SMS Dresden (1907)
SMS Dresden transiting the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal
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| History | |
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 German Empire
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| Name: | Dresden |
| Namesake: | City of Dresden |
| Builder: | Blohm & Voss, Hamburg |
| Laid down: | 1906 |
| Launched: | 5 October 1907 |
| Commissioned: | 14 November 1908 |
| Fate: | Scuttled off Robinson Crusoe Island, 14 March 1915 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Dresden-class cruiser |
| Displacement: | 4,268 t (4,201 long tons) |
| Length: | 118.3 m (388 ft 1 in) |
| Beam: | 13.5 m (44 ft 3 in) |
| Draft: | 5.53 m (18 ft 2 in) |
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| Propulsion: | 2 Parsons steam turbines |
| Speed: | 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph) |
| Range: | 3,600 nmi (6,700 km; 4,100 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Complement: |
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SMS Dresden ("His Majesty's Ship Dresden") was a German light cruiser built for the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), the lead ship of her class. She was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in 1906, launched in October 1907, and completed in November 1908. Her entrance into service was delayed by accidents during sea trials, including a collision with another vessel that necessitated major repairs. Like the preceding Königsberg-class cruisers upon which her design was based, Dresden was armed with ten 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns and two torpedo tubes.
Dresden spent much of her career overseas. After commissioning, she visited the United States in 1909 during the Hudson-Fulton Celebration, before returning to Germany to serve in the reconnaissance force of the High Seas Fleet for three years. In 1913, she was assigned to the Mediterranean Division. She was then sent to the Caribbean to protect German nationals during the Mexican Revolution. In mid-1914, she carried the former dictator Victoriano Huerta to Jamaica, where the British had granted him asylum. She was due to return to Germany in July 1914, but was prevented by the outbreak of World War I from doing so. At the onset of hostilities, Dresden operated as a commerce raider in South American waters in the Atlantic, then moved to the Pacific Ocean in September and joined Maximilian von Spee's East Asia Squadron.
Dresden saw action in the Battle of Coronel in November, where she engaged the British cruiser HMS Glasgow, and at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December, where she was the only German warship to escape destruction. She eluded her British pursuers for several more months, until she put into Robinson Crusoe Island in March 1915. Her engines were worn out and she had almost no coal left for her boilers, so the ship's captain contacted the local Chilean authorities to have Dresden interned. She was trapped by British cruisers, including her old opponent Glasgow. The British violated Chilean neutrality and opened fire on the ship in the Battle of Más a Tierra. The Germans scuttled Dresden and the majority of the crew escaped to be interned in Chile for the duration of the war. The wreck remains in the harbor; several artifacts, including her bell and compass, have been returned to Germany.
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