SMS Prinz Adalbert (1901)
SMS Prinz Adalbert at full speed
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| History | |
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 German Empire
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| Name: | Prinz Adalbert |
| Namesake: | Prince Adalbert of Prussia |
| Builder: | Kaiserliche Werft, Kiel |
| Laid down: | April 1900 |
| Launched: | 22 June 1901 |
| Christened: | Princess Irene of Prussia |
| Commissioned: | 12 January 1904 |
| Fate: | Torpedoed and sunk 23 October 1915 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Prinz Adalbert-class cruiser |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 126.5 m (415 ft 0 in) |
| Beam: | 19.6 m (64 ft 4 in) |
| Draft: | 7.43 m (24 ft 5 in) |
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| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 20.4 knots (38 km/h; 23 mph) |
| Range: | 5,080 nmi (9,410 km; 5,850 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Complement: |
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SMS Prinz Adalbert ("His Majesty's Ship Prince Adalbert") was an armored cruiser built in the early 1900s for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), named after Prince Adalbert of Prussia, former Commander-in-Chief of the Prussian Navy. She was the lead ship of her class, which included a second ship, Friedrich Carl. Prinz Adalbert was built at the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel. Her keel was laid in April 1900, and she was launched in June 1901. Her completion in January 1904 had been delayed by a surplus of construction projects at the Imperial Dockyard. She was armed with a main battery of four 21 cm (8.3 in) guns, a significant improvement over the previous armored cruiser, Prinz Heinrich, which carried only two such guns. The ship was capable of a top speed of 20 kn (37 km/h; 23 mph).
Upon commissioning, Prinz Adalbert served as a gunnery training ship, a role she held for the majority of her career. She trained with the Heimatflotte (Home Fleet), later renamed the Hochseeflotte (High Seas Fleet), throughout the early 1900s, and she made several visits to foreign countries. After the outbreak of World War I in July 1914, she was assigned to the reconnaissance forces in the Baltic and was tasked with protecting the German coast from Russian attacks. After her sister ship was sunk in November 1914, she became the flagship of the cruiser squadron in the Baltic. She conducted operations against Russian forces, including bombarding the port of Libau in support of the German Army. She was torpedoed by a British submarine in July 1915, but was able to return to port and was repaired. She was torpedoed a second time on 23 October 1915; the torpedo detonated her ammunition magazines and destroyed the ship. She sank quickly with heavy loss of life; only three men were rescued from a crew of 675. This proved to be the worst German naval disaster in the Baltic during the war.
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Wikipedia