Kaiser Class Battleships

GENERAL INFORMATION FOR CLASS
Displacement: 24,333 tons/design, 26,573 tons/maximum
Length: 172.4 m. Beam: 29.0 m. Draught: 9.1 m.
Main Armament: Ten 30.5 cm quick firing guns of 50 calibres length, arranged in five double gun turrets, one forward, two aft, one each beam, mounted diagonally so that each could fire to either side. This arrangement yielded a broadside of all ten heavy guns.
Secondary and
Tertiary Armaments:		 Fourteen 15 cm quick firing guns in casemates. Eight 88 mm quick firing guns in single unprotected mounts, later all removed. Four 88 mm single mount anti-aircraft guns, later reduced to two. Five 50 cm torpedo tubes, all underwater, one in bows and two each beam.
Armor: Armoured traverse bulkheads: ?...Side armour: aft/0mm-180mm from stern, vital areas/350mm tapered towards waterline to 180mm, forward/120mm...Citadel armour: aft/0mm-130mm, vital areas/180mm, forward/120mm...Horizontal armour: armoured bulkheads 60mm with 100mm inclines...Main armament: barbettes/300mm, turrets-300mm/fronts, 110mm/tops...Casemates: from aft 80mm to 170mm forward... Conning tower: forward/400mm, after part/200mm.
Machinery: Sixteen coal fired naval boilers with supplimental oil firing feeding three turbines driving three propellers. Two parallel rudders. Output of 31,000 shaft horsepower at 21 knots.
S.M.S. Prinzregent Luitpold had fourteen coal fired naval boilers with supplimental oil firing driving two steam turbines coupled to the two outboard propellers. the centre shaft was to have had one "Germania" two stroke, six cylinder diesel engine, although this was never installed. The output of this projected engineering plant would have been 26,000 shaft horsepower at 20 knots, and 12,000 shaft horsepower at 12 knots respectively.
The trail run results for the five sisters were as follows:
S.M.S. Kaiser, with Parsons turbines, developed 55,187 s.h.p. at 23.4 knots.
S.M.S. Kaiserin, with Parsons turbines, developed 42,181 s.h.p. at 22.4 knots.
S.M.S. Friedrich der Grosse, with AEG-Curtis turbines, developed 41,533 s.h.p. at 22.1 knots.
S.M.S. König Albert, with Schichau turbines, developed 39,813 s.h.p. at 22.0 knots.
S.M.S. Prinzregent Luitpold, with Parsons turbines, developed 38,751 s.h.p. at 21.7 knots.
Fuel reserves: 984 tons coal and 197 tons oil/normal, 2952 tons coal/maximum.
Radius of action: 7900 nautical miles at 12 knots. (S.M.S. Prinzregent Luitpold carried 492 tons of coal normally, with 3,051 tons maximum, additionally, she carried 98.4 tons of oil normally and 394 tons of oil at maximum. With diesel engine running alone, radius of action was estimated at 2,000 nautical miles at 12 knots.)
Additional General Information for Class:
Original designs for the Kaiser class were developed between 1907 and 1909, before the plans for the Helgoland class were completed. For budgetary reasons, they were ordered as replacements for the obsolete coastal defense ships S.M.S. Ägir, Hagen, Heimdall, Hildebrand, and Odin. This class was the first of the German battleships to be fitted with steam turbines, the first to be fitted with supplimental oil burners, and the first class to have superfiring after turrets; a direct result of the change to turbine propulsion making it easier to locate the requisite magazines abaft the engine rooms. The conservative element in the Naval Design Office yielded only with the greatest reluctance to the installation of the steam turbines; but the famous cruise to South America undertaken by S.M.S. Kaiser, S.M.S. König Albert, and the light cruiser S.M.S. Strassburg between December of 1913 and June of 1914 proved to even the most skeptical that the new technology was utterly reliable. The Kaiser class cost an average of RM45,600,000 each.
SHIPS IN CLASS
S.M.S. Kaiser
Budget year: 1909 Builders: Kaiserliche Werft, Kiel Laid down: Oct.09 Launched: Mar.22.11 Completed: Aug.1.12
Ship's History:
Nov.3.14 escort duties for battle cruisers on operations against Lowestoft and Yarmouth...Dec.16.14 same for operations against Hartlepool, Scarborough and Whitby...Mar.5/6.16 sortied into the Hoofden...Apr.25.16 again escorted battle cruisers against Lowestoft and Yarmouth...May.31.16 battle of Jutland, received two hits, repaired and reported ready for sea Aug.16...Aug.19.16 attacked east coast of England...Oct.19.16 attacked Dogger Bank...Nov.5.16 sortied up west coast of Denmark...beginning Sep.19.17 in action against the Baltic islands... Nov.17.17 cruiser battle in North Sea...Apr.23.18 sortied into the northern part of the North Sea...Nov.25.18 interned at Scapa Flow...scuttled there Jun. 21.19...hulk raised Mar.29 and scrapped at Rosyth by 1930.
S.M.S. Friedrich der Grosse
Budget year: 1910 Builders: AG Vulcan, Stettin Laid down: Jan.26.10 Launched: Jun.10.11 Completed: Oct.15.12
Ship's History:
Served as flagship of the High Seas Fleet from commissioning until Mar.17... Nov.3.14 escort duties for battle cruisers on operations against Lowestoft and Yarmouth...Dec.16.14 same for operations against Hartlepool, Scarborough and Whitby...Mar.5/6.16 sortied into the Hoofden...Apr.25.16 again escorted battle cruisers against Lowestoft and Yarmouth...May.31.16 battle of Jutland... Aug.19.16 attacked east coast of England...Oct.19.16 attacked Dogger Bank... Nov.5.16 sortied up west coast of Denmark...beginning Sep.19.17 in action against the Baltic islands... Apr.23.18 sortied into the northern part of the North Sea...Nov.25.18 interned at Scapa Flow...scuttled there Jun. 21.19...salvaged 1936-37 and then scrapped at Scapa Flow.
S.M.S. Kaiserin
Budget year: 1909 Builders: Howaldtswerke, Kiel Laid down: Jul.10 Launched: Nov.11.11 Completed: May.14.13
Ship's History:
Nov.3.14 escort duties for battle cruisers on operations against Lowestoft and Yarmouth...Dec.16.14 same for operations against Hartlepool, Scarborough and Whitby...Mar.5/6.16 sortied into the Hoofden...Apr.25.16 again escorted battle cruisers against Lowestoft and Yarmouth...May.31.16 battle of Jutland... Aug.19.16 attacked east coast of England...Oct.19.16 attacked Dogger Bank... Nov.5.16 sortied up west coast of Denmark...beginning Sep.19.17 in action against the Baltic islands... Nov.17.17 cruiser battle in North Sea...Apr.23.18 sortied into the northern part of the North Sea...Nov.25.18 interned at Scapa Flow...scuttled there Jun. 21.19...salvaged 1936 scrapped at Rosyth.
S.M.S. Prinzregent Luitpold
Budget year: 1910 Builders: Friedrich Krupp, Germanaiwerft, Kiel Laid down: Oct.10 Launched: Feb.17.12 Completed: Aug.19.13
Ship's History:
Nov.3.14 escort duties for battle cruisers on operations against Lowestoft and Yarmouth...Dec.16.14 same for operations against Hartlepool, Scarborough and Whitby...Mar.5/6.16 sortied into the Hoofden...Apr.25.16 again escorted battle cruisers against Lowestoft and Yarmouth...May.31.16 battle of Jutland... Aug.19.16 attacked east coast of England...Oct.19.16 attacked Dogger Bank... Nov.5.16 sortied up west coast of Denmark...beginning Sep.19.17 in action against the Baltic islands... Apr.23.18 sortied into the northern part of the North Sea...Nov.25.18 interned at Scapa Flow...scuttled there Jun. 21.19...raised Apr.31 scrapped at Rosyth through 1933.
S.M.S. König Albert
Budget year: 1910 Builders: F. Schichau, Danzig Laid down: Jul.10 Launched: Apr.27.12 Completed: Jul.31.13
Ship's History:
Nov.3.14 escort duties for battle cruisers on operations against Lowestoft and Yarmouth...Dec.16.14 same for operations against Hartlepool, Scarborough and Whitby...Mar.5/6.16 sortied into the Hoofden...Apr.25.16 again escorted battle cruisers against Lowestoft and Yarmouth...May.31.16 battle of Jutland... Aug.19.16 attacked east coast of England...Oct.19.16 attacked Dogger Bank... Nov.5.16 sortied up west coast of Denmark...beginning Sep.19.17 in action against the Baltic islands... Apr.23.18 sortied into the northern part of the North Sea...Nov.25.18 interned at Scapa Flow...scuttled there Jun. 21.19...raised end of Jul.35 scrapped at Rosyth through 1936.

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©Blane C. Rhoten - eichfelder@gmail.com - Last updated 24.September.2005.

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