SMS Yorck
Yorck in the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal
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| History | |
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 German Empire
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| Name: | Yorck |
| Namesake: | Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg |
| Builder: | Blohm & Voss, Hamburg |
| Laid down: | February 1903 |
| Launched: | 14 May 1904 |
| Commissioned: | November 1905 |
| Fate: | Sunk accidentally by German mines, 4 November 1914 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Roon-class armored cruiser |
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| Length: | 127.80 m (419 ft 3 in) |
| Beam: | 20.20 m (66 ft 3 in) |
| Draft: | 7.76 m (25.5 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 19,000 ihp (14,000 kW), three shafts |
| Speed: | 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) |
| Range: | 4,200 nmi (7,800 km; 4,800 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
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SMS Yorck ("His Majesty's Ship Yorck") was the second and final ship of the Roon class of armored cruisers built for the German Imperial Navy. Yorck was named for Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg, a Prussian field marshal. She was laid down in 1903 at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg, and finished in November 1905, at the cost of 16,241,000 marks. She displaced up to 9,875 metric tons (9,719 long tons; 10,885 short tons) and was armed with a main battery of four 21 cm (8.3 in) guns. Her top speed was 20.4 knots (37.8 km/h; 23.5 mph).
The ship had a short career; she served with the fleet for the first seven years, after which she was decommissioned and placed in reserve. After the outbreak of World War I, she was reactivated and returned to front-line service. After returning from the raid on Yarmouth on 3–4 November 1914, the ship made a navigational error in heavy fog and accidentally sailed into a German defensive minefield. The ship sank quickly with heavy loss of life, though sources disagree on the exact number of fatalities. Her commander was court-martialled and imprisoned for disobedience and negligent homicide. Yorck was broken up incrementally, with work occurring in 1929–30, 1965, and finally completed in 1982.
Yorck was ordered under the provisional name Ersatz Deutschland and built at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg under construction number 167. Her keel was laid in 1902 and she was launched on 14 May 1904. Fitting-out work was completed by 21 November 1905, being commissioned into the Imperial German Navy the same day. She had cost the Imperial German Government 16,241,000 Goldmarks.
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