SMS Sachsen

The Panzerkorvette SMS Saxony was the type of ship named after her Sachsen- class, a class of four battleships of the Imperial Navy. Keel was in April 1875 at the shipyard A. G. Vulcan in Stettin. The launch took place on July 21, 1877, the putting on 21 October 1878.

The Sachsen class

Initial planning for the ships of the class emerged already in 1861. The four planned ships were designed primarily for coastal defense in the Baltic Sea area of ​​operations. Since the Works at the Szczecin Shipyard was finished faster than the first order at the Imperial Shipyard in Kiel, the Saxons was ( Household Name: Ironclad B) unexpectedly for namesake of their class. Would otherwise lead ship her sister ship Bavaria become ( ironclad A). From 1884 all four ships were operational. In the years 1896 to 1899 they were rebuilt and given it new boiler systems with only a large chimney.

Specifications

The ship had a length of 97.8 m and a width of 18.3 m. The armament consisted of six 26- cm - ring cannon with the caliber length 22 Four of the six guns were positioned in the center of the vessels and two in front open barbettes. Starting in 1886, the ship had also a 5 torpedo tubes ( 2 x 45 cm in the sides, 2 x 35 cm at the front and 1 x 35 cm at the rear). The armor consisted of wrought iron. The armor plates of the citadel were 203-254 mm thick. The deck had 51-64 mm thick armor plates. The crew numbered 317-436 men. The drive consisted of two horizontally mounted single expansion engines with eight suitcases boilers in two separate engine rooms. The chimneys were therefore arranged in pairs next to each other; this led to the nickname " cement factory". The ships of this class were the first of the Imperial Navy, which were built without Hilfsbeseglung.

Fate

On September 4, 1901, the Saxony collided in front of Rügen with the Aviso Watch. In 1902 she was transferred to the willingness and 1906 in the second ready. From 1910 to 1918, the ship served as Zielhulk the fleet off the coast of Schwansen. The Saxons was scrapped in 1919 in Wilhelmshaven.

SMS Saxony | SMS Bavaria | SMS Württemberg | SMS Baden

List of ships of the Imperial Navy

• Sachsen Class ( 1877)