SMS Yorck
 Yorck in the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 German Empire | |
| 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 |
| Type | Armored cruiser |
| Displacement | list error: <br /> list (help) 9,533 t (9,382 long tons; 10,508 short tons) normal 10,266 t (10,104 long tons; 11,316 short tons) full load |
| Length | 127.8 m (419 ft) |
| Beam | 20.2 m (66 ft) |
| Draft | 7.76 m (25.5 ft) |
| Propulsion | 19,000 ihp (14,000 kW), three shafts |
| Speed | 21 kn (39 km/h; 24 mph) |
| Range | 4,200 nmi (7,800 km; 4,800 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Crew | list error: <br /> list (help) 35 officers 598 enlisted men |
| Armament | list error: <br /> list (help) Four 21 cm (8.3 in) (2 × 2) ten 15 cm (5.9 in) (10 × 1) fourteen 8.8 cm (3.5 in) (14 × 1) four 45 cm (18 in) torpedo tubes |
| Armor | list error: <br /> list (help) Belt: 80–100 mm (3.1–3.9 in) Turrets: 150 mm (5.9 in) Deck: 40–60 mm (1.6–2.4 in) |
SMS Yorck[Note 1] 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 tonnes (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 kn (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, 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 subsequently brought before a court martial and convicted of negligence. Yorck was broken up incrementally, with work occurring in 1929–30, 1965, and finally completed in 1982.
Construction
Yorck was ordered under the provisional name Ersatz Deutschland and built at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg under construction number 167.[1][Note 2] 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.[2] She had cost the Imperial German Government 16,241,000 Goldmarks.[1]
Yorck displaced 9,087 t (8,943 long tons; 10,017 short tons) as built and 9,875 t (9,719 long tons; 10,885 short tons) fully loaded, with a length of 126.5 m (415 ft), a beam of 19.6 m (64 ft) and a draft of 7.43 m (24.4 ft) forward. She was powered by three vertical triple expansion engines, which developed a total of 17,272 indicated horsepower (12,880 kW)* and yielded a maximum speed of 20.4 kn (37.8 km/h; 23.5 mph) on trials. She carried up to 1,630 t (1,600 long tons; 1,800 short tons) of coal, which enabled a maximum range of up to 5,080 nautical miles (9,410 km; 5,850 mi)* at a cruising speed of 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph).[1]
She was armed with four 21 cm (8.3 in) guns arranged in two twin gun turrets, one on either end of the superstructure. Her secondary armament consisted of ten 15 cm (5.9 in) guns, fourteen 8.8 cm (3.5 in) guns and four 45 cm (18 in) underwater torpedo tubes, one in the bow, one in the stern, and one on both beams.[1]
Service history
Peacetime
Yorck was launched on 14 May 1904,[3] and commissioned into the German navy on 21 November 1905.[4] At the commissioning Field Marshal Wilhelm von Hahnke spoke, saying, "old wisdom, si vis pacem, para bellum—he who wants peace shall be prepared for war...may the guns and machines of the Yorck be operated only by men with iron hearts and an iron will, men who know no other order than to put their lives at risk when the might, the greatness and honor of the German people are being fought for."[3] After her commissioning, Yorck served with the fleet in the cruiser squadron.[4] From 1 October 1911 to 26 January 1912 Franz von Hipper, later commander-in-chief of the German navy, served as the ship's commanding officer.[5]
In early March 1913, the fleet conducted maneuvers off the island of Helgoland in the North Sea. Early on 4 March, the destroyer S178 fell out of formation in heavy seas and attempted to cross in front of Yorck. The destroyer was caught by a large wave and thrown into Yorck , which cut S178 in half. Out of a crew of 83 men, only 13 were pulled from the stormy sea.[6] Yorck was decommissioned and laid up in the reserve fleet in May 1913 with most of her crew transferring to the newly completed battlecruiser Seydlitz.[7] Hipper, by now the deputy commander of the battlecruiser squadron, stated that "the Seydlitz has a fine spirit and high morale, having carried over the spirit of the old Yorck crew."[8] On 12 August 1914 Yorck was recommissioned and assigned to III Scouting Group.
First World War
On 3 November, Yorck participated in the first offensive operation of the war conducted by the German fleet. She augmented the forces assigned to the I Scouting Group, which primarily consisted of the battlecruisers Seydlitz, Moltke, and Von der Tann and the large armored cruiser Blücher. The I Scouting Group, commanded by Rear Admiral Hipper, was ordered to bombard Great Yarmouth on the English coast. The four large cruisers bombarded the port but inflicted little damage; minelayers laid minefields off the coast, which sank the submarine D5.[9] Upon returning to the Helgoland Bight late that day, Hipper's forces encountered heavy fog.[10] The fog prevented the ships from entering Wilhelmshaven; instead, they anchored for the night in the Schillig roadstead. Yorck attempted to enter Wilhelmshaven early on the 4th,[11] but her crew made a navigational error which led the ship into a defensive minefield. She struck two German mines and capsized and sank with heavy loss of life.[10]
Sources disagree on the exact figures; V. E. Tarrant's Jutland: The German Perspective, states that 127 men out of a crew of 629 were rescued,[10] while Erich Gröner's German Warships 1815–1945 indicates that there were only 336 fatalities.[4] Daniel Butler's Distant Victory states that "some 235" men perished in the sinking.[11] A contemporary New York Times article reported that the ship sank with the "loss of over 300 men."[12] Yorck's commanding officer, Captain Piper, was among those rescued. In December 1914, he was subjected to a court-martial and convicted of negligence and failure to follow orders.[12] The ship's wreck was partially scrapped in 1929–30; more work was done in 1965, though the ship was not completely removed until work resumed in 1982.[4]
Footnotes
- Notes
- ^ "SMS" stands for "Seiner Majestät Schiff", or "His Majesty's Ship" in German.
- ^ German warships were ordered under provisional names. For new additions to the fleet, they were given a single letter; for those ships intended to replace older or lost vessels, they were ordered as "Ersatz (name of the ship to be replaced)".[1]
- Citations
- ^ a b c d e Gröner, p. 51
- ^ Gardiner & Chesneau, p. 255
- ^ a b Rüger, p. 237.
- ^ a b c d Gröner, p. 52
- ^ Philbin, p. 183.
- ^ The Sinking of Torpedo-boat "S-178", p. 848
- ^ Staff, p. 22.
- ^ Philbin, p. 24
- ^ Halpern, p. 39
- ^ a b c Tarrant, p. 30
- ^ a b Butler, p. 110
- ^ a b "Prison for Yorck's Captain". New York Times. 28 December 1914. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
References
- Books
- Butler, Daniel Allen (2006). Distant Victory. Westport, CT: Praeger Security International. ISBN 0-275-99073-7.
- Gardiner, Robert; Chesneau, Roger; Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-133-5.
- Gardiner, Robert (1984). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906-1922. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-907-3.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - 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 1-55750-352-4.
- Philbin, Tobias R. III (1982). Admiral Hipper:The Inconvenient Hero. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 90-6032-200-2.
- Rüger, Jan (2007). The Great Naval Game. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-87576-5.
- Staff, Gary (2006). German Battlecruisers: 1914-1918. Oxford: Osprey Books. ISBN 978-1-84603-009-3.
- Tarrant, V. E. (1995). Jutland: The German Perspective. Cassell Military Paperbacks. ISBN 0-304-35848-7.
- Journals
- "The Sinking of Torpedo-boat "S-178"". Proceedings. 39. Annapolis, MD: United States Naval Institute: 847–848. 1913.