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= SMS Schwaben =
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Introduction
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SMS ("His Majesty's Ship 'Swabia'") was the fourth ship of the of
pre-dreadnought battleships of the German Imperial Navy. was built at
the Imperial Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven. She was laid down in 1900, and
completed in April 1904. Her sister ships were , , and ; they were
the first capital ships built under the Navy Law of 1898, championed
by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz. was armed with a main battery of four
24 cm guns and had a top speed of 18 kn.
Rendered obsolete by the appearance of HMS 'Dreadnought' in 1906,
spent most of her career as a gunnery training ship from 1904 to 1914,
though she frequently participated in the large scale fleet exercises
during this period. After the start of World War I in August 1914, the
ship was mobilized with her sisters as part of IV Battle Squadron. She
saw limited duty in the North Sea as a guard ship and in the Baltic
Sea against Russian forces. The threat from British submarines forced
the ship to withdraw from the Baltic in 1916. For the remainder of the
war, served as an engineering training ship for navy cadets. She was
retained by the after the war and reactivated from 1919 until June
1920, serving as a depot ship for F-type minesweepers in the Baltic.
The ship was stricken from the navy list in March 1921 and sold for
scrapping in that year.
Description
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After the German (Imperial Navy) ordered the four s in 1889, a
combination of budgetary constraints, opposition in the (Imperial
Diet), and a lack of a coherent fleet plan delayed the acquisition of
further battleships. The Secretary of the (Imperial Navy Office),
('VAdm'--Vice Admiral) Friedrich von Hollmann struggled throughout the
early and mid-1890s to secure parliamentary approval for the first
three s. In June 1897, Hollmann was replaced by ('KAdm'--Rear
Admiral) Alfred von Tirpitz, who quickly proposed and secured approval
for the first Naval Law in early 1898. The law authorized the last two
ships of the class, as well as the five ships of the , the first class
of battleship built under Tirpitz's tenure. The s were broadly similar
to the s, carrying the same armament but with a more comprehensive
armor layout.
was 126.8 m long overall and had a beam of 22.8 m and a draft of 7.95
m forward. She displaced as designed and up to 12798 MT at full load.
The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple expansion
engines that drove three screws. Steam was provided by six water-tube
and six cylindrical coal-fired boilers. 's powerplant was rated at
14000 PS, which generated a top speed of 18 kn. The ship had a
cruising radius of 5000 nmi at a speed of 10 kn. She had a crew of 30
officers and 650 enlisted men.
's armament consisted of a main battery of four 24 cm (9.4 in) SK L/40
guns in twin gun turrets, one fore and one aft of the central
superstructure. Her secondary armament consisted of eighteen 15 cm
(5.9 inch) SK L/40 and twelve 8.8 cm (3.45 in) SK L/30 quick-firing
guns. The armament system was rounded out with six 45 cm torpedo
tubes, all submerged in the hull; one was in the bow, one in the
stern, and the other four were on the broadside. Her armored belt was
100 to thick in the central citadel that protected her magazines and
machinery spaces, and the deck was thick. The main battery turrets
had 250 mm of armor plating.
Construction – 1905
=====================
's keel was laid 15 September 1900, at the Imperial Dockyard in
Wilhelmshaven, under construction number 27. She was ordered under the
contract name "G", as a new unit for the fleet. was launched on 19
August 1901; during the launching ceremony, King Wilhelm II of
Württemberg gave a speech and his wife Queen Charlotte of Württemberg
christened the ship. She was commissioned on 13 April 1904, the last
ship of her class to enter active service. The ship's cost totaled
21,678,000 marks.
There was a dispute over where should be assigned after her
commissioning in April 1904. Admiral Hans von Koester, the fleet
commander, wanted the ship to be assigned to the active duty squadron,
but Tirpitz wanted to use the new battleship as a training vessel,
since the Training Squadron only possessed cruisers and obsolescent
ships. Tirpitz won the debate, and so was to replace the ancient
ironclad frigate in the Training Squadron. There, she was to serve as
a torpedo training ship. On 18 May, departed Wilhelmshaven and passed
through the Skagerrak to the Baltic Sea, arriving in Kiel on 22 May.
While on sea trials, she struck an uncharted shoal off the northern
tip of the island of Fehmarn. The impact damaged a 30 m length of the
ship's hull and holed it in several places. After repairs were
completed, she resumed her trials, which lasted until the end of 1904.
The trials were interrupted by the annual autumn maneuvers, during
which joined the active fleet in the North Sea. On 11 January 1905,
she was formally assigned to the Training Squadron, but as an
artillery training ship to replace the old vessel . The ship was based
in Sonderburg in the Baltic, along with the armored cruisers and ,
and several other training ships. She began an annual routine of
gunnery training in the western Baltic that was interrupted only by
yearly gunnery drills with the entire High Seas Fleet in October.
During these fleet exercises, was supported by the tender . also
went into drydock from the end of October to the middle of December
every year for periodic maintenance.
1906–1914
===========
participated in exercises in the Swinemünde Bay in April and May 1906,
and the annual fleet gunnery drills took place off Helgoland in
August. Her annual overhaul was completed early, in November. In March
1907, participated in gunnery training with the fleet. She joined the
flagship of the Reserve Squadron, the coastal defense ship , for
maneuvers off the coast of Farther Pomerania in July. The following
month, served as the flagship of 'VAdm' Hugo Zeye for a training
squadron during the fleet maneuvers in the North Sea. Directly after
the conclusion of the fleet maneuvers in mid-September, participated
in fleet gunnery drills off Helgoland. The year was concluded with an
overhaul in the Imperial Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven.
In 1908, the training ships based in the Baltic were placed under the
command of Rear Admiral Hugo von Pohl, who would go on to command the
High Seas Fleet in 1915 during World War I. That year followed the
same pattern as the previous year, but did not participate in the
autumn fleet maneuvers. She instead remained at Sonderburg and Alsen
during the exercises. In 1909, after the autumn maneuvers, was
assigned as the flagship of the Reserve Fleet, again under the command
of Admiral Zeye. During her yearly overhaul at the Imperial Dockyard
in Wilhelmshaven, her guns were fitted with new motors produced in
Germany to test their reliability over foreign-manufactured motors.
The tests proved to be successful. While steaming in the Flensburg
Firth on 10-12 December, she had to assist the training ship in heavy
fog.
In 1910, after the normal training routine in the first half of the
year, was assigned to III Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet for
the autumn maneuvers, which lasted from 19 August to 11 September. She
served in this role to replace the battleships and , which had been
sold to the Ottoman Empire just before the start of the maneuvers. On
14 October, she joined up with the battleship and steamed through the
Kaiser Wilhelm Canal to Kiel for her yearly overhaul at the Imperial
Dockyard there. These repairs lasted until 4 January 1911. served in
III Battle Squadron during the autumn maneuvers again in 1911. By
1911, the eight and es of dreadnought battleships had entered
service; these ships were assigned to I Battle Squadron, which
displaced the newer pre-dreadnoughts of the and es to II and III
Battle Squadrons. As a result, was decommissioned in Wilhelmshaven on
30 December 1911 and assigned to the Reserve Division in the North
Sea. She was placed back in service briefly from 9 to 12 May 1912 to
move to Kiel. returned to service again to participate in the autumn
maneuvers from 14 August to 28 September, as the flagship of
then-'KAdm' Maximilian von Spee.
World War I
=============
After the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, and the rest of her
class were mobilized to serve in IV Battle Squadron, under the command
of Vice Admiral Ehrhard Schmidt. After it reached full combat
readiness, the Squadron was employed both as a defense force in the
German Bight--usually stationed in the mouth of the Elbe--and for
operations in the Baltic. Starting on 3 September, 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 , was
transferred to support the German Army in the Baltic Sea area. and
her sisters were then based in Kiel. During this period, she served as
the flagship of the second command admiral of the Squadron, 'KAdm'
Alberts.
On 6 May, the IV Squadron ships were tasked with providing support to
the assault on Libau. and the other ships stood off Gotland 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
IV Squadron, but were too far away to make an attack. The increasingly
active British submarines forced the Germans to employ more destroyers
to protect the capital ships. As a result, 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. On 29 August, (Captain at Sea)
Walter Engelhardt replaced Alberts aboard . She was then used as a
guard ship in Libau, starting on 24 September. On 10-11 November, ,
her sisters and , and left Libau, bound for Kiel.
By late 1915, the increasing threat from British submarines in the
Baltic convinced the German navy to withdraw the elderly -class ships
from active service. On 20 November steamed to Wilhelmshaven, where
she replaced as a training ship for engineers, a role she held for
the remainder of the war. After the Battle of Jutland on 31 May - 1
June, in which did not take part, Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper, the
commander of the German battlecruiser squadron, sent his four
surviving battlecruisers to dock for repairs. Hipper made , which was
stationed in Wilhelmshaven, his temporary command ship while his force
was being repaired. In 1916, was partially disarmed; the four 24 cm
guns were removed, her battery of 15 cm guns was reduced to six
weapons, and only four 8.8 cm guns were left aboard.
Postwar service
=================
'Schwaben' was briefly retained by the after the war, and was
reactivated for service on 1 August 1919. According to Articles 182
and 193 of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was obliged to keep
sufficient vessels in commission to sweep mines from large areas in
the North and Baltic Seas. was therefore converted into a depot ship
for F-type minesweepers to assist in meeting Germany's treaty
obligations, which entailed removal of her remaining weaponry and
construction of platforms to hold the minesweepers. She was assigned
to the 6th Baltic Minesweeping Half-Flotilla, though this service did
not last long, as the minesweeping work was completed by 19 June 1920.
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.
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