SMS was one of five pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Kaiserliche Marine between 1904 and 1906. Named after the Prussian province of Pomerania, she was built at the AG Vulcan yard at Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland), where she was laid down on 22 March 1904 and launched on 2 December 1905. She was commissioned into the navy on 6 August 1907. The ship was armed with a battery of four guns and had a top speed of . The ships of her class were already outdated by the time they entered the service, being inferior in size, armor, firepower, and speed to the revolutionary new battleship .
After commissioning, was assigned to II Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet, where she served throughout her peacetime career and the first two years of World War I. Before the war, the fleet was primarily occupied with cruises and extensive training exercises, developing strategic concepts for use in a future conflict. At the start of the war, and the rest of II Battle Squadron were tasked with supporting the defenses of the German Bight, and were stationed at the mouth of the Elbe. They also participated in several fruitless sorties into the North Sea in attempts to lure out and destroy a portion of the British Grand Fleet.
These offensive operations culminated in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916. She and her sisters briefly engaged the British battlecruisers commanded by David Beatty late on the first day, and was hit once by a shell from the battlecruiser . During the confused night actions in the early hours of 1 June, she was hit by one, or possibly two, torpedoes from the British destroyer , which detonated one of s gun magazines. The resulting explosion broke the ship in half and killed the entire crew. was the only battleship of either side sunk during the battle.
Design
The passage of the Second Naval Law in 1900 under the direction of (VAdm—Vice Admiral) Alfred von Tirpitz secured funding for the construction of twenty new battleships over the next seventeen years. The first group, the five s, were laid down in the early 1900s, and shortly thereafter design work began on a follow-on design, which became the . The -class ships were broadly similar to the s, featuring incremental improvements in armor protection. They also abandoned the gun turrets for the secondary battery guns, moving them back to traditional casemates to save weight. The British battleship —armed with ten 12-inch (30.5 cm) guns—was commissioned in December 1906. Dreadnoughts revolutionary design rendered every capital ship of the German navy obsolete, including the class.
was long overall, with a beam of , and a draft of . She displaced at full loading. The ship was equipped with two heavy military masts and triple expansion engines that were rated at . She had a top speed of , though she significantly exceeded that speed on trials, being the fastest member of the class. Steam was provided by twelve Schulz-Thornycroft boilers; three funnels vented smoke from burning coal in the boilers. The ship had a fuel capacity of up to of coal. In addition to being the fastest ship of her class, was the most fuel efficient. At a cruising speed of , she could steam for . Her crew numbered 35 officers and 708 enlisted men.
s primary armament consisted of four SK L/40 guns in two twin turrets. Her offensive armament was rounded out with a secondary battery of fourteen SK L/40 guns mounted individually in casemates. A battery of twenty-two SK L/45 guns in single mounts provided defense against torpedo boats. The ship was also armed with six torpedo tubes, all submerged in the hull. One was in the bow, one in the stern, and four on the broadside. Krupp cemented armor protected the ship. Her armored belt was thick in the central portion, where it protected her magazines and machinery spaces, while thinner plating covered the ends of the hull. Her main-deck armor was thick. The main battery turrets had of armor plating.
Service history
was ordered under the contract name "O", as a new addition to the fleet's numerical strength. She was laid down on 22 March 1904 at the AG Vulcan dockyard in Stettin. She was originally scheduled to be launched on 19 November 1905, but the water level in the harbor was too low. As a result, the ship could not be launched until 2 December. The (High Commissioner) of Pommern, Helmuth von Maltzahn, gave the launching speech. In July 1907 was transferred to Kiel where she had her main battery of four 28 cm (11 in) guns installed. She was commissioned for trials on 6 August; during her speed run, she reached , which made her the fastest pre-dreadnought battleship in the world.