SMS ("His Majesty's Ship Emperor Frederick III") was the lead ship of the of pre-dreadnought battleships. She was laid down at the in Wilhelmshaven in March 1895, launched in July 1896, and finished in October 1898. The ship was armed with a main battery of four guns in two twin gun turrets supported by a secondary battery of eighteen guns.
Sea trials and modifications lasted more than a year, and once she entered active service in October 1899, the ship became the flagship of Prince Heinrich in I Squadron of the German (Home Fleet). I Squadron was primarily occupied with training exercises throughout each year, and also made numerous trips to other European countries, particularly Great Britain and Sweden–Norway. In 1901, the ship was severely damaged after striking submerged rocks in the Baltic Sea; the incident contributed to design changes in later German battleships to make them more resistant to underwater damage.
was extensively modernized in 1908; her secondary guns were reorganized and her superstructure was cut down to reduce top-heaviness. After returning to service in 1910, was placed in the Reserve Formation; she spent the next two years laid up, being activated only for the annual fleet maneuvers. The years 1913 and 1914 passed without any active service until the outbreak of World War I in July 1914. Though obsolete, and her sister ships served in a limited capacity as coastal defense ships in V Battle Squadron in the early months of the war, tasked with defending Germany's North Sea coastline. The ships conducted two operations in the Baltic but did not encounter any hostile warships. By February 1915, was withdrawn from service and eventually decommissioned in November, thereafter being employed as a prison ship and later as a barracks ship. She was scrapped in 1920.
Design
After the Imperial German Navy ordered the four s in 1889, a combination of budgetary constraints, opposition in the (Imperial Diet), and a lack of a coherent fleet plan delayed the acquisition of further battleships. The former Secretary of the (Imperial Navy Office), Leo von Caprivi, became the Chancellor of Germany in 1890, and (Vice Admiral) Friedrich von Hollmann became Secretary of the . Hollmann requested a new battleship in 1892 to replace the ironclad turret-ship , built twenty years earlier, but the Franco-Russian Alliance, signed the year before, put the government's attention on expanding the Army's budget. Parliamentary opposition forced Hollmann to delay until the following year, when Caprivi spoke in favor of the project, noting that Russia's recent naval expansion threatened Germany's Baltic Sea coastline. In late 1893, Hollmann presented the Navy's estimates for the 1894–1895 budget year, again with a request for a replacement for , which was approved. The new ship abandoned the six-gun arrangement of the s for four large-caliber pieces, the standard arrangement of other navies at the time.
was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward and aft. She displaced as designed and up to at full load. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines that drove three screw propellers. Steam was provided by four Marine-type and eight cylindrical boilers, all of which burned coal and were vented through a pair of tall funnels. s powerplant was rated at , which generated a top speed of . She had a cruising radius of at a speed of . The crew comprised between 658 and 687officers and enlisted men.
The ship's armament consisted of a main battery of four SK L/40 guns in twin gun turrets, one fore and one aft of the central superstructure. Her secondary armament consisted of eighteen SK L/40 guns carried in a mix of turrets and casemates. Close-range defense against torpedo boats was provided by a battery of twelve SK L/30 quick-firing guns, all mounted in casemates. She also carried twelve machine cannon; these were later removed. There were six torpedo tubes, all in above-water swivel mounts. The ship's belt armor was thick, and the main armor deck was thick. The conning tower and main battery turrets were protected with of armor plating, and the secondary casemates received of armor protection.
Service history Construction to 1900
s keel was laid on 5 March 1895 at the (Imperial Shipyard) in Wilhelmshaven, under construction number 22. Kaiser Wilhelm II, the son of the ship's namesake, hammered the first rivet into the keel. She was ordered under the contract name , to replace the elderly armored frigate . was launched on 1 July 1896 and Wilhelm II was present again, this time to give the launching speech. The ship was commissioned on 7 October 1898 and began sea trials in the Baltic Sea. Of major concern was how the three-shaft arrangement would perform on a ship the size of ; the preceding class had used two shafts. After the trials were completed in mid-February 1899, returned to Wilhelmshaven and was decommissioned so defects identified during the trials could be remedied. The work lasted longer than originally planned, her main battery guns had not yet been delivered, and the ship remained out of service for much of the year.
Upon recommissioning on 21 October, was assigned to II Division of I Squadron of the (Home Fleet), which was commanded by Paul Hoffmann. She took the place of the ironclad , which had been decommissioned the previous day. became the flagship of II Division, commanded by (Rear Admiral) Wilhelm Büchsel. Before she could join her division, and the aviso were sent to escort the Kaiser's yacht on a trip to Britain for the Kaiser to visit his grandmother, Queen Victoria. The ships left Germany on 17 November and stayed in Dover from 18 to 20 November, before proceeding to Portsmouth on the 20th, remaining there for three days. On their return they stopped in Vlissingen in the Netherlands, from 24 to 29 November, before continuing to Kiel, where they arrived on 1 December.
finally assumed her role as II Division flagship on 24 January 1900, when Büchsel transferred his flag to the ship. On 2 April, I Squadron steamed to Danzig Bay, where they stayed for four days. The next month, they began a cruise into the North Sea on 7 May; during the trip, the ships made stops in Lerwick in Shetland from 12 to 15 May and Bergen, Norway, from 18 to 22 May. They arrived back in Kiel four days after leaving Bergen. In early July, the four -class battleships were sent to Asia to suppress the Boxer Uprising, prompting a reorganization of the . and were the only battleships available for the annual fleet maneuvers, which were conducted from 15 August to 15 September. They were joined by the armored frigates and and six and s. Throughout the maneuvers, was assigned to the "German" force, which had to combat a hostile "Yellow" squadron. Thereafter, Büchsel became the deputy commander of I Squadron, but he remained aboard only briefly before transferring his flag to the ironclad . Max von Fischel replaced him on 30 September, but went into drydock for her annual overhaul shortly thereafter.
On 1 November, Prince Heinrich, who had replaced Hoffmann as I Squadron commander, raised his flag aboard ; the ship held the role as squadron flagship for the next three years, interrupted only during the annual fleet exercises conducted in August and September, when Admiral Hans von Koester, the (Inspector-General of the Navy), commanded the fleet from . Through November, the ships of the squadron were occupied with individual training. On 17 November 1900, was steaming to Kiel after conducting training exercises. attempted to pass , so the latter stopped and allowed the former to pass to port. However, the order to resume steaming was given too quickly, and the ship accidentally rammed . suffered minor damage to her bow, while her sister was slightly damaged in the steering engine compartment. Repairs were completed within three days, without the need for either vessel to enter drydock. On 4 December, the ships began a winter training cruise, during which they stopped in Larvik, Norway, from 10 to 12 December. The squadron returned to Germany three days later.
1901 grounding
In early 1901 the ships underwent maintenance. The repairs were completed by mid-March, and the members of the squadron reunited in Kiel. They then began a training cruise into the Baltic Sea, stopping in Danzig on 1 April. There, Koester informed Prince Heinrich about upcoming joint Army–Navy maneuvers. While returning to Kiel on the night of 1–2 April, struck an uncharted rock off Kap Arkona, north of the Adlergrund, at around 01:27. The rock breached the starboard side of the hull and damaged four of the ship's watertight compartments, which filled with water and caused the ship to list to port. Eventually, some of water entered the ship. The shock from the collision damaged the ship's boilers and started a fire in the coal bunkers, which spread to the starboard aft boiler room, forcing the crew to shut down the ship's engines. All the ship's ammunition magazines, engine rooms, and storage compartments had to be flooded to prevent the fire from spreading. Three men were seriously injured while fighting the fire, one of whom died of his injuries.
The crew were able to suppress the fire and contain the flooding. , which had also had a slight grounding (without damage), came alongside to take off the crew if it became necessary to abandon ship and, once the fires were controlled, attempted to take under tow, but the cables snapped. By this time, the crew had raised steam in the remaining boilers, and the ship proceeded at to Kiel, which she reached on 3 April. There, the ship was thoroughly examined. The dockyard workers found that eight of the ship's boilers had been badly damaged, and many bulkheads had been bent from the pressure of the water. The keel was extensively damaged, with large holes torn in several places. All three of the ship's propellers were damaged as well. Temporary repairs were effected in Kiel, which included sealing the holes with cement and wood. On 23 April, this work was completed, and she left for Wilhelmshaven, where she was decommissioned for permanent repairs on 4 May.
The investigation found that the nearby lightship—which was used to navigate the channel at night—was from its assigned location, and there were several uncharted rocks in the area of the accident. Therefore, the investigation concluded that the ship's command staff was not at fault in the accident. The investigators recommended design changes to the s, then still being designed, namely the adoption of a torpedo bulkhead to improve resistance to underwater damage. The changes would not be incorporated in a German battleship until the subsequent dreadnought battleships, as their increased size allowed room for the bulkhead and associated watertight compartments.
While was decommissioned for repairs, her crew was transferred to her new sister . The work was completed by early November, and on the 11th, the ship was recommissioned. Both her crew and Prince Heinrich returned from . Divisional exercises followed through the rest of November, and on 2 December, I Squadron began another winter training cruise into the Kattegat and Skagerrak. From 7 to 12 December, the ships stopped in Oslo, Norway, where Oscar II visited . The ships returned to Kiel on 15 December.
1902–1903