SMS Nassau
 SMS Rheinland, one of Nassau's sisterships |
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| Career (German Empire) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | Nassau |
| Namesake: | Nassau, province of Prussia |
| Builder: | Kaiserliche Werft, Wilhelmshaven |
| Laid down: | 22 July 1907 |
| Launched: | 7 March 1908 |
| Commissioned: | 1 October 1909 |
| Fate: | Scrapped 1921 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Nassau-class battleship |
| Displacement: | Designed: 18,570 t (18,280 long tons; 20,470 short tons) Full load: 21,000 t (21,000 long tons; 23,000 short tons) |
| Length: | 146.1 m (479 ft) |
| Beam: | 26.9 m (88 ft) |
| Draft: | 8.9 m (29 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 3-shaft vertical triple expansion 22,000 ihp |
| Speed: | Designed: 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) Maximum: 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
| Range: | At 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph): 8,300 nautical miles (15,400 km; 9,600 mi) |
| Boats and landing craft carried: |
10 |
| Complement: | Standard: 40 officers, 968 men Squadron flagship: 53 officers, 1,034 men 2nd command flagship: 42 officers, 991 men |
| Armament: | 12 × 28 cm (11 in) SK L/45 guns 12 × 15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/45 guns 16 × 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/45 guns 5 × 45 cm (18 in) torpedo tubes |
| Armor: | Belt: 300 mm (12 in) Turrets: 280 mm (11 in) Battery: 160 mm (6.3 in) Conning Tower: 300 mm (12 in) Torpedo bulkhead: 30 mm (1.2 in) |
| Notes: | Double bottom: 88% Watertight compartments: 16 |
SMS Nassau[Note 1] was the first dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial German Navy, a response to the launching of the British battleship HMS Dreadnought in 1906.[1] Nassau was laid down on 22 July 1907 at the Kaiserliche Werft in Wilhelmshaven, and launched less than a year later on 7 March 1908, approximately 25 months after Dreadnought was launched. She was the lead ship of her class of four battleships, which included Posen, Rheinland, and Westfalen.
Nassau saw service in the North Sea in the beginning of World War I, in the II Division of the I Battle Squadron of the German High Seas Fleet. In August 1915, she participated in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga, where she engaged the Russian battleship Slava. Following her return to the North Sea, Nassau and her sister ships took part in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May–1 June 1916. During the battle, Nassau collided with the British destroyer HMS Spitfire. Nassau suffered a total of 11 killed and 16 injured during the engagement.
Following the end of World War I, the majority of the High Seas Fleet was interned in Scapa Flow. As they were the oldest German dreadnoughts, the Nassau class ships were for the time permitted to remain in German ports. After the German fleet was scuttled, Nassau and her three sisters were surrendered to the victorious powers as replacements for the sunken ships. Nassau was ceded to Japan in April 1920. With no use for the ship, Japan sold her to a British wrecking firm which then scrapped her in Dordrecht, Netherlands.
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[edit] Construction
Nassau was ordered under the provisional name Ersatz Bayern, as a replacement for the old Sachsen class armored frigate Bayern. She was laid down on 22 July 1907 at the Kaiserliche Werft in Wilhelmshaven, under construction number 30.[2] Construction work proceeded under absolute secrecy; detachments of soldiers were tasked with guarding the shipyard itself, as well as contractors that supplied building materials, such as Krupp.[3] The ship was launched on 7 March 1908; fitting out work commenced and was completed by the end of September 1909. She was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 1 October 1909.[2] HMS Dreadnought, the ship that spurred Nassau's construction, had been launched 2 February 1906, some 25 months before Nassau.[4] The ship cost the German navy 37,399,000 gold marks.[2]
Nassau was 146.1 m (479 ft) long, 26.9 m (88 ft) wide, and had a draft of 8.9 m (29 ft). She displaced 18,570 t (18,280 long tons; 20,470 short tons) with a standard load, and 21,000 t (21,000 long tons; 23,000 short tons) fully laden. The ship retained 3-shaft triple expansion engines instead of more advanced turbine engines.[2] This type of machinery was chosen at the request of both Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz and the Navy's construction department; the latter stated in 1905 that the "use of turbines in heavy warships does not recommend itself."[5]
Nassau carried twelve 28 cm (11 in) SK L/45[Note 2] guns in an unusual hexagonal configuration. Her secondary armament consisted of twelve 15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/45 guns and sixteen 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/45 guns, all of which were mounted in casemates.[2] The ship was also armed with six 45 cm (18 in) submerged torpedo tubes. One tube was mounted in the bow, another in the stern, and two on each broadside, on either ends of the torpedo bulkhead.[6]
[edit] Service history
[edit] Battle of the Gulf of Riga
In August 1915, the German fleet attempted to clear the Gulf of Riga in order to facilitate the capture of Riga by the German army. To do so, the German planners intended to drive off or destroy the Russian naval forces in the area, which included the pre-dreadnought battleship Slava and a number of gunboats and destroyers. The German naval force would also lay a series of minefields in the northern entrance to the gulf to prevent Russian naval reinforcements from being able to enter the area. The fleet that assembled for the assault included Nassau and her three sister ships, the four Helgoland-class battleships, and the battlecruisers Von der Tann, Moltke, and Seydlitz. The force would operate under the command of Vice Admiral Franz von Hipper. The eight battleships were to provide cover for the forces engaging the Russian flotilla. The first attempt on 8 August was unsuccessful, as it had taken too long to clear the Russian minefields to allow the minelayer Deutschland to lay a minefield of her own.[7]
On 16 August 1915, a second attempt was made to enter the gulf: Nassau and Posen, four light cruisers, and 31 torpedo boats managed to breach the Russian defenses.[8] On the first day of the assault, the German minesweeper T 46 was sunk, as was the destroyer V 99. The following day, Nassau and Posen engaged in an artillery duel with Slava, resulting in three hits on the Russian ship that forced her to retreat. By 19 August, the Russian minefields had been cleared and the flotilla entered the gulf. However, reports of Allied submarines in the area prompted the Germans to call off of the operation the following day.[9] Admiral Hipper later remarked that "To keep valuable ships for a considerable time in a limited area in which enemy submarines were increasingly active, with the corresponding risk of damage and loss, was to indulge in a gamble out of all proportion to the advantage to be derived from the occupation of the Gulf before the capture of Riga from the land side."[10]
[edit] Battle of Jutland
Nassau took part in the inconclusive Battle of Jutland on 31 May–1 June 1916, in the II Division of the I Battle Squadron. For the majority of the battle, the I Battle Squadron formed the center of the line of battle, behind Rear Admiral Behncke's III Battle Squadron, and followed by Rear Admiral Mauve's elderly pre-dreadnoughts of the II Battle Squadron. Nassau was the third ship in the group of four, behind Rheinland and ahead of Westfalen; Posen was the squadron's flagship.[11] However, when the German fleet reorganized into a nighttime cruising formation, the order of the ships was inadvertently reversed, and so Nassau was the second ship in the line, astern of Westfalen.[12]
Between 17:48 and 17:52, eleven German dreadnoughts, including Nassau, engaged and opened fire on the British 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron; Nassau's target was the cruiser Southampton. Nassau is believed to have scored one hit on Southampton, at approximately 17:50 at a range of 20,100 yd (18,400 m), shortly after she began firing. The shell struck Southampton obliquely on her port side, but did not cause significant damage.[13] Nassau then shifted her guns to the cruiser Dublin, but ceased firing by 18:10.[14] At 19:33, Nassau came into range of the British battleship Warspite; her main guns fired briefly, but after the 180 degree turn by the German fleet, the British ship was no longer within reach.[15]
Nassau and the rest of the I Squadron were again engaged by British light forces shortly after 22:00. The British ships, which included the light cruisers Caroline, Comus, and Royalist. Nassau followed her sister Westfalen in a 68° turn to starboard in order to evade any torpedoes that might have been fired. The two ships fired on Caroline and Royalist at a range of around 8,000 yd (7,300 m).[16] The British ships turned away briefly, before turning about to launch torpedoes.[17] Caroline fired two at Nassau; the first passed close to her bows and the second passed under the ship without exploding.[18]
At around midnight on 1 June, the German fleet was attempting to pass behind the British Grand Fleet when it encountered a line of British destroyers. Nassau came in contact with the destroyer Spitfire, and in the confusion, attempted to ram her. Spitfire tried to evade, but could not maneuver away fast enough, and the two ships collided. Nassau fired her forward 11-inch guns at the destroyer, but they could not depress low enough for Nassau to be able to score a hit. Nonetheless, the blast from the guns destroyed Spitfire's bridge. At that point, Spitfire was able to disengage from Nassau, and took with her a 6 m (20 ft) portion of Nassau's side plating. The collision disabled one of Nassau's 15 cm (5.9 in) guns, and left an 3.5 m (11.5 ft) gash above the waterline; this slowed the ship to 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) until it could be repaired.[19] During the confused action, Nassau was hit by two 4 in (10 cm) shells from the British destroyers, which damaged her searchlights and inflicted minor casualties.[20]
Shortly after 01:00, Nassau and Thüringen encountered the British armored cruiser Black Prince. Thüringen opened fire first, and pummeled Black Prince with a total of 27 heavy-caliber shells and 24 shells from her secondary battery. Nassau and Ostfriesland joined in, followed by Friedrich der Grosse.[21]
[Black Prince] presented a terrible and awe-inspiring spectacle as she drifted down the line blazing furiously until, after several minor detonations, she disappeared below the surface with the whole of her crew in one tremendous explosion.[21]
The wreck of the ship was directly in the path of Nassau; to avoid it, the ship had to steer sharply towards the III Battle Squadron. It was necessary for the ship to steam at full speed astern in order to avoid a collision with Kaiserin. Nassau then fell back into a position between the pre-dreadnoughts Hessen and Hannover.[21] At around 03:00, several British destroyers attempted another torpedo attack on the German line. At approximately 03:10, three or four destroyers appeared in the darkness to port of Nassau; at a range of between 5,500 yd (5,000 m) to 4,400 yd (4,000 m), Nassau briefly fired on the ships before turning away 90° to avoid torpedoes.[22]
Following her return to German waters, Nassau, her sisters Posen and Westfalen, and the Helgoland-class battleships Helgoland and Thüringen, took up defensive positions in the Jade roadstead for the night.[23] In the course of the battle, Nassau was hit twice by secondary shells, though these hits caused no significant damage.[24] Her casualties amounted to 11 men killed and 16 men wounded.[25] During the course of the battle, she fired 106 main battery shells and 75 rounds from her secondary guns.[26] Repairs were completed quickly, and Nassau was back with the fleet by 10 July 1916.[27]
[edit] Fate
Following the German collapse in November 1918, a significant portion of the High Seas Fleet was interned in Scapa Flow. Nassau and her three sisters were not among the ships listed for internment, so they remained in German ports.[1] On 21 June 1919, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, under the mistaken impression that the Armistice would expire at noon that day, ordered his ships be scuttled to prevent their seizure by the British.[28] As a result, the four Nassau class ships were ceded to the various Allied powers as replacements for the ships that had been sunk.[1] Nassau was awarded to Japan on 7 April 1920, though the Japanese had no need for the ship. They therefore sold her in June 1920 to British ship-breakers, who scrapped the ship in Dordrecht.[2]
[edit] Notes
- ^ "SMS" stands for "Seiner Majestät Schiff", or "His Majesty's Ship" in German.
- ^ In Imperial German Navy gun nomenclature, "SK" (Schnellfeuerkanone) denotes that the gun quick firing, while "L/45" provides the length of the gun in terms of the diameter of the barrel. In this case, the L/45 gun is 45 calibers, which means that the gun is 45 times as long as its diameter.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b c Hore, p. 67
- ^ a b c d e f Gröner, p. 23
- ^ Hough, p. 26
- ^ Gardiner and Gray, p. 21
- ^ Herwig, pp. 59–60
- ^ Gardiner and Gray, p. 140
- ^ Halpern, pp. 196–197
- ^ Halpern, p. 197
- ^ Halpern, pp. 197–198
- ^ Halpern, p. 198
- ^ Tarrant, p. 286
- ^ Tarrant, p. 203
- ^ Campbell, p. 54
- ^ Campbell, p. 99
- ^ Campbell, p. 154
- ^ Campbell, p. 257
- ^ Campbell, pp. 257–258
- ^ Campbell, p. 258
- ^ Tarrant, p. 220
- ^ Campbell, p. 287
- ^ a b c Tarrant, p. 225
- ^ Campbell, p. 300
- ^ Tarrant, p. 263
- ^ Tarrant, p. 296
- ^ Tarrant, p. 298
- ^ Tarrant, p. 292
- ^ Campbell, p. 336
- ^ Herwig, p. 256
[edit] References
- Campbell, John (1998). Jutland: An Analysis of the Fighting. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 1-55821-759-2.
- Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal, eds (1984). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906-1922. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870219073.
- Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships: 1815–1945. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-790-9.
- Halpern, Paul G. (1995). A Naval History of World War I. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1557503524.
- Herwig, Holger (1980). "Luxury" Fleet: The Imperial German Navy 1888-1918. Amherst, New York: Humanity Books. ISBN 9781573922869.
- Hough, Richard (2003). Dreadnought: A History of the Modern Battleship. Periscope Publishing Ltd.. ISBN 1904381111.
- Hore, Peter (2006). Battleships of World War I. London: Southwater Books. ISBN 978-1-84476-377-1.
- Tarrant, V. E. (1995). Jutland: The German Perspective. Cassell Military Paperbacks. ISBN 0-304-35848-7.
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