SMS Preussen (1903)
Preussen in 1907
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| History | |
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 German Empire
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| Name: | Preussen |
| Namesake: | Prussia |
| Builder: | AG Vulcan Stettin |
| Laid down: | April 1902 |
| Launched: | 30 October 1903 |
| Commissioned: | 12 July 1905 |
| Fate: | Scrapped in 1931 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Braunschweig-class pre-dreadnought battleship |
| Displacement: | 14,394 t (14,167 long tons) |
| Length: | 127.7 m (419 ft) |
| Beam: | 22.2 m (72 ft 10 in) |
| Draft: | 8.1 m (26 ft 7 in) |
| Propulsion: | |
| Speed: | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Range: | 5,200 nautical miles (9,600 km; 6,000 mi); 10 knots (20 km/h; 10 mph) |
| Complement: |
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SMS Preussen was the fourth of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the Braunschweig class in the Kaiserliche Marine (the German Imperial Navy) laid down in 1902 and commissioned 1905. She was named for the state of Prussia Her sister ships were Braunschweig, Elsass, Hessen, and Lothringen.
Preussen served in the II Battle Squadron of the German High Seas Fleet for the majority of her career. She participated in a fleet advance in December 1914 in support of the Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby during which the German fleet encountered and briefly clashed with a detachment of the British Grand Fleet. She had been temporarily assigned to guard ship duties in the Baltic in May 1916, and so missed the Battle of Jutland. Due to her age, she did not rejoin the fleet, and instead continued to serve as a guard ship until 1917, when she became a fleet tender.
After the war, Preussen was retained by the re-formed Reichsmarine and converted into a depot ship for F-type minesweepers. She was stricken in April 1929 and sold to ship breakers in 1931. A 63-meter (207 ft) section of her hull was retained as a target; it was bombed and sunk in 1945 by Allied bombers at the end of World War II, and subsequently scrapped in 1954.
Preussen was 127.7 m (419 ft) long overall and had a beam of 22.2 m (73 ft) and a draft of 8.1 m (27 ft) forward. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple expansion engines that drove three screws. Steam was provided by eight naval and six cylindrical boilers, all of which burned coal. Preussen's powerplant was rated at 16,000 metric horsepower (15,781 ihp; 11,768 kW), which generated a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).
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