SMS Friedrich Carl
SMS Friedrich Carl in 1912
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History | |
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German Empire | |
Name | Friedrich Carl |
Namesake | Prince Friedrich Carl |
Builder | Blohm & Voss, Hamburg |
Laid down | August 1901 |
Launched | 21 June 1902 |
Commissioned | 12 December 1903 |
Fate | Mined and sunk, 17 November 1914 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Prinz Adalbert-class cruiser |
Displacement |
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Length | 126.5 m (415 ft) o/a |
Beam | 19.6 m (64 ft 4 in) |
Draft | 7.43 m (24 ft 5 in) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion |
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Speed | 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
Range | 5,080 nautical miles (9,410 km; 5,850 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
Complement |
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Armament |
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Armor |
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SMS Friedrich Carl was a German
Friedrich Carl served with the scouting forces of the Active Battle Fleet for the first few years of her career, including a stint as the flagship of the reconnaissance squadron. She went on cruises abroad, including voyages escorting Kaiser Wilhelm II on tours in the Mediterranean Sea. She also participated in extensive training exercises in the Baltic and North Seas. In 1909, she was withdrawn from front-line service and used as a torpedo training ship until 1914.
After the outbreak of World War I in July 1914, Friedrich Carl returned to active service for operations in the Baltic Sea against the Imperial Russian Navy. She served as the flagship of the cruiser squadron in the Baltic and participated in patrols in the Gulf of Finland. The ship was modified to carry a pair of seaplanes. In mid-November, the cruiser squadron was tasked with attacking the Russian base at Libau, but while en route on 17 November, Friedrich Carl struck a pair of naval mines. She remained afloat long enough for most of her crew to be taken off by the light cruiser SMS Augsburg before sinking; seven or eight men died as she sank.
Design
Friedrich Carl was the second ship of the Prinz Adalbert class, which was ordered under the Second Naval Law of 1900. The law called for a force of fourteen armored cruisers able to serve in Germany's colonial empire and scout for the main German fleet in home waters. The need for one type of ship to fill both roles was the result of budgetary limitations, which prevented Germany from building vessels specialized to each task.[1][2] The Prinz Adalbert design was based on the previous armored cruiser, Prinz Heinrich, but it incorporated more powerful armament and more comprehensive armor protection.[3][4]
The ship was 126.5 m (415 ft)
Friedrich Carl was armed with four
The ship was protected by
Service history
Construction through 1905
Friedrich Carl was ordered under the provisional name Ersatz König Wilhelm and built at the
The trials were interrupted in March 1904 when Friedrich Carl was tasked with escorting
Beginning in June 1904, Friedrich Carl joined
From January to February 1905, Friedrich Carl participated in training exercises in the Baltic. While cruising north of the
1905–1914
In July, Friedrich Carl joined the rest of the fleet for a cruise in the North and Baltic Seas, during which she ran aground but was not damaged. She then participated in squadron exercises in the Baltic. In February 1906, she went on a training cruise to Denmark. The new armored cruiser Yorck replaced Friedrich Carl as the squadron flagship in late March. Friedrich Carl in turn replaced Prinz Heinrich as the flagship of the deputy commander, Kommodore (Commodore) Raimund Winkler. She remained in this role until the new armored cruiser Roon took her place on 15 August. The autumn maneuvers of 1906 were conducted in Norwegian waters and the western Baltic. After the maneuvers, FK Franz von Hipper took command of the ship. Friedrich Carl resumed her role as the deputy commander flagship on 31 October when KzS Eugen Kalau vom Hofe came aboard the ship; she held the position until 5 March 1908. The year 1907 passed uneventfully for Friedrich Carl; she briefly served as the squadron flagship from 11 September to 28 October after Yorck suffered an accident. Friedrich Carl went on a major training cruise into the Atlantic Ocean in early 1908 and on her return to Wilhelmshaven was decommissioned on 5 March for lengthy repairs.[10]
On returning to service on 1 March 1909, KzS Friedrich Schultz assumed command of the ship, which was to be used as a torpedo test ship. In this role, she replaced the protected cruiser SMS Vineta; Schultz was also the commander of the Torpedo Testing Inspectorate. On 30 March, Friedrich Carl was assigned to the temporary Training and Testing Ship Unit for maneuvers off the island of Rügen in April. The unit was dissolved on 24 April, and from mid-August to early September, Friedrich Carl participated in the autumn maneuvers as part of the Reconnaissance Group of the Reserve Fleet. The years 1910 and 1911 followed a similar training routine to that of 1909, and Schultz had been replaced by KzS Ernst Ritter von Mann und Edler von Tiechler as the ship's captain in September 1909 and by KAdm Wilhelm von Lans as commander of the Torpedo Testing Inspectorate on 19 December 1909. Tiechler was in turn replaced by FK Andreas Michelsen in September 1911; he held the command until the outbreak of World War I in July 1914.[10]
In July 1911, Friedrich Carl conducted torpedo tests with the light cruiser
World War I
On 28 August 1914, Friedrich Carl returned to service under the command of KzS
In early November, Friedrich Carl was withdrawn for repairs, which were completed by mid-month.[17] In the meantime, the German naval command, which was aware that British submarines were operating in the Baltic Sea, had ordered Behring to attack the Russian port at Libau to prevent it being used as a British submarine base.[15] Friedrich Carl was assigned to the attack force, and she left Memel on 16 November to bombard Russian positions around Libau. At 01:46 on 17 November, while 33 nautical miles (61 km; 38 mi) west of Memel, she struck a naval mine that had been laid by Russian destroyers in October. The ship's crew initially thought the shock of the explosion was from striking a submarine; Loesch immediately altered course to return to Memel, at which point she struck a second mine at 01:57. She began to take on water, though she remained afloat for some time. At 6:20, Augsburg arrived on the scene and evacuated the crew, and Friedrich Carl was abandoned to sink, which she did at 07:15. Seven or eight men died in the sinking.[18][19][20]
Notes
Footnotes
- ^ In Imperial German Navy gun nomenclature, "SK" (Schnelladekanone) denotes that the gun is quick loading, and the L/40 denotes the length of the gun. In this case, the L/40 gun is 40 calibers, meaning that the gun is 40 times as long as it is in bore diameter.[5]
- ^ German warships were ordered under provisional names. For new additions to the fleet, they were given a single letter; for those ships intended to replace older or lost vessels, they were ordered as "Ersatz (name of the ship to be replaced)".[3]
Citations
- ^ Campbell & Sieche, p. 142.
- ^ Herwig, p. 27.
- ^ a b c d e f Gröner, p. 50.
- ^ a b c Lyon, p. 255.
- ^ Grießmer, p. 177.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 115–116.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 116.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 115–117.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 117–118.
- ^ a b Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 115, 118.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 118.
- ^ Burt, p. 186.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 118–119.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 115, 119.
- ^ a b Corbett, p. 286.
- ^ Greger, p. 87.
- ^ a b Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 119.
- ^ Gröner, p. 51.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 119–120.
- ^ Halpern, p. 186.
References
- Burt, R. A. (1986). British Battleships of World War One. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-863-8.
- Campbell, N. J. M. & Sieche, Erwin (1986). "Germany". In Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 134–189. ISBN 978-0-85177-245-5.
- Corbett, Julian Stafford (1921). Naval Operations: From The Battle of the Falklands to the Entry of Italy Into the War in May 1915. Vol. II. London: Longmans, Green & Co. OCLC 924170059.
- Greger, Rene (1964). "German Seaplane and Aircraft Carriers in Both World Wars". Warship International. I (1–12). Toledo: Naval Records Club, Inc.: 87–91. OCLC 29828398.
- Grießmer, Axel (1999). Die Linienschiffe der Kaiserlichen Marine: 1906–1918; Konstruktionen zwischen Rüstungskonkurrenz und Flottengesetz [The Battleships of the Imperial Navy: 1906–1918; Constructions between Arms Competition and Fleet Laws] (in German). Bonn: Bernard & Graefe Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7637-5985-9.
- ISBN 978-0-87021-790-6.
- Halpern, Paul G. (1995). A Naval History of World War I. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-352-4.
- Herwig, Holger (1998) [1980]. "Luxury" Fleet: The Imperial German Navy 1888–1918. Amherst: Humanity Books. ISBN 978-1-57392-286-9.
- Hildebrand, Hans H.; Röhr, Albert & Steinmetz, Hans-Otto (1993). Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe: Biographien – ein Spiegel der Marinegeschichte von 1815 bis zur Gegenwart [The German Warships: Biographies − A Reflection of Naval History from 1815 to the Present] (in German). Vol. 3. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7822-0211-4.
- Lyon, Hugh (1979). "Germany". In Gardiner, Robert; Chesneau, Roger; Kolesnik, Eugene M. (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5.
Further reading
- von Mantey, Eberhard (1921). "Kapitel 12. - Sperrung von Libau und Untergang S. M. S. "Friedrich Carl" November 1914". In Firle, Rudolph (ed.). Der Krieg zur See 1914–1918 – Ostsee, Bd. 1 [The War at Sea 1914–1918 – Baltic Sea, Volume I] (in German). Berlin: E. S. Mittler und Sohn. pp. 219–252.