SMS Prince Adalbert (1901)

German Empire

Ship data
Ship type:	Big cruiser
Ship class :	Prince Adalbert class
Launching ( ship christening ):	June 22, 1901 in Kiel
Commissioning:	January 12, 1904
Builder :	Kaiserliche Werft Kiel construction no .: 27
Construction designation:	Big cruiser B
Crew:	35 officers and 551 men as division flagship: 44 officers and 595 men
Building-costs:	16,371,000 marks
Whereabouts:	Sunk by the British submarine E 8 off Libau on October 23, 1915

Technical specifications
Measurement:	6,070 GRT 3,087 NRT
Displacement :	Construction: 9,087 t maximum: 9,875 t
Length:	KWL : 124.9 m over all: 126.5 m
Width:	19.6 m
Draft :	7.3 m
Drive:	14 steam boilers 3 standing 3-cylinder triple expansion steam engines
Screws:	Middle wave: 1 three-winged 4.5 m outer wave: 2 four-winged 4.8 m ${\ displaystyle \ varnothing}$ ${\ displaystyle \ varnothing}$
Machine power:	Continuous operation: 16,200 PSi Test drive: 17,272 PSi
Top speed:	21 kn
Bunker stock:	750–1630 tons of coal
Driving range :	4970 nm at 12 kn
Armament:	4 Sk 21 cm L / 40 340 rounds, 168 hm 10 Sk 15 cm L / 40 1500 rounds, 137 hm 12 Sk 8.8 cm L / 35 1800 rounds 4 torpedo tubes 45 cm 1 bow, 1 stern, 2 sides (all under water) ${\ displaystyle \ varnothing}$
Armor:	Deck: 40-80 mm Slopes: 50–80 mm Belt: 80-100 mm Command post: horizontal: 30 mm, vertical: 150 mm Casemates: 100 mm Citadel: 100 mm Towers: Ceilings: 30 mm Sides: 100–150 mm

SMS Prinz Adalbert was a large cruiser in the German Imperial Navy . The ship was named after Prince Adalbert of Prussia (1811–1873), the founder and first commander in chief of the Imperial Navy.

The Prinz Adalbert was the lead ship of a class of two units. The sister ship was the Friedrich Carl . The Prinz Adalbert was planned as a replacement building for the König Wilhelm , while the Friedrich Carl was an extension building .

Construction and technical aspects

In April 1900 the keel was laid in Kiel with hull number 27 at the Kaiserliche Werft . There it was on June 22, 1901 by Stack . The ship was christened by Princess Irene , wife of Prince Heinrich of Prussia . The cruiser entered service on January 12, 1904. The construction costs amounted to 16,371,000 gold marks .

The Prinz Adalbert and her sister ship were very similar to the previously built Prinz Heinrich , but had three funnels, and the Prinz Heinrich's two 24 cm guns were replaced by four 21 cm quick-loading guns in two twin turrets , the rate of fire of which was considerably higher than that of the heavier 24 cm guns. As with many ships of the time, the six lower casemate guns of the secondary artillery could only be used when the sea was calm. The two ships had a good ride quality, but this deteriorated noticeably as the bunker load decreased.

The interior of the officers' mess was made by the Dresden workshops for craftsmanship based on a design by Art Nouveau artist Richard Riemerschmid .

career

The Prinz Adalbert initially served as an artillery training and test ship during the inspection of the ship's artillery in Sønderborg . In 1906 the cruiser brought Prince Heinrich of Prussia to Drontheim to take part in the coronation of Haakon VII of Norway .

When the First World War broke out , the Prince Adalbert III. Assigned to the deep-sea fleet reconnaissance group. The cruiser served in the Baltic Sea during the first weeks of the war . On August 26th he was sent to the aid of the small cruiser Magdeburg, which had run aground off the coast of Estonia , but was ordered back when the news of the blasting of the Magdeburg arrived. On September 7th, the Prinz Adalbert moved to the North Sea , where on September 9th she secured the mine cruisers Nautilus and Albatross and the auxiliary mine ship Kaiser while laying a mine barrier to protect the access to the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal . She was briefly detached to guard the Great Belt when the Germans feared an attempt by British ships to break through into the Baltic Sea. And from November 2nd to 4th, she took part in the advance of the deep sea fleet into the North Sea, when the battle cruisers fired at port cities on the English east coast and small cruisers laid mine blocks. At the end of November 1914, the Prinz Adalbert was relocated to the Baltic Sea to replace her sister ship Friedrich Carl, which sank in a minefield off Libau on November 17th, and to operate against the Russian Baltic Sea fleet as part of the Baltic Sea reconnaissance group under Rear Admiral Ehler Behring .

During an attempt to bombard the Libau naval base on January 24, 1915, the Prinz Adalbert ran aground near Steinort , but could be made afloat again.

First torpedoing

Community grave at the Nordfriedhof Kiel

When the Prinz Adalbert and the Prinz Heinrich rushed to the aid of the German ships SMS Roon , SMS Augsburg and SMS Albatross from Danzig on July 2, 1915 by Russian units in the Gotland raid on the island of Gotland , the Prinz Adalbert was subordinated Sea captain Andreas Michelsen at the height of the Rixhöft lighthouse northwest of the Hela peninsula from the British submarine E9 under Max Kennedy Horton , who penetrated the Baltic Sea in October 1914 and has since operated, torpedoed and damaged from Reval , but was able to do so with his own Kraft returned to Kiel, backing 240 of the 295 nautical miles . The ten crew members killed in this attack were buried in the Kiel North Cemetery ; Their common grave is there in field N, under no. 89 A, between the graves of the men of the torpedo boat S 126 and the auxiliary ship Binz .

Downfall

On the morning of October 23, 1915, at 8:34 a.m., the Prinz Adalbert became captain of the sea under command Wilhelm Bunnemann, after leaving Libau, which was now occupied by German troops, about 20 nautical miles from Libau from the British submarine E8 hit with a torpedo from a distance of about 1200 m. The torpedo hit the ammunition magazine in the bow. The explosion tore the ship in two, which immediately sank. Only three men of the 675-strong crew could be saved.

The wreck

The wreck was only in June 2007 by the Swedish divers in the Deep Sea Productions in 80 m depth at the position 56 ° 33 ' N , 20 ° 18' O discovered. 56.55 20.3

literature

Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung and Martin Maass: The German Warships 1815–1945 Volume 1 . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 .
John Roberts, HC Timewell, Roger Chesneau (Eds.), Eugene M. Kolesnik (Eds.): Warships of the World 1860 to 1905 - Volume 1: Great Britain / Germany . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1983, ISBN 3-7637-5402-4 .

Web links

Commons : SMS Prinz Adalbert - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ http://www.worldwar1.co.uk/armoured-cruiser/sms-prinz-adalbert.html
↑ http://www.uboat.net/allies/personnel/horton.htm
↑ http://www.kiel.de/leben/friedhoefe/nordfriedhof/marine/prinzadalbert.php
↑ http://www.denkmalprojekt.org/dkm_deutschland/kiel_sms_prinz_adalbert_wk1_sh.htm
↑ Ingrid Raagaard: The dark secret of "Prince Adalbert". Baltic Sea: German armored cruiser discovered after 92 years. Hamburger Abendblatt , November 23, 2007, accessed on October 23, 2015 (sinking and wreckage).

[1] ttp://www.worldwar1.co.uk/armoured-cruiser/sms-prinz-adalbert.html

[2] ttp://www.uboat.net/allies/personnel/horton.htm

[3] ttp://www.kiel.de/leben/friedhoefe/nordfriedhof/marine/prinzadalbert.php

[4] ttp://www.denkmalprojekt.org/dkm_deutschland/kiel_sms_prinz_adalbert_wk1_sh.htm

[ha_20071123-5] Ingrid Raagaard: The dark secret of "Prince Adalbert". Baltic Sea: German armored cruiser discovered after 92 years. Hamburger Abendblatt , November 23, 2007, accessed on October 23, 2015 (sinking and wreckage).