SMS was a German pre-dreadnought battleship of the , built around the turn of the 20th century for the (Imperial Navy). Named for the Emperor Charlemagne, was built in Hamburg, at the Blohm and Voss shipyard. She was laid down in September 1898 and launched in October 1899. A shipyard strike and an accidental grounding delayed her completion until February 1902; she was therefore the last member of her class to enter service. The ship was armed with four guns in two twin gun turrets and had a top speed of .
served with the active fleet until 1908, participating in the normal peacetime routine of training cruises and fleet maneuvers. By 1908, the new "all-big-gun" dreadnought battleships were entering service. As these rendered her obsolete, was withdrawn from active service and placed in the Reserve Division. At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the ship was placed back in active duty as a coastal defense ship in V Battle Squadron, though by February 1915 she was again placed in reserve. was briefly used as a training ship and ended her career as a prison ship for prisoners of war in Wilhelmshaven. After the German defeat in November 1918, she was sold to ship-breakers and scrapped in 1920.
Design
After the German (Imperial Navy) ordered the four s in 1889, a combination of budgetary constraints, opposition in the (Imperial Diet), and a lack of a coherent fleet plan delayed the acquisition of further battleships. The former Secretary of the (Imperial Navy Office), Leo von Caprivi became the Chancellor of Germany in 1890, and (Vice Admiral) Friedrich von Hollmann became the new Secretary of the . Hollmann requested the first pre-dreadnought battleship in 1892, but the Franco-Russian Alliance, signed the year before, put the government's attention on expanding the Army's budget. Parliamentary opposition forced Hollmann to delay until the following year, when Caprivi spoke in favor of the project, noting that Russia's recent naval expansion threatened Germany's Baltic Sea coastline. In late 1893, Hollmann presented the Navy's estimates for the 1894–1895 budget year, and now the approved the new ship, and over the following three years, he secured approval for two further ships. In June 1897, Hollmann was replaced by (Rear Admiral) Alfred von Tirpitz, who quickly proposed and secured approval for the first Naval Law in early 1898. The law authorized the last two ships of the class, and .
was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward and aft. She displaced as designed and up to at full load. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one screw propeller. Steam was provided by four Marine-type and eight cylindrical boilers, all of which burned coal and were vented through a pair of tall funnels. s powerplant was rated at , which generated a top speed of . She had a cruising radius of at a speed of . She had a normal complement of 39 officers and 612 enlisted men.
The ship's armament consisted of a main battery of four 24 cm (9.4 in) SK L/40 guns in twin gun turrets, one fore and one aft of the central superstructure. Her secondary armament consisted of eighteen 15 cm (5.9 inch) SK L/40 guns carried in a mix of turrets and casemates. Close-range defense against torpedo boats was provided by a battery of twelve 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/30 quick-firing guns all mounted in casemates and twelve machine cannon in single mounts. The armament suite was rounded out with six torpedo tubes, all in above-water swivel mounts. The ship's belt armor was thick, and the main armor deck was thick. The conning tower and main battery turrets were protected with of armor plating, and the secondary casemates received of armor protection.
Service history
Construction through 1904
German Emperor () Wilhelm II believed that a strong navy was necessary for the country to expand its influence outside continental Europe. As a result, he initiated a program of naval expansion in the late 1880s; the first battleships built under this program were the four -class ships. These were immediately followed by the five -class battleships, of which was a member. She was ordered under the contract name "B" as a new ship of the fleet. The ship's keel was laid down on 17 September 1898 at the Blohm & Voss in Hamburg under yard number 136. She was the first capital ship to be built by the yard and the second warship of any type. The new battleship was launched on 18 October 1899 and named for Charlemagne ( in German); Wilhelm II gave the launching speech and Johann Georg Mönckeberg, the (First Mayor) of Hamburg, christened the ship. A major strike by shipyard workers in late 1900 significantly delayed completion of the ship. In October 1901, a shipyard crew took the ship to the naval base at Wilhelmshaven, though while en route she ran aground in the lower Elbe river. The hull was damaged in the incident and the necessary repairs further delayed her entry into service; she was not commissioned until 4 February 1902.
was assigned to II Division of I Squadron on 19 February, the last member of her class to enter active service. With the assignment of , I Squadron was now fully composed of modern battleships. The squadron went on a training cruise to Britain in April and May, followed by a tour of the Kiel Week sailing regatta in late June. The ships then took part in another training cruise to Norway in July and then the autumn maneuvers, which began in the Baltic on 31 August. During the exercises, was assigned to the "hostile" force, as were several of her sister ships. The "hostile" force was first tasked with preventing the "German" squadron from passing through the Great Belt in the Baltic. and several other battleships were then tasked with forcing an entry into the mouth of the Elbe River, where the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal and Hamburg could be seized. The "hostile" flotilla accomplished these tasks within three days. The maneuvers concluded in the North Sea with a fleet review in the Jade Bight. From 1 to 12 December, the squadron went on its normal winter cruise to Norway.
In 1903, the fleet, which was composed of only one squadron of battleships (along with its attendant scouting vessels and torpedo boats), was reorganized as the "Active Battle Fleet." remained in I Squadron along with her sister ships and the newest s, while the older -class ships were placed in reserve in order to be rebuilt. The first quarter of 1903 followed the usual pattern of training exercises. The squadron went on a training cruise in the Baltic, followed by a voyage to Spain that lasted from 7 May to 10 June. In July, she joined I Squadron for the annual cruise to Norway. The autumn maneuvers consisted of a blockade exercise in the North Sea, a cruise of the entire fleet first to Norwegian waters and then to Kiel in early September, and finally a mock attack on Kiel. The exercises concluded on 12 September. The winter training cruise began on 23 November in the eastern Baltic and continued into the Skagerrak in early December.
participated in exercises in the Skagerrak from 11 to 21 January 1904, with her squadron from 8 to 17 March, and with the fleet in the North Sea in May. In July, I Squadron and I Scouting Group visited Britain, including a stop at Plymouth on 10 July. The German fleet departed on 13 July, bound for the Netherlands; I Squadron anchored in Vlissingen the following day, where the ships were visited by Queen Wilhelmina. Departing on 20 July for a cruise in the northern North Sea with the rest of the fleet, the squadron stopped in Molde, Norway, nine days later while the other units went to other ports. The fleet reassembled on 6 August and steamed back to Kiel, where it conducted a mock attack on the harbor on 12 August. Immediately after returning to Kiel, the fleet began preparations for the autumn maneuvers, which began on 29 August in the Baltic. The fleet moved to the North Sea on 3 September, where it took part in a major landing operation, after which the ships took the ground troops from IX Corps that participated in the exercises to Altona for a parade for Wilhelm II. The ships then conducted their own parade for the Kaiser off the island of Helgoland on 6 September. Three days later, the fleet returned to the Baltic via the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, where it participated in further landing operations with IX Corps and the Guards Corps. On 15 September, the maneuvers came to an end. I Squadron went on its winter training cruise, this time to the eastern Baltic, from 22 November to 2 December.
1905–1914
In January and February 1905, served briefly as the flagship of the squadron. During this period, she took part in a pair of training cruises with I Squadron during 9–19 January and 27 February – 16 March 1905. Individual and squadron training followed, with an emphasis on gunnery drills. On 12 July, the fleet began a major training exercise in the North Sea. While on the cruise on 18 July, was detached to visit Antwerp to represent Germany during the celebrations for the 75th anniversary of the Belgian Revolution. The rest of the fleet then cruised through the Kattegat and stopped in Copenhagen and Stockholm; rejoined them on 3 August in Karlskrona. The summer cruise ended on 9 August, though the autumn maneuvers that would normally have begun shortly thereafter were delayed by a visit from the British Channel Fleet that month.
The British fleet stopped in Danzig, Swinemünde, and Flensburg, where it was greeted by units of the German Navy; and the main German fleet was anchored at Swinemünde for the occasion. The visit was strained by the growing Anglo-German naval arms race. As a result of the British visit, the 1905 autumn maneuvers (6 to 13 September) were shortened considerably, consisting only of exercises in the North Sea. The first exercise presumed a naval blockade in the German Bight, and the second envisioned a hostile fleet attempting to force the defenses of the Elbe. In November, I Squadron cruised in the Baltic. In early December, I and II Squadrons went on their regular winter cruise, this time to Danzig, where they arrived on 12 December. While on the return trip to Kiel, the fleet conducted tactical exercises.
The fleet undertook a heavier training schedule in 1906 than in previous years. The ships were occupied with individual, division and squadron exercises throughout April. Starting on 13 May, major fleet exercises took place in the North Sea and lasted until 8 June with a cruise around the Skagen into the Baltic. The fleet began its usual summer cruise to Norway in mid-July. and I Squadron anchored in Molde, where they were joined on 21 July by Wilhelm II aboard the steamer . The fleet was present for the birthday of Norwegian king Haakon VII on 3 August. The German ships departed the following day for Helgoland to join exercises being conducted there, arriving back in Kiel by 15 August, where preparations for the autumn maneuvers began. On 22–24 August, the fleet took part in landing exercises in Eckernförde Bay outside Kiel. The maneuvers were paused from 31 August to 3 September when Kiel hosted vessels from Denmark and Sweden, along with a Russian squadron from 3 to 9 September. The maneuvers resumed on 8 September and lasted five more days. The ship participated in the uneventful winter cruise into the Kattegat and Skagerrak from 8 to 16 December.