SMS was a unique German armored cruiser built at the turn of the 20th century for the German (Imperial Navy), and was named after Prince Heinrich. The second vessel of that type built in Germany, was constructed at the (Imperial Shipyard) in Kiel, being laid down in December 1898, launched in March 1900, and commissioned in March 1902. s design was a modification of the previous armored cruiser, , and traded a smaller main battery and thinner (but more effective) armor for higher speed. All subsequent German armored cruisers were incremental developments of .
served with the German fleet in home waters for just four years, from 1902 to 1906, when she was withdrawn from front-line service. During this period, she served as the flagship of the fleet's Scouting Forces, and she was primarily occupied with fleet training. The ship was out of service from early 1906 to mid-1908, when she was reactivated for use as a gunnery training ship, a role she filled until late 1912. underwent modernization and conversion into a dedicated training ship in 1914, and the work was completed just before the outbreak of World War I in July that year.
After the start of war, the ship was reactivated for active service, initially with III Scouting Group with the High Seas Fleet. was used for coastal defense in the North Sea and she participated in the fleet sortie that supported the raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in December 1914. After the naval command determined was too old to serve in the North Sea against the powerful British Royal Navy, she was transferred to the Baltic Sea in early 1915. She supported offensive minelaying operations and patrolled the central Baltic for Russian forces, but never encountered any. She provided gunfire support during the attack on Libau in May 1915 and again shelled Russian positions during the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August. In the face of severe crew shortages in late 1915, had her crew reduced and was ultimately decommissioned and disarmed in March 1916. She thereafter served in a variety of secondary roles for the rest of the war, before being sold to be broken up in 1920.
Background In December 1895, Kaiser Wilhelm II, the German emperor, issued a directive to Admiral Friedrich von Hollmann to prepare a proposal for future naval construction through fiscal year 1907/1908. Hollmann was the state secretary of the (RMA—Imperial Naval Office). Wilhelm had already laid out the number of ships he decided would be necessary, in light of Russian naval construction. His projections included a total of nine armored cruisers, counting , which had not yet begun construction. At least one of the vessels was to have been a sister ship, with subsequent vessels expected to be developments thereof. It was estimated that each unit was to cost 19,300,000 marks, a significant amount. The plan soon came to nothing, however, as the Kaiser's request was unrealistically expensive and the (Imperial Diet) would not have funded it.
Clearly, any future large cruisers would have to be smaller and cheaper than . In a subsequent memorandum to Wilhelm, Hollmann noted that the cruisers he had requested were only 720,00 marks less than contemporary battleships, while the somewhat smaller and more lightly armed of protected cruisers cost roughly half as much, at 9,650,000 marks per ship. He argued that the cheaper ships were preferable, since they could be built in larger numbers and faster than the larger cruisers. Hollmann also noted that if the fleet was able to secure the necessary funding to build such a large cruiser, it would be preferable to build battleships instead, since they were more useful from a strategic perspective; this reflected the thinking of the Military Department of the RMA. Wilhelm approved the memorandum, but nevertheless continued to pursue larger ships.
Accordingly, Hollmann requested funds for two new protected cruisers of the class for the 1897/1898 fiscal year, but the refused to grant funds for them. Hollmann had already been in a weak position politically, and the failure to secure funding led to his removal from office. He was soon replaced by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz. Work on the new armored cruiser was deferred for a year, and it was decided that when funding for more cruisers could be obtained, the next vessels would be the two -class ships that Hollmann had attempted to order.
Design Initial studies
Aware that a repeat of was impossible due to its cost, the Construction Department of the RMA, led by Alfred Dietrich, began tentative work on what was then referred to as "cruiser A" on 12 June 1897. Work began at the request of (KAdm—Rear Admiral) Wilhelm Büchsel, who was then serving as the acting state secretary of the RMA, as Tirpitz had not yet arrived to take his new post. Büchsel set the basic criteria as: armament identical to the class, but substituting a pair of guns in place of the guns in practicable; sufficient draft to clear the Suez Canal; a hull sheathed with Muntz metal; and a complete armor belt at the waterline that was to be . Dietrich responded to Büchsel's request already on 13 June with a proposal that retained the 21 cm guns, which was estimated to cost 13,720,000 marks. The design staff soon followed with a number of variations for 21 cm and 24 cm armed ships, but a major problem that confronted them was the constraints on the proposed ship's size imposed by existing port facilities. This directly related to the beam and draft that was necessary to fit the required weapons, which had knock-on effects for the ship's speed and stability.
By August, the RMA began holding internal discussions to evaluate what characteristics should be prioritized. Compared to , the new ship's displacement had to be reduced by about to keep costs at an acceptable level. The General Department stated that the cruiser should be viewed as an improvement on the class, not a retrograde step from , the primary objective being to increase the former's ability to fight in the line of battle by adding belt armor and the larger 24 cm guns. As such, they argued that the number of 24 cm guns should be increased to four at the expense of the secondary armament of guns, which they pointed out were increasingly unable to penetrate medium armor at projected battle ranges. By that time, Tirpitz had arrived, and he asked Dietrich to provide estimated costs for three variants: A, armed with two 24 cm guns and eight 15 cm guns, B, which increased the number of 15 cm guns to ten, and C, which carried four 24 cm guns and eight 15 cm weapons.
In the meantime, Dietrich had prepared a memorandum, which he submitted to Tirpitz on 1 September, which presented his thoughts on the process thus far. His primary concern at that point was the layout of the armor scheme, since the class had no armor belt. He put forth five proposals, including a partial belt scheme similar to the British s; a complete belt with a thin armor deck connected to the top of the belt; and a thinner belt that had a thicker armor deck lowered to connect to the bottom edge via downward-sloping sides. The last option was a recent development in foreign navies, and Dietrich assumed that they had conducted firing tests that demonstrated its superior resistance to shellfire. He therefore recommended it for the new cruiser, despite not having any practical experience with it. The RMA approved Dietrich's memorandum in mid-September, and agreed to move forward with his suggested armor layout. Compared to , the new ship's armor layout would be thinner but more comprehensive. This was accomplished in part through advances in steel technology, which meant that her armor layout was in fact significantly more effective than s. Krupp had recently developed cemented armor plate, which was considerably stronger than earlier Harvey armor, so less could be used to achieve the same level of protection. In addition, the belt could be made taller, extending up to the main deck level, which protected more of the ship's interior. The sloped deck armor considerably strengthened the protection system by providing another layer of armor that would need to be penetrated before the ship's vitals could be damaged.
Tirpitz convened a meeting on 8 October to evaluate several pressing issues, including the plans to build "cruiser A", though his first concern was not to jeopardize the prospects of the naval law he sought to pass through the . Accordingly, he informed the department chiefs that costs were strictly limited so as not to run afoul of the parliament. He decided that the two 24 cm, ten 15 cm armament should be adopted, though the specific arrangement remained undefined. He asked Dietrich to evaluate different positioning, including gun turrets, casemates, and a central battery. As work on the design continued, by January 1898 it had become apparent that the ship would not be able to meet the speed requirements, and indeed would be slower than , which was unacceptable. Two options became apparent: either reduce the armament or armor, or remove the sheathing from the hull; the latter was chosen. Work on the cruiser slowed for a time, however, potentially due to the RMA's focus on passing the naval law, which it succeeded in doing in April.
Refining the design Now that the cruiser was formally authorized by the naval law, work on "A" resumed in earnest with another of Dietrich's memorandums on 3 June 1898. In the document, he included a central longitudinal watertight bulkhead that divided the engine and boiler rooms, which was believed to improve resistance to flooding. Because Dietrich's proposal for the armor layout had been adopted, the belt armor was reduced in thickness from , though the main battery turrets and their barbettes retained the 150 mm armor plate. An armored fire-control station with coincidence rangefinders was added to the top of the conning tower, which had not previously been used in German warships. Despite arguments to increase the caliber of the secondary guns, the need to meet strict cost limits meant that any such change was out of the question. The torpedo armament was set at three torpedo tubes, one in the bow and one on each side.
On 6 September 1898, Dietrich died and not long after, the Construction Department was reorganized, now with Büchsel as its head. A series of changes were then made to the design, owing in large part to the death of Dietrich. He had preferred the use of Belleville boilers for the ship over the new Dürr boiler; Dietrich's proposed propulsion system was to have provided and a top speed of . Büchsel suggested adopting the Dürr boilers in February 1899, along with several other changes, including a fourth torpedo tube in the stern and slight reductions in some of the less important armor plate to save weight. Provisions were adopted to allow the use of supplemental tar oil firing for the boilers. Wilhelm II approved the changes on 6 February, though work on the new cruiser had already begun on 1 December 1898.
Characteristics Dimensions and machinery
was long at the waterline and overall. She had a beam of and a draft of forward and aft. The ship displaced as built, and at full load. The hull was constructed with transverse and longitudinal steel frames, and incorporated thirteen watertight compartments and a double bottom that extended for 57 percent of the length of the ship. The German navy considered the ship to be a good sea boat with gentle motion in most respects, though she suffered from severe roll. was crewed by 35 officers and 532 enlisted men. For the duration of her career as the second command flagship of the Cruiser Division, the standard crew was augmented by an additional nine officers and 44 enlisted men. She carried a number of smaller vessels, including two picket boats, a launch, a pinnace, two cutters, two yawls, and two dinghies.