SMS Wettin was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the German Kaiserliche Marine. She and her sister ships were the first capital ships built under the Navy Law of 1898. She was decommissioned in June 1911 but was reactivated for duty as a gunnery training ship between December 1911 and mid-1914. The ship played a minor role in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915. After the war, the ship was stricken from the navy list and sold for scrapping in 1921.
About SMS Wettin in brief
SMS Wettin was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the German Kaiserliche Marine. She and her sister ships were the first capital ships built under the Navy Law of 1898. The ship was armed with a main battery of four 24 cm guns and had a top speed of 18 knots. She was decommissioned in June 1911 but was reactivated for duty as a gunnery training ship between December 1911 and mid-1914. She saw limited duty in the Baltic Sea, but the ship played a minor role in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915. The Wittelsbachs were broadly similar to the Kaiser Friedrichs, carrying the same armament but with a more comprehensive armor layout. After the war, the ship was stricken from the navy list and sold for scrapping in 1921. Her bell is on display at the Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr in Dresden. Her name was changed to “Wettin” in honor of the ship’s namesake, a German ship of the same name, which was built in the 19th century. She is now a museum ship at the Museum of Naval History and Science in Dresden, along with her sister ship, the “Wittelsbach”-class battleship “Kriegsmarine” “Wetin” was built by Schichau Seebeckwerft in Danzig and was completed in October 1902. She had a crew of 30 officers and 650 enlisted men.
She displaced 11,774 t as designed and up to 12,798 t at full load. The main battery turrets had 250mm thick armor, tapering to 100mm toward the bow and stern. The armament suite was rounded with six 45cm torpedo tubes, all submerged in the hull; one in the bow, another in the broadside and two on each broadside. In the central portion that protected her propulsion spaces, her armored belt was 225 millimeters thick. The deck armor was 50mm thick and the main battery turret had 250 mm thick armor. The hull was protected with Krupp plating and two Krupp armor plating on the stern, two on the broad side and two in the wide side. The battleship was ordered under contract in October 1899, under the number 676, under contract with the Schau-Werke-Dockwerftwerft company, and was built under contract under the name 676-Dkeer in November 1899. It was the first battleship built under Konteradmiral Alfred von Tirpitz’s tenure. The last two ships of the class, as well as the five of the Wittelbach class, were built in 1903 and 1904. She served as a training ship for naval cadets and as a depot ship until the end of the First World War in August 1914. She could steam for 5,000 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 10 knots.
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This page is based on the article SMS Wettin published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 08, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
