910 to July 31, 1911 | Sea captain Max Witschel |
| May 9-12, 1912 | Sea captain Max Hahn |
| August 14th to September 28th, 1912 | Sea captain Eberhard von Mantey |
| August 5, 1914 to September 23, 1915 | Sea captain Wilhelm Tägert |
| September to October 1915 | Corvette Captain Franz Pfeiffer |
| October 1915 to January 1916 | Sea captain Hans Klappenbach |
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. 39-41 .
- Hildebrand, Hans H. / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . tape 6 : Ship biographies from Lützow to Prussia . Mundus Verlag, Ratingen, S. 58-61 .