For the battleship of the same name, see SMS Grosser Kurfürst

SMS Grosser Kurfürst (1913)

SMS Grosser Kurfürst"SMS" stands for "Seiner Majestät Schiff" was the second battleship of the four-ship . Grosser Kurfürst served in the German Imperial Navy during World War I. The battleship was laid down in October 1911 and launched on 5 May 1913...

SMS Grosser Kurfürst (or GroßerThis is the German "sharp S"; see ß

ß

In the German alphabet, ß is a letter that originated as a ligature of ss or sz. Like double "s", it is pronounced as an , but in standard spelling, it is only used after long vowels and diphthongs, while ss is used after short vowels...

. was an ironclad turret ship

Turret ship

Turret ships were a 19th century type of warship, the earliest to have their guns mounted in a revolving gun turret, instead of a broadside arrangement....

 of the German Kaiserliche Marine

Kaiserliche Marine

The Imperial German Navy was the German Navy created at the time of the formation of the German Empire. It existed between 1871 and 1919, growing out of the small Prussian Navy and Norddeutsche Bundesmarine, which primarily had the mission of coastal defense. Kaiser Wilhelm II greatly expanded...

. She was laid down at the Imperial Dockyard

Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven

Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven was a German shipbuilding company in Wilhelmshaven, Prussian Hanover. It was founded in 1853, first as Königliche Werft Wilhelmshaven but renamed in 1871 with the proclamation of the German Empire...

 in Wilhelmshaven

Wilhelmshaven

Wilhelmshaven is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea.-History:...

 in 1870 and completed in 1878; her long construction time was in part due to a redesign that was completed after work on the ship had begun. Her main battery of four 26 cm (10.2 in) guns was initially to be placed in a central armored battery, but during the redesign this was altered to a pair of twin gun turret

Gun turret

A gun turret is a weapon mount that protects the crew or mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon and at the same time lets the weapon be aimed and fired in many directions.The turret is also a rotating weapon platform...

s amidships.

Grosser Kurfürst was sunk on her maiden voyage in an accidental collision with the ironclad . The two ships, along with were steaming in the English Channel

English Channel

The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

 on 31 May 1878. The three ships encountered a group of fishing boats, and in turning to avoid them, Grosser Kurfürst inadvertently crossed too closely to König Wilhelm. The latter rammed Grosser Kurfürst, which sank in the span of about eight minutes, taking between 269 and 276 of her crew with her. Her loss spurred a series of investigations into the circumstances of the collision, which ultimately resulted in the acquittal of both Rear Admiral Carl Ferdinand Batsch, the squadron commander, and Count Alexander von Monts

Alexander von Monts

Alexander Graf von Monts was an officer in the German Imperial navy, the Kaiserliche Marine....

, the captain of Grosser Kurfürst. Political infighting over the affair led to ouster of Rear Admiral Reinhold von Werner

Reinhold von Werner

Reinhold von Werner was a Prussian and later Imperial German naval officer in the 19th century, eventually reaching the rank of Vice Admiral...

 from the navy.

Construction

Grosser Kurfürst was ordered by the Imperial Navy from the Imperial Dockyard

Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven

Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven was a German shipbuilding company in Wilhelmshaven, Prussian Hanover. It was founded in 1853, first as Königliche Werft Wilhelmshaven but renamed in 1871 with the proclamation of the German Empire...

 in Wilhelmshaven

Wilhelmshaven

Wilhelmshaven is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea.-History:...

; her keel was laid in 1869 under construction number 2. The ship was launched on 17 September 1875 and commissioned into the German fleet on 6 May 1878. Grosser Kurfürst cost the German government 7,303,000 gold marks

German gold mark

The Goldmark was the currency used in the German Empire from 1873 to 1914.-History:Before unification, the different German states issued a variety of different currencies, though most were linked to the Vereinsthaler, a silver coin containing 16⅔ grams of pure silver...

. As designed, Grosser Kurfürst was to have had her primary armament arranged in a central battery; after she was laid down, she was altered to mount her main guns in a pair of twin turrets. Although she was the first ship in her class of three vessels to be laid down, she was the last to be launched and commissioned. This was because she was redesigned after work had begun, and she was built by the newly established Imperial Dockyard. Her sister was built by an experienced commercial ship builder, and was laid down after the redesign was completed.

The ship was 96.59 metres (316.9 ft) long overall and had a beam of 16.3 m (53.5 ft) and a draft of 7.12 m (23.4 ft) forward. Grosser Kurfürst was powered by one 3-cylinder single expansion steam engine

Marine steam engine

A marine steam engine is a reciprocating steam engine that is used to power a ship or boat. Steam turbines and diesel engines largely replaced reciprocating steam engines in marine applications during the 20th century, so this article describes the more common types of marine steam engine in use...

, which was supplied with steam by six coal-fired transverse trunk boiler

Boiler

A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications.-Materials:...

s. The ship's top speed was 14 knots (7.6 m/s), at 5468 ihp. She was also equipped with a full ship rig

Full rigged ship

A full rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing vessel with three or more masts, all of them square rigged. A full rigged ship is said to have a ship rig....

. Her standard complement consisted of 46 officers and 454 enlisted men.

She was armed with four 26 cm (10.2 in) L/22 guns mounted in a pair of gun turret

Gun turret

A gun turret is a weapon mount that protects the crew or mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon and at the same time lets the weapon be aimed and fired in many directions.The turret is also a rotating weapon platform...

s placed amidships."L/22" denotes the length of the gun in terms of calibers

Caliber (artillery)

In artillery, caliber or calibredifference in British English and American English spelling is the internal diameter of a gun barrel, or by extension a relative measure of the length....

. A 22 caliber gun is 22 times as long as it is wide in diameter, so a 26 cm L/22 gun is 572 cm (225.2 in) long. As built, the ship was also equipped with two 17 cm (6.7 in) L/25 guns. Grosser Kurfürsts armor was made of wrought iron

Wrought iron

thumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...

 and backed with teak

Teak

Teak is the common name for the tropical hardwood tree species Tectona grandis and its wood products. Tectona grandis is native to south and southeast Asia, mainly India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Burma, but is naturalized and cultivated in many countries, including those in Africa and the...

. The armored belt was arrayed in two strake

Strake

A strake is part of the shell of the hull of a boat or ship which, in conjunction with the other strakes, keeps the sea out and the vessel afloat...

s. The upper strake was 203 mm (8 in) thick; the lower strake ranged in thickness from 102 to 229 mm (4 to 9 in). Both were backed with 234 to 260 mm (9.2 to 10.2 in) of teak. The gun turrets were protected by 203 millimetre armor on the sides, backed by 260 mm of teak.

Collision and loss

In April 1878, the armored squadron was reactivated for the annual summer training cycle, under the command of Rear Admiral Carl Ferdinand Batsch. Grosser Kurfürst joined the unit, which included her sisters and and the large ironclad , after her commissioning on 6 May. A grounding by Friedrich der Grosse caused serious damage to her hull and prevented her from taking part in the upcoming training cruise. The three ships left Wilhelmshaven on the 29th. König Wilhelm and Preussen steamed in a line, with Grosser Kurfürst off to starboard. On the morning of the 31st, the three ships encountered a pair of sailing vessels off Folkestone

Folkestone

Folkestone is the principal town in the Shepway District of Kent, England. Its original site was in a valley in the sea cliffs and it developed through fishing and its closeness to the Continent as a landing place and trading port. The coming of the railways, the building of a ferry port, and its...

. Grosser Kurfürst turned to port to avoid the boats while König Wilhelm sought to pass the two boats, but there was not enough distance between her and Grosser Kurfürst. She therefore turned hard to port to avoid Grosser Kurfürst, but the action was not taken quickly enough, and König Wilhelm found herself pointed directly at Grosser Kurfürst. König Wilhelms ram bow

Naval ram

A naval ram was a weapon carried by varied types of ships, dating back to antiquity. The weapon consisted of an underwater prolongation of the bow of the ship to form an armoured beak, usually between six and twelve feet in length...

 tore a hole in Grosser Kurfürst.

A failure to adequately seal the watertight bulkheads aboard Grosser Kurfürst caused the ship to sink rapidly, in the span of about eight minutes. Figures for the number of fatalities vary. Erich Gröner reports that out of a crew of 500 men, 269 died in the accident, while Lawrence Sondhaus states that 276 men were killed. Arthur Sullivan

Arthur Sullivan

Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...

, on his way to Paris, witnessed the incident, writing, "I saw it all – saw the unfortunate vessel slowly go over and disappear under the water in clear, bright sunshine, and the water like a calm lake. It was too horrible – and then we saw all the boats moving about picking up the survivors, some so exhausted they had to be lifted on to the ships." Among those rescued was the ship's captain, Count Alexander von Monts

Alexander von Monts

Alexander Graf von Monts was an officer in the German Imperial navy, the Kaiserliche Marine....

.

König Wilhelm was also badly damaged in the collision, with severe flooding forward. König Wilhelms captain initially planned on beaching the ship to prevent it from sinking, but determined that the ship's pumps could hold the flooding to an acceptable level. The ship made for Portsmouth

Portsmouth

Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...

, where temporary repairs could be effected to allow the ship to return to Germany. In the aftermath of the collision, the German navy held a court martial for Rear Admiral Batsch, the squadron commander, and Captains Monts and Kuehne, the commanders of the two ships, along with Lieutenant Clausa, the first officer aboard Grosser Kurfürst, to investigate the sinking.

Inquiry

In the ensuing inquiry, chaired by Rear Admiral Reinhold von Werner

Reinhold von Werner

Reinhold von Werner was a Prussian and later Imperial German naval officer in the 19th century, eventually reaching the rank of Vice Admiral...

, Monts testified that he had not been given sufficient time to familiarize himself with the ship and its crew, who were themselves unfamiliar with the vessel. Monts argued that the mobilization process for the newly commissioned ship should have lasted four to six weeks, rather than the three he had been given. The day before the squadron left Wilhelmshaven, Batsch complained to General Albrecht von Stosch

Albrecht von Stosch

Albrecht von Stosch was a German General der Infanterie and Admiral who served as first Chief of the newly created Imperial German admiralty from 1872 to 1883....

, the chief of the Kaiserliche Marine, that a significant number of dockyard workers were still finishing work on Grosser Kurfürst. Werner and the board determined that Admiral Batsch was at fault and exonerated Monts.

Stosch was infuriated that the proceedings had been allowed to become a forum for criticism of his policies, for which he blamed Werner. He appealed to Kaiser Wilhelm I, stating that the inquiry had unfairly blamed Admiral Batsch, and requested a new court martial for the involved officers. Simultaneously, Stosch began a campaign to force Werner out of the navy. This was in part to ensure that Batsch, his protégé, would be next in line after Stosch retired. Despite his popularity, particularly with Kaiser Wilhelm I and his son, Werner was unable to resist Stosch's efforts to force his ouster. On 15 October 1878, he requested retirement.

The second court martial again found Batsch guilty and Monts innocent of negligence. A third investigation, held in January 1879, reversed the decision of the previous verdicts and sentenced Monts to a prison term of one month and two days, though the Kaiser refused to implement the punishment. This necessitated another trial, which returned to the initial verdict and sentenced Batsch to six months in prison. The Kaiser commuted Batsch's sentence after he had served two months' time. Disappointed that his protégé had taken the blame for the sinking, Stosch requested another court martial for Monts, who was found not guilty. The Kaiser officially approved the verdict, which put an end to the series of trials over the sinking of Grosser Kurfürst.