SMS Nassau
Encyclopedia
SMS Nassau"SMS" stands for "Seiner Majestät Schiff", or "His Majesty's Ship" in German. was the first dreadnought
battleship
built for the Imperial German Navy
, a response to the launching of the British battleship HMS Dreadnought
in 1906. Nassau was laid down on 22 July 1907 at the Kaiserliche Werft
in Wilhelmshaven
, and launched less than a year later on 7 March 1908, approximately 25 months after Dreadnought was launched. She was the lead ship
of her class
of four battleships, which included , , and .
Nassau saw service in the North Sea
in the beginning of World War I
, in the II Division of the I Battle Squadron of the German High Seas Fleet
. In August 1915, she participated in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga
, where she engaged the Russian battleship Slava
. Following her return to the North Sea, Nassau and her sister ships took part in the Battle of Jutland
on 31 May–1 June 1916. During the battle, Nassau collided with the British destroyer . Nassau suffered a total of 11 killed and 16 injured during the engagement.
Following the end of World War I, the majority of the High Seas Fleet was interned in Scapa Flow
. As they were the oldest German dreadnoughts, the Nassau class ships were for the time permitted to remain in German ports. After the German fleet was scuttled
, Nassau and her three sisters were surrendered to the victorious powers as replacements for the sunken ships. Nassau was ceded to Japan in April 1920. With no use for the ship, Japan sold her to a British wrecking firm which then scrapped her in Dordrecht
, Netherlands
.
in Wilhelmshaven
, under construction number 30. Construction work proceeded under absolute secrecy; detachments of soldiers were tasked with guarding the shipyard itself, as well as contractors that supplied building materials, such as Krupp
. The ship was launched on 7 March 1908; fitting out work commenced and was completed by the end of September 1909. She was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 1 October 1909. , the ship that spurred Nassaus construction, had been launched 2 February 1906, some 25 months before Nassau. The ship cost the German navy 37,399,000 gold marks
.
Nassau was 146.1 m (479.3 ft) long, 26.9 m (88.3 ft) wide, and had a draft of 8.9 m (29.2 ft). She displaced 18570 MT (18,276.7 LT) with a standard load, and 21000 MT (20,668.3 LT) fully laden. The ship retained 3-shaft triple expansion engines instead of more advanced turbine
engines. This type of machinery was chosen at the request of both Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz
and the Navy's construction department; the latter stated in 1905 that the "use of turbines in heavy warships does not recommend itself."
Nassau carried twelve 28 cm (11 in) SK L/45In Imperial German Navy gun nomenclature, "SK" (Schnellfeuerkanone) denotes that the gun quick firing, while "L/45" provides the length of the gun in terms of the diameter of the barrel. In this case, the L/45 gun is 45 calibers, which means that the gun is 45 times as long as its diameter. guns in an unusual hexagonal configuration. Her secondary armament consisted of twelve 15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/45 guns and sixteen 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/45 guns, all of which were mounted in casemate
s. The ship was also armed with six 45 cm (17.7 in) submerged torpedo tube
s. One tube was mounted in the bow, another in the stern, and two on each broadside, on either ends of the torpedo bulkhead
.
in order to facilitate the capture of Riga
by the German army. To do so, the German planners intended to drive off or destroy the Russian naval forces in the area, which included the pre-dreadnought
battleship Slava
and a number of gunboats and destroyers. The German naval force would also lay a series of minefields in the northern entrance to the gulf to prevent Russian naval reinforcements from being able to enter the area. The fleet that assembled for the assault included Nassau and her three sister ships, the four s, and the battlecruisers , , and . The force would operate under the command of Vice Admiral Franz von Hipper
. The eight battleships were to provide cover for the forces engaging the Russian flotilla. The first attempt on 8 August was unsuccessful, as it had taken too long to clear the Russian minefields to allow the minelayer to lay a minefield of her own.
On 16 August 1915, a second attempt was made to enter the gulf: Nassau and Posen, four light cruisers, and 31 torpedo boats managed to breach the Russian defenses. On the first day of the assault, the German minesweeper T 46 was sunk, as was the destroyer V 99. The following day, Nassau and Posen engaged in an artillery duel with Slava, resulting in three hits on the Russian ship that forced her to retreat. By 19 August, the Russian minefields had been cleared and the flotilla entered the gulf. However, reports of Allied submarines in the area prompted the Germans to call off of the operation the following day. Admiral Hipper later remarked that "To keep valuable ships for a considerable time in a limited area in which enemy submarines were increasingly active, with the corresponding risk of damage and loss, was to indulge in a gamble out of all proportion to the advantage to be derived from the occupation of the Gulf before the capture of Riga from the land side."
, behind Rear Admiral Behncke's III Battle Squadron, and followed by Rear Admiral Mauve's elderly pre-dreadnoughts of the II Battle Squadron. Nassau was the third ship in the group of four, behind Rheinland and ahead of Westfalen; Posen was the squadron's flagship. However, when the German fleet reorganized into a nighttime cruising formation, the order of the ships was inadvertently reversed, and so Nassau was the second ship in the line, astern of Westfalen.
Between 17:48 and 17:52, eleven German dreadnoughts, including Nassau, engaged and opened fire on the British 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron; Nassaus target was the cruiser . Nassau is believed to have scored one hit on Southampton, at approximately 17:50 at a range of 20100 yd (18,379.4 m), shortly after she began firing. The shell struck Southampton obliquely on her port side, but did not cause significant damage. Nassau then shifted her guns to the cruiser , but ceased firing by 18:10. At 19:33, Nassau came into range of the British battleship ; her main guns fired briefly, but after the 180 degree turn by the German fleet, the British ship was no longer within reach.
Nassau and the rest of the I Squadron were again engaged by British light forces shortly after 22:00. The British ships, which included the light cruisers , , and . Nassau followed her sister Westfalen in a 68° turn to starboard in order to evade any torpedoes that might have been fired. The two ships fired on Caroline and Royalist at a range of around 8000 yd (7,315.2 m). The British ships turned away briefly, before turning about to launch torpedoes. Caroline fired two at Nassau; the first passed close to her bows and the second passed under the ship without exploding.
At around midnight on 1 June, the German fleet was attempting to pass behind the British Grand Fleet when it encountered a line of British destroyers. Nassau came in contact with the destroyer , and in the confusion, attempted to ram her. Spitfire tried to evade, but could not maneuver away fast enough, and the two ships collided. Nassau fired her forward 11-inch guns at the destroyer, but they could not depress low enough for Nassau to be able to score a hit. Nonetheless, the blast from the guns destroyed Spitfires bridge. At that point, Spitfire was able to disengage from Nassau, and took with her a 6 m (20 ft) portion of Nassaus side plating. The collision disabled one of Nassaus 15 cm (5.9 in) guns, and left an 3.5 m (11.5 ft) gash above the waterline; this slowed the ship to 15 kn (8.2 m/s) until it could be repaired. During the confused action, Nassau was hit by two 4 in (10.2 cm) shells from the British destroyers, which damaged her searchlights and inflicted minor casualties.
Shortly after 01:00, Nassau and encountered the British armored cruiser . Thüringen opened fire first, and pummeled Black Prince with a total of 27 heavy-caliber shells and 24 shells from her secondary battery. Nassau and joined in, followed by .
The wreck of the ship was directly in the path of Nassau; to avoid it, the ship had to steer sharply towards the III Battle Squadron. It was necessary for the ship to steam at full speed astern in order to avoid a collision with . Nassau then fell back into a position between the pre-dreadnoughts and . At around 03:00, several British destroyers attempted another torpedo attack on the German line. At approximately 03:10, three or four destroyers appeared in the darkness to port of Nassau; at a range of between 5500 yd (5,029.2 m) to 4400 yd (4,023.4 m), Nassau briefly fired on the ships before turning away 90° to avoid torpedoes.
Following her return to German waters, Nassau, her sisters Posen and Westfalen, and the Helgoland-class battleships and Thüringen, took up defensive positions in the Jade
roadstead
for the night. In the course of the battle, Nassau was hit twice by secondary shells, though these hits caused no significant damage. Her casualties amounted to 11 men killed and 16 men wounded. During the course of the battle, she fired 106 main battery shells and 75 rounds from her secondary guns. Repairs were completed quickly, and Nassau was back with the fleet by 10 July 1916.
. Nassau and her three sisters were not among the ships listed for internment, so they remained in German ports. On 21 June 1919, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter
, under the mistaken impression that the Armistice would expire at noon that day, ordered his ships be scuttled
to prevent their seizure by the British. As a result, the four Nassau class ships were ceded to the various Allied powers as replacements for the ships that had been sunk. Nassau was awarded to Japan on 7 April 1920, though the Japanese had no need for the ship. They therefore sold her in June 1920 to British ship-breakers, who scrapped the ship in Dordrecht
.
Dreadnought
The dreadnought was the predominant type of 20th-century battleship. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her were referred to as "dreadnoughts", and earlier battleships became known as pre-dreadnoughts...
battleship
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
built for the Imperial German Navy
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...
, a response to the launching of the British battleship HMS Dreadnought
HMS Dreadnought (1906)
HMS Dreadnought was a battleship of the British Royal Navy that revolutionised naval power. Her entry into service in 1906 represented such a marked advance in naval technology that her name came to be associated with an entire generation of battleships, the "dreadnoughts", as well as the class of...
in 1906. Nassau was laid down on 22 July 1907 at the Kaiserliche Werft
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:...
, and launched less than a year later on 7 March 1908, approximately 25 months after Dreadnought was launched. She was the lead ship
Lead ship
The lead ship or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable military ships and larger civilian craft.-Overview:...
of her class
Nassau class battleship
The Nassau class were a group of four German dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Navy. They were the German response to the introduction of the "all big gun" British . The class was composed of , , , and . All four ships were laid down in mid-1907, and completed between May and September...
of four battleships, which included , , and .
Nassau saw service in the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
in the beginning of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, in the II Division of the I Battle Squadron of the German High Seas Fleet
High Seas Fleet
The High Seas Fleet was the battle fleet of the German Empire and saw action during World War I. The formation was created in February 1907, when the Home Fleet was renamed as the High Seas Fleet. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was the architect of the fleet; he envisioned a force powerful enough to...
. In August 1915, she participated in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga
Battle of the Gulf of Riga
The Battle of the Gulf of Riga was a World War I naval operation of the German High Seas Fleet against the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea in August 1915...
, where she engaged the Russian battleship Slava
Russian battleship Slava
Slava was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy, the last of the five s. Commissioned too late to participate in the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War, she survived while all of her sister ships were either sunk during the battle or surrendered to the Imperial...
. Following her return to the North Sea, Nassau and her sister ships took part in the Battle of Jutland
Battle of Jutland
The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet during the First World War. The battle was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916 in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark. It was the largest naval battle and the only...
on 31 May–1 June 1916. During the battle, Nassau collided with the British destroyer . Nassau suffered a total of 11 killed and 16 injured during the engagement.
Following the end of World War I, the majority of the High Seas Fleet was interned in Scapa Flow
Scapa Flow
right|thumb|Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern endScapa Flow is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsay and Hoy. It is about...
. As they were the oldest German dreadnoughts, the Nassau class ships were for the time permitted to remain in German ports. After the German fleet was scuttled
Scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow
The scuttling of the German fleet took place at the Royal Navy's base at Scapa Flow, in Scotland, after the end of the First World War. The High Seas Fleet had been interned there under the terms of the Armistice whilst negotiations took place over the fate of the ships...
, Nassau and her three sisters were surrendered to the victorious powers as replacements for the sunken ships. Nassau was ceded to Japan in April 1920. With no use for the ship, Japan sold her to a British wrecking firm which then scrapped her in Dordrecht
Dordrecht
Dordrecht , colloquially Dordt, historically in English named Dort, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the fourth largest city of the province, having a population of 118,601 in 2009...
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
.
Construction
Nassau was ordered under the provisional name Ersatz Bayern, as a replacement for the old . She was laid down on 22 July 1907 at the Kaiserliche WerftKaiserliche 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:...
, under construction number 30. Construction work proceeded under absolute secrecy; detachments of soldiers were tasked with guarding the shipyard itself, as well as contractors that supplied building materials, such as Krupp
Krupp
The Krupp family , a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, have become famous for their steel production and for their manufacture of ammunition and armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th...
. The ship was launched on 7 March 1908; fitting out work commenced and was completed by the end of September 1909. She was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 1 October 1909. , the ship that spurred Nassaus construction, had been launched 2 February 1906, some 25 months before Nassau. The ship cost the German navy 37,399,000 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...
.
Nassau was 146.1 m (479.3 ft) long, 26.9 m (88.3 ft) wide, and had a draft of 8.9 m (29.2 ft). She displaced 18570 MT (18,276.7 LT) with a standard load, and 21000 MT (20,668.3 LT) fully laden. The ship retained 3-shaft triple expansion engines instead of more advanced turbine
Turbine
A turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work.The simplest turbines have one moving part, a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or drum with blades attached. Moving fluid acts on the blades, or the blades react to the flow, so that they move and...
engines. This type of machinery was chosen at the request of both Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz
Alfred von Tirpitz
Alfred von Tirpitz was a German Admiral, Secretary of State of the German Imperial Naval Office, the powerful administrative branch of the German Imperial Navy from 1897 until 1916. Prussia never had a major navy, nor did the other German states before the German Empire was formed in 1871...
and the Navy's construction department; the latter stated in 1905 that the "use of turbines in heavy warships does not recommend itself."
Nassau carried twelve 28 cm (11 in) SK L/45In Imperial German Navy gun nomenclature, "SK" (Schnellfeuerkanone) denotes that the gun quick firing, while "L/45" provides the length of the gun in terms of the diameter of the barrel. In this case, the L/45 gun is 45 calibers, which means that the gun is 45 times as long as its diameter. guns in an unusual hexagonal configuration. Her secondary armament consisted of twelve 15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/45 guns and sixteen 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/45 guns, all of which were mounted in casemate
Casemate
A casemate, sometimes rendered casement, is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired. originally a vaulted chamber in a fortress.-Origin of the term:...
s. The ship was also armed with six 45 cm (17.7 in) submerged torpedo tube
Torpedo tube
A torpedo tube is a device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units installed aboard surface vessels...
s. One tube was mounted in the bow, another in the stern, and two on each broadside, on either ends of the torpedo bulkhead
Torpedo bulkhead
A torpedo bulkhead is a type of armor common on the more heavily armored warships, especially battleships and battlecruisers of the early 20th century. It is designed to keep the ship afloat even if the hull was struck underneath the belt armor by a shell or by a torpedo...
.
Battle of the Gulf of Riga
In August 1915, the German fleet attempted to clear the Gulf of RigaGulf of Riga
The Gulf of Riga, or Bay of Riga, is a bay of the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Estonia. According to C.Michael Hogan, a saline stratification layer is found at a depth of approximately seventy metres....
in order to facilitate the capture of Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
by the German army. To do so, the German planners intended to drive off or destroy the Russian naval forces in the area, which included the pre-dreadnought
Pre-dreadnought
Pre-dreadnought battleship is the general term for all of the types of sea-going battleships built between the mid-1890s and 1905. Pre-dreadnoughts replaced the ironclad warships of the 1870s and 1880s...
battleship Slava
Russian battleship Slava
Slava was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy, the last of the five s. Commissioned too late to participate in the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War, she survived while all of her sister ships were either sunk during the battle or surrendered to the Imperial...
and a number of gunboats and destroyers. The German naval force would also lay a series of minefields in the northern entrance to the gulf to prevent Russian naval reinforcements from being able to enter the area. The fleet that assembled for the assault included Nassau and her three sister ships, the four s, and the battlecruisers , , and . The force would operate under the command of Vice Admiral Franz von Hipper
Franz von Hipper
Franz Ritter von Hipper was an admiral in the German Imperial Navy . Franz von Hipper joined the German Navy in 1881 as an officer cadet. He commanded several torpedo boat units and served as watch officer aboard several warships, as well as Kaiser Wilhelm II's yacht Hohenzollern...
. The eight battleships were to provide cover for the forces engaging the Russian flotilla. The first attempt on 8 August was unsuccessful, as it had taken too long to clear the Russian minefields to allow the minelayer to lay a minefield of her own.
On 16 August 1915, a second attempt was made to enter the gulf: Nassau and Posen, four light cruisers, and 31 torpedo boats managed to breach the Russian defenses. On the first day of the assault, the German minesweeper T 46 was sunk, as was the destroyer V 99. The following day, Nassau and Posen engaged in an artillery duel with Slava, resulting in three hits on the Russian ship that forced her to retreat. By 19 August, the Russian minefields had been cleared and the flotilla entered the gulf. However, reports of Allied submarines in the area prompted the Germans to call off of the operation the following day. Admiral Hipper later remarked that "To keep valuable ships for a considerable time in a limited area in which enemy submarines were increasingly active, with the corresponding risk of damage and loss, was to indulge in a gamble out of all proportion to the advantage to be derived from the occupation of the Gulf before the capture of Riga from the land side."
Battle of Jutland
Nassau took part in the inconclusive Battle of Jutland on 31 May–1 June 1916, in the II Division of the I Battle Squadron. For the majority of the battle, the I Battle Squadron formed the center of the line of battleLine of battle
In naval warfare, the line of battle is a tactic in which the ships of the fleet form a line end to end. A primitive form had been used by the Portuguese under Vasco Da Gama in 1502 near Malabar against a Muslim fleet.,Maarten Tromp used it in the Action of 18 September 1639 while its first use in...
, behind Rear Admiral Behncke's III Battle Squadron, and followed by Rear Admiral Mauve's elderly pre-dreadnoughts of the II Battle Squadron. Nassau was the third ship in the group of four, behind Rheinland and ahead of Westfalen; Posen was the squadron's flagship. However, when the German fleet reorganized into a nighttime cruising formation, the order of the ships was inadvertently reversed, and so Nassau was the second ship in the line, astern of Westfalen.
Between 17:48 and 17:52, eleven German dreadnoughts, including Nassau, engaged and opened fire on the British 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron; Nassaus target was the cruiser . Nassau is believed to have scored one hit on Southampton, at approximately 17:50 at a range of 20100 yd (18,379.4 m), shortly after she began firing. The shell struck Southampton obliquely on her port side, but did not cause significant damage. Nassau then shifted her guns to the cruiser , but ceased firing by 18:10. At 19:33, Nassau came into range of the British battleship ; her main guns fired briefly, but after the 180 degree turn by the German fleet, the British ship was no longer within reach.
Nassau and the rest of the I Squadron were again engaged by British light forces shortly after 22:00. The British ships, which included the light cruisers , , and . Nassau followed her sister Westfalen in a 68° turn to starboard in order to evade any torpedoes that might have been fired. The two ships fired on Caroline and Royalist at a range of around 8000 yd (7,315.2 m). The British ships turned away briefly, before turning about to launch torpedoes. Caroline fired two at Nassau; the first passed close to her bows and the second passed under the ship without exploding.
At around midnight on 1 June, the German fleet was attempting to pass behind the British Grand Fleet when it encountered a line of British destroyers. Nassau came in contact with the destroyer , and in the confusion, attempted to ram her. Spitfire tried to evade, but could not maneuver away fast enough, and the two ships collided. Nassau fired her forward 11-inch guns at the destroyer, but they could not depress low enough for Nassau to be able to score a hit. Nonetheless, the blast from the guns destroyed Spitfires bridge. At that point, Spitfire was able to disengage from Nassau, and took with her a 6 m (20 ft) portion of Nassaus side plating. The collision disabled one of Nassaus 15 cm (5.9 in) guns, and left an 3.5 m (11.5 ft) gash above the waterline; this slowed the ship to 15 kn (8.2 m/s) until it could be repaired. During the confused action, Nassau was hit by two 4 in (10.2 cm) shells from the British destroyers, which damaged her searchlights and inflicted minor casualties.
Shortly after 01:00, Nassau and encountered the British armored cruiser . Thüringen opened fire first, and pummeled Black Prince with a total of 27 heavy-caliber shells and 24 shells from her secondary battery. Nassau and joined in, followed by .
The wreck of the ship was directly in the path of Nassau; to avoid it, the ship had to steer sharply towards the III Battle Squadron. It was necessary for the ship to steam at full speed astern in order to avoid a collision with . Nassau then fell back into a position between the pre-dreadnoughts and . At around 03:00, several British destroyers attempted another torpedo attack on the German line. At approximately 03:10, three or four destroyers appeared in the darkness to port of Nassau; at a range of between 5500 yd (5,029.2 m) to 4400 yd (4,023.4 m), Nassau briefly fired on the ships before turning away 90° to avoid torpedoes.
Following her return to German waters, Nassau, her sisters Posen and Westfalen, and the Helgoland-class battleships and Thüringen, took up defensive positions in the Jade
Jadebusen
The Jade Bight, is a bay on the North Sea coast of Germany. It was formerly known simply as Jade or Jahde.About 180 km² in area, the Jade was largely created by storm floods during the 12th and 16th centuries. During this period it was connected in the East to the river Weser...
roadstead
Roadstead
A roadstead is a place outside a harbor where a ship can lie at anchor. It is an enclosed area with an opening to the sea, narrower than a bay or gulf. It has a surface that cannot be confused with an estuary. It can be created artificially by jetties or dikes...
for the night. In the course of the battle, Nassau was hit twice by secondary shells, though these hits caused no significant damage. Her casualties amounted to 11 men killed and 16 men wounded. During the course of the battle, she fired 106 main battery shells and 75 rounds from her secondary guns. Repairs were completed quickly, and Nassau was back with the fleet by 10 July 1916.
Fate
Following the German collapse in November 1918, a significant portion of the High Seas Fleet was interned in Scapa FlowScapa Flow
right|thumb|Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern endScapa Flow is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsay and Hoy. It is about...
. Nassau and her three sisters were not among the ships listed for internment, so they remained in German ports. On 21 June 1919, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter
Ludwig von Reuter
Ludwig von Reuter was a German admiral during World War I, who commanded the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet when it was interned at Scapa Flow at the end of the war. On 21 June 1919 he ordered the scuttling of the fleet to prevent the British from seizing the ships.-Early life:Reuter was...
, under the mistaken impression that the Armistice would expire at noon that day, ordered his ships be scuttled
Scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow
The scuttling of the German fleet took place at the Royal Navy's base at Scapa Flow, in Scotland, after the end of the First World War. The High Seas Fleet had been interned there under the terms of the Armistice whilst negotiations took place over the fate of the ships...
to prevent their seizure by the British. As a result, the four Nassau class ships were ceded to the various Allied powers as replacements for the ships that had been sunk. Nassau was awarded to Japan on 7 April 1920, though the Japanese had no need for the ship. They therefore sold her in June 1920 to British ship-breakers, who scrapped the ship in Dordrecht
Dordrecht
Dordrecht , colloquially Dordt, historically in English named Dort, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the fourth largest city of the province, having a population of 118,601 in 2009...
.