SMS ("His Majesty's Ship Prince Adalbert") was an armored cruiser built in the early 1900s for the German (Imperial Navy), named after Prince Adalbert of Prussia, former Commander-in-Chief of the Prussian Navy. She was the lead ship of her class, which included a second ship, . was built at the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel. Her keel was laid in April 1900, and she was launched in June 1901. Her completion in January 1904 had been delayed by a surplus of construction projects at the Imperial Dockyard. She was armed with a main battery of four guns, a significant improvement over the previous armored cruiser, , which carried only two guns. The ship was capable of a top speed of .
Upon commissioning, served as a gunnery training ship, a role she held for the majority of her career. She trained with the (Home Fleet), later renamed the (High Seas Fleet), throughout the early 1900s, and she made several visits to foreign countries. After the outbreak of World War I in July 1914, she was assigned to the reconnaissance forces in the Baltic and was tasked with protecting the German coast from Russian attacks. After her sister ship was sunk in November 1914, she became the flagship of the cruiser squadron in the Baltic. She conducted operations against Russian forces, including bombarding the port of Libau in support of the German Army. She was torpedoed by a British submarine in July 1915, but was able to return to port and was repaired. She was torpedoed a second time on 23 October 1915; the torpedo detonated her ammunition magazines and destroyed the ship. She sank quickly with heavy loss of life; only three men were rescued from a crew of 675. This proved to be the worst German naval disaster in the Baltic during the war.
Design
was the second member of the , which were ordered under the Second Naval Law of 1900. The law called for a force of fourteen armored cruisers that would be able to serve in Germany's colonial empire and scout for the main German fleet in home waters. The need to fill both roles was the result of budgetary limitations, which prevented Germany from building vessels specialized to each task. The design was based on that of the previous armored cruiser, , but incorporated a more powerful armament and more comprehensive armor protection.
displaced as built and fully loaded. She had an overall length of , a beam of and a draft of forward. She was powered by three vertical triple-expansion steam engines, with steam provided by fourteen coal-fired water-tube boilers. The engines were rated to produce for a maximum speed of , though she slightly exceeded these figures on speed trials. She carried up to of coal, which enabled a maximum range of up to at a cruising speed of . The ship's crew consisted of 35 officers and 551 enlisted men.
She was armed with four guns arranged in two twin-gun turrets, one on either end of the superstructure, a significant improvement over , which carried only two guns in single turrets. Her secondary armament consisted of ten 15 cm (5.9 in) guns in individual casemate mounts. For defense against torpedo boats, she carried a battery of twelve guns, also in individual mounts. She was also equipped with four underwater torpedo tubes, one in the bow, one in the stern, and one on each broadside. The ship was protected by a armored belt consisting of Krupp cemented armor, along with an armored deck that was thick. Her main battery turrets had faces thick and her conning tower had an equal amount of armor on its sides.
Service history
was ordered under the provisional name "B" and built at the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel under construction number 27. Her keel was laid in April 1900 and she was launched on 22 June 1901. The launching ceremony was attended by the Kaiser, Wilhelm II, his wife Kaiserin Augusta Victoria, his brother Admiral Prince Heinrich and Wilhem's son, Prince Adalbert of Prussia. The ceremony of christening the ship was performed by Princess Irene of Prussia, wife of Prince Heinrich, who then delivered a speech. Fitting-out work proceeded slowly, in large part the result of the Imperial Dockyard attempting to build too many ships at once, but the work was eventually completed by 12 January 1904. was commissioned into the Imperial German Navy the same day for sea trials, with (Captain at Sea) Hermann Jacobsen in command; the ship was slated for service as a gunnery training ship. She had cost the Imperial German Government 16,371,000 . Sea trials were completed by 30 May, after which began her duties as a gunnery training ship.