SMS Markgraf was the third battleship of the four-ship König class. She served in the Imperial German Navy during World War I. She was armed with ten 30. 5-centimeter guns in five twin turrets and could steam at a top speed of 21 knots. After the war, she was interned by the Royal Navy in Scapa Flow. On 21 June 1919, days before the Treaty of Versailles was signed, the fleet was scuttled to ensure that the British would not be able to seize the ships.
About SMS Markgraf in brief
SMS Markgraf was the third battleship of the four-ship König class. She served in the Imperial German Navy during World War I. She was armed with ten 30. 5-centimeter guns in five twin turrets and could steam at a top speed of 21 knots. After the war, she was interned by the Royal Navy in Scapa Flow. On 21 June 1919, days before the Treaty of Versailles was signed, the fleet was scuttled to ensure that the British would not be able to seize the ships. Unlike most of the scuttles, the ship was never raised for scrapping. The wreck is still sitting on the bottom of the bay. The ship was ordered under the provisional name Ersatz at Weissenburg and built at AG Weser at AG Weissenburg, which was built at the beginning of the 20th century. She is the only ship of the Königs to have been named in honor of the royal family of Baden. The name is a rank of German nobility and is equivalent to the English Margrave, or Marquess. The four ships were ordered as part of the Anglo-German naval arms race. They were the fourth generation of German dreadnought battleships, and they were built in response to the British Orion class that had been ordered in 1909. The ships had also been intended to use a diesel engine on the center propeller shaft to increase their cruising range, but development of the diesels proved to be more complicated than expected, so an all-steam turbine powerplant was retained.
She had a length of 175. 4 m, a beam of 29. 5 m, and a draft of 9. 19 m. She was powered by three Bergmann steam turbines, with steam provided by three oil-fired and twelve coal-fired boilers. Her secondary armament consisted of fourteen 15 cm SK L45 quick-firing guns and six 8. 8 cm anti-aircraft guns, all mounted singly in casemates. She also had five 50 cm underwater torpedo tubes, one in the bow and two on each beam, and was also armed with four 4-inch anti-tank guns in the conning tower. In the event of a fire, the main battery had 15cm of armor plate on the sides and 11 cm on the roofs, while the casemate had 10cm on both sides of the roof. She suffered five large-caliber hits and her crew suffered 23 casualties at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916. In late 1917, she participated in Operation Albion, the conquest of the Gulf of Riga, in late 1917. In November 1918, the ships were disarmed and reduced to skeleton crews while the Allied powers negotiated the final version of the treaty. On 1 October 1919, the commander of the interned fleet, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, ordered the fleet to be scuttling.
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