Saxony class (1877)
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| Class details | |
| Ship type: | Armored corvette |
| Period of service: | 1878–1910 (SMS Württemberg: 1881–1920) |
| Units: | 4th |
| Sister ships | |
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SMS Sachsen SMS Bayern SMS Württemberg SMS Baden |
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| Technical specifications | |
| Length: |
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| Width: | 18.3 m |
| Draft: | 6.5 m |
| Displacement: |
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| Drive: |
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| Speed: | 13.5 kn |
| Range: | 1,940 nm at 10 kn |
| Crew: | 317-436 men |
| Armament: |
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The Sachsen class was a class of four tank corvettes of the German Imperial Navy , named after German states: SMS Sachsen , SMS Bayern , SMS Württemberg and SMS Baden .
draft
They were initially referred to as emergency corvettes and occasionally also as citadel ships, as they were only armored in the central area. The first plans for the ships of the class were made as early as 1861. The four planned ships were primarily intended for coastal defense in the Baltic Sea area . Since the ships assigned to the Szczecin shipyard were completed much faster than the buildings ordered at the same time from the new Imperial Shipyard in Kiel , SMS Sachsen (household name: Panzerschiff B ) unexpectedly gave its class its name. Typschiff would otherwise have become her sister ship SMS Bayern ( Panzerschiff A ). From 1884 all four ships were operational.
Armament
Their armament consisted of six 26 cm L / 22 ring cannons each. Four of the six guns were positioned in casemates in the middle of the ship and two in front open barbeds . The gun crews were therefore poorly protected - which was by no means unusual at the time, even internationally. This fact was due to the rapidly developing innovations in gun construction: A uniformity of the carriage construction was not guaranteed, especially since the leading navies could not even decide between front and rear loaders for heavy naval guns, as both types had their respective advantages and disadvantages. From 1886, the ships also had five torpedo tubes.
Armor
The armor was made of wrought iron. Due to the improved guns, reinforced armor was necessary. The armor plates of the citadel , in which the most important functions were housed, were 203-254 mm thick. The armored deck inside had armor plates 51–64 mm thick.
drive
The drive consisted of two horizontally installed single expansion machines with eight suitcase boilers in two separate machine rooms. The chimneys were therefore arranged in pairs next to each other, which led to the nickname cement factory . The ships of this class were the first of the Imperial Navy to be built without auxiliary sails. They were also the first to receive electrical systems from the start.
history
The ships of this class were put into service between 1878 and 1881 and served in the fleet until 1910. However, the Sachsen was in reserve from 1903 and the Württemberg was used from 1906 as a training and test ship for torpedo training. She also remained in service as the last unit of the Sachsen class, while the other three were used as target ships from 1910 and, as in the case of the Baden, even until 1938.
literature
- Erwin Strohbusch : German Navy. Warship building since 1848. 2nd improved edition. German Maritime Museum, Bremerhaven 1984 ( Guide of the German Maritime Museum 8, ZDB -ID 551539-7 ).
- John Roberts, HC Timewell, Roger Chesneau (eds.), Eugene M. Kolesnik (ed.): Warships of the World 1860 to 1905 - Volume 1: Great Britain / Germany , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1983, ISBN 3-7637-5402 -4 .
- Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung and Martin Maass: The German Warships 1815–1945 - Volume 1 . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 .
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ H. Merleker: Ships also have nicknames . In: The sea chest . No. 2, 1951, pp. 82/83.