SMS Schwaben
Encyclopedia
SMS Schwaben ("His Majesty's Ship Schwaben") was the fourth ship of the Wittelsbach-class
of pre-dreadnought
battleship
s of the German Imperial Navy
. Schwaben was built at Wilhelmshaven
Navy Dockyard
. She was laid down in 1900, and completed in April 1904, at the cost of 21,678,000 marks
. Her sisters were , , and ; they were the first capital ships built under the Navy Law of 1898, brought about by Admiral
Alfred von Tirpitz
.
Schwaben spent the majority of her career as a training ship for German naval cadets. The ship served as a gunnery training ship in the Baltic from 1904 to 1914. After the start of World War I
in August 1914, the ship was mobilized with her sisters as the IV Battle Squadron. She saw limited duty in the Baltic Sea against Russian forces, though the threat from British submarines forced the ship to withdraw in 1916. For the remainder of her career, Schwaben served as a training ship for navy cadets and later as a depot ship for F-type minesweeper
s. The ship was stricken from the navy list in March 1921 and sold for scrapping in that year.
in Wilhelmshaven
, under construction number 27. She was ordered under the contract name "D", as a new unit for the fleet. The vessel was a member of the first class of battleships built under the direction of State Secretary Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz
, according to the terms of the Navy Law of 1898. Schwaben was launched on 19 August 1901 and commissioned on 13 April 1904, the last ship of her class to enter active service. The ship's cost totaled 21,678,000 marks
.
The ship was 126.8 m (416 ft) long overall and had a beam
of 22.8 m (74.8 ft) and a draft
of 7.95 m (26.1 ft) forward. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple expansion engines that drove three screws. Steam was provided by six naval and six cylindrical coal-fired boilers. Schwabens powerplant was rated at 14000 ihp, which generated a top speed of 18 knots (35.3 km/h).
Schwabens armament consisted of a main battery of four 24 cm (9.4 in) SK L/40 guns in twin gun turret
s,In Imperial German Navy gun nomenclature, "SK" (Schnellfeuerkanone) denotes that the gun quick firing, while the L/40 denotes the length of the gun. In this case, the L/40 gun is 40 calibers, meaning that the gun is 40 as times long as it is in diameter. See: Grießmer, p. 177 one fore and one aft of the central superstructure
. Her secondary armament consisted of eighteen 15 cm (5.9 inch) SK L/40 guns and twelve 8.8 cm (3.45 in) SK L/30 quick-firing guns. The armament system was rounded out with six 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes, all in above-water swivel mounts.
, along with the armored cruisers and , and several other training ships. In 1908, the training ships based in the Baltic were placed under the command of Rear Admiral Hugo von Pohl
; Pohl would go on to command the High Seas Fleet
in 1915 during World War I
.
After the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Schwaben and the rest of her class were mobilized to serve in the IV Battle Squadron, under the command of Vice Admiral Ehrhard Schmidt. Starting on 3 September, the IV Squadron, assisted by the armored cruiser
, conducted a sweep into the Baltic. The operation lasted until 9 September and failed to bring Russian naval units to battle. In May 1915, IV Squadron, including Schwaben, was transferred to support the German Army in the Baltic Sea area. Schwaben and her sisters were then based in Kiel
.
On 6 May, the IV Squadron ships were tasked with providing support to the assault on Libau
. Schwaben and the other ships stood off Gotland
in order to intercept any Russian cruisers that might try to intervene in the landings, which the Russians did not attempt. On 10 May, after the invasion force had entered Libau, the British submarines and spotted the IV Squadron, but were too far away to make an attack. Schwaben and her sisters were not included in the German fleet that assaulted the Gulf of Riga
in August 1915, due to the scarcity of escorts. The increasingly active British submarines forced the Germans to employ more destroyers to protect the capital ships.
By 1916, the increasing threat from British submarines in the Baltic convinced the German navy to withdraw the elderly Wittelsbach class ships from active service. Schwaben returned to her role as a training ship in Wilhelmshaven. After the Battle of Jutland
on 31 May – 1 June, in which Schwaben did not take part, Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper
, the commander of the German battlecruiser
squadron, sent his four surviving battlecruisers in dock for repairs. Hipper made Schwaben, which was stationed in Wilhelmshaven, his temporary command ship while his force was being repaired.
The ship was briefly retained by the Reichsmarine
after the end of the war. Schwaben was converted into a depot ship
for F-type minesweepers. This service did not last long, however, and the old battleship was stricken from the naval register on 8 March 1921. She was sold for 3,090,000 marks and broken up for scrap that year in Kiel-Nordmole.
Wittelsbach class battleship
The Wittelsbach-class battleships were a group of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the German Kaiserliche Marine . They were the first battleships produced under the Navy Law of 1898. The class was composed of the lead ship, , , , and . All five ships were laid down between 1899 and 1900, and...
of 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
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...
s of the German Imperial 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...
. Schwaben was built at 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:...
Navy 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...
. She was laid down in 1900, and completed in April 1904, at the cost of 21,678,000 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...
. Her sisters were , , and ; they were the first capital ships built under the Navy Law of 1898, brought about by Admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
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...
.
Schwaben spent the majority of her career as a training ship for German naval cadets. The ship served as a gunnery training ship in the Baltic from 1904 to 1914. After the start 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 August 1914, the ship was mobilized with her sisters as the IV Battle Squadron. She saw limited duty in the Baltic Sea against Russian forces, though the threat from British submarines forced the ship to withdraw in 1916. For the remainder of her career, Schwaben served as a training ship for navy cadets and later as a depot ship for F-type minesweeper
Minesweeper (ship)
A minesweeper is a small naval warship designed to counter the threat posed by naval mines. Minesweepers generally detect then neutralize mines in advance of other naval operations.-History:...
s. The ship was stricken from the navy list in March 1921 and sold for scrapping in that year.
Construction
Schwabens keel was laid in 1900, at the Imperial DockyardKaiserliche 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 27. She was ordered under the contract name "D", as a new unit for the fleet. The vessel was a member of the first class of battleships built under the direction of State Secretary 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...
, according to the terms of the Navy Law of 1898. Schwaben was launched on 19 August 1901 and commissioned on 13 April 1904, the last ship of her class to enter active service. The ship's cost totaled 21,678,000 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...
.
The ship was 126.8 m (416 ft) long overall and had a beam
Beam (nautical)
The beam of a ship is its width at the widest point. Generally speaking, the wider the beam of a ship , the more initial stability it has, at expense of reserve stability in the event of a capsize, where more energy is required to right the vessel from its inverted position...
of 22.8 m (74.8 ft) and a draft
Draft (hull)
The draft of a ship's hull is the vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of the hull , with the thickness of the hull included; in the case of not being included the draft outline would be obtained...
of 7.95 m (26.1 ft) forward. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple expansion engines that drove three screws. Steam was provided by six naval and six cylindrical coal-fired boilers. Schwabens powerplant was rated at 14000 ihp, which generated a top speed of 18 knots (35.3 km/h).
Schwabens armament consisted of a main battery of four 24 cm (9.4 in) SK L/40 guns in 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,In Imperial German Navy gun nomenclature, "SK" (Schnellfeuerkanone) denotes that the gun quick firing, while the L/40 denotes the length of the gun. In this case, the L/40 gun is 40 calibers, meaning that the gun is 40 as times long as it is in diameter. See: Grießmer, p. 177 one fore and one aft of the central superstructure
Superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships...
. Her secondary armament consisted of eighteen 15 cm (5.9 inch) SK L/40 guns and twelve 8.8 cm (3.45 in) SK L/30 quick-firing guns. The armament system was rounded out with six 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes, all in above-water swivel mounts.
Service history
After commissioning in April 1904, Schwaben was placed into service as an artillery training ship. The ship was based in Sonderburg in the Baltic SeaBaltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
, along with the armored cruisers and , and several other training ships. In 1908, the training ships based in the Baltic were placed under the command of Rear Admiral Hugo von Pohl
Hugo von Pohl
Hugo von Pohl was a German admiral who during the First World War commanded the German High Seas Fleet from 1915 until shortly before his death from illness in 1916....
; Pohl would go on to command the 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 1915 during 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...
.
After the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Schwaben and the rest of her class were mobilized to serve in the IV Battle Squadron, under the command of Vice Admiral Ehrhard Schmidt. Starting on 3 September, the IV Squadron, assisted by the armored cruiser
Armored cruiser
The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Like other types of cruiser, the armored cruiser was a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship, and fast enough to outrun any battleships it encountered.The first...
, conducted a sweep into the Baltic. The operation lasted until 9 September and failed to bring Russian naval units to battle. In May 1915, IV Squadron, including Schwaben, was transferred to support the German Army in the Baltic Sea area. Schwaben and her sisters were then based in Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
.
On 6 May, the IV Squadron ships were tasked with providing support to the assault on Libau
Liepaja
Liepāja ; ), is a republican city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea directly at 21°E. It is the largest city in the Kurzeme Region of Latvia, the third largest city in Latvia after Riga and Daugavpils and an important ice-free port...
. Schwaben and the other ships stood off Gotland
Gotland
Gotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...
in order to intercept any Russian cruisers that might try to intervene in the landings, which the Russians did not attempt. On 10 May, after the invasion force had entered Libau, the British submarines and spotted the IV Squadron, but were too far away to make an attack. Schwaben and her sisters were not included in the German fleet that assaulted 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...
in August 1915, due to the scarcity of escorts. The increasingly active British submarines forced the Germans to employ more destroyers to protect the capital ships.
By 1916, the increasing threat from British submarines in the Baltic convinced the German navy to withdraw the elderly Wittelsbach class ships from active service. Schwaben returned to her role as a training ship in Wilhelmshaven. After 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, in which Schwaben did not take part, Rear 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 commander of the German battlecruiser
Battlecruiser
Battlecruisers were large capital ships built in the first half of the 20th century. They were developed in the first decade of the century as the successor to the armoured cruiser, but their evolution was more closely linked to that of the dreadnought battleship...
squadron, sent his four surviving battlecruisers in dock for repairs. Hipper made Schwaben, which was stationed in Wilhelmshaven, his temporary command ship while his force was being repaired.
The ship was briefly retained by the Reichsmarine
Reichsmarine
The Reichsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Weimar Republic and first two years of Nazi Germany. It was the naval branch of the Reichswehr, existing from 1918 to 1935...
after the end of the war. Schwaben was converted into a depot ship
Depot ship
A depot ship is a ship which acts as a mobile or fixed base for other ships and submarines or supports a naval base. Depot ships may be specifically designed for their purpose or be converted from another purpose...
for F-type minesweepers. This service did not last long, however, and the old battleship was stricken from the naval register on 8 March 1921. She was sold for 3,090,000 marks and broken up for scrap that year in Kiel-Nordmole.