SMS Siegfried
SMS was the lead ship of the six-member of coastal defense ships () built for the German Imperial Navy. Her sister ships were , , , , and . was built by the Germaniawerft shipyard between 1888 and 1890, and was armed with a main battery of three guns. She served in the German fleet throughout the 1890s and was rebuilt in 1903 - 1904. She served in the VI Battle Squadron after the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, but saw no action. was demobilized in 1915 and used as a barracks ship thereafter. She was ultimately broken up for scrap in 1920. Design In the late 1880s, the German (Imperial Navy) grappled with the problem of what type of capital ship to build in the face of limited naval budgets (owing to parliamentary objections to naval spending and the cost of dredging the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal). General Leo von Caprivi, the new (Chief of the Admiralty), requested a series of design proposals, which ranged in size from small coastal defense ships to heavily armed ocean-going battleships. Caprivi ordered ten coastal defense ships to guard the entrances to the canal, since even opponents of the navy in the (Imperial Diet) agreed that such vessels were necessary. The first six of these, the , were based on the smallest proposal. was long overall and had a beam of and a maximum draft of . She displaced normally and up to at full load. Her hull had a long forecastle deck that extended most of the vessel's length. She was also fitted with a pronounced ram bow. had a crew of 20 officers and 256 enlisted men. Her propulsion system consisted of two vertical 3-cylinder triple-expansion engines, each driving a screw propeller, making her the first major German warship to be powered by triple-expansion machinery. Steam for the engines was provided by four coal-fired fire-tube boilers that were vented through a single funnel. The ship's propulsion system provided a top speed of from and a range of approximately at . The ship was armed with a main battery of three K L/35 guns mounted in three single gun turrets. Two were placed side by side forward, and the third was located aft of the main superstructure. They were supplied with a total of 204 rounds of ammunition. For defense against torpedo boats, the ship was also equipped with a secondary battery of six SK L/30 guns in single mounts. also carried four torpedo tubes, all in swivel mounts on the deck. One was at the bow, another at the stern, and two amidships. The ship was protected by an armored belt that was in the central citadel, and an armored deck that was thick. The conning tower had thick sides. Modifications In 1897, the ship had her anti-torpedo nets removed. was extensively rebuilt between 1903 and 1904 in an attempt to improve her usefulness. The ship was lengthened to , which increased displacement to at full load. The lengthened