SMS Zahringen

The Ship


Scrapped 1949


SMS Zahringen of the The Wittelsbach Class of German battleships of the Imperial German Navy were improved Kaiser class Battleships, designed in 1897 to 1898. They were the first ships to be ordered by Tirpitsz's new navy law of 1898, and were good sea going battleships. SMS Zahringen was built at the Germania Dockyard in Keil and launched 12th June 1901 and commissioned into the German navy on the 25h October 1902. She served with the fleet until during the first part of World War One as part of the 4th squadron but proved to be slow and vulnerable and was decommissioned during 1916. SMS Zahringen became a exercise ship at Keil and in 1917 she became a stoker training ship and a target ship, finally becoming a hulk at Wilhelmshaven. Reconstructed, she becoming a remote control target ship for the Reichsmarine and later the Kriegsmarine between 1926 - 1927. During Worlds War Two she was bombed at Gotenhafen on the 18th December 1944 and sunk. She was scuttled on the 26th march 1945 at the harbour entrance. and finally broken up in where she lay 1949.

Displacement: 12,596 tons, Speed: 17.5 knots. Range Armament: Four 240mm Guns in pairs, Eighteen 150mm, twelve 88mm and twelve MG's Six 450mm Torpedo Tubes. Complement: 683

My Postcards

Postally used 13 Jul 1915.

 

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