SMS Grosser Kurfürst (1875)

SMS Grosser Kurfürst underway on her maiden voyage
History
Name	SMS Grosser Kurfürst
Builder	Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven
Laid down	1869
Launched	17 September 1875
Commissioned	6 May 1878
Fate	Accidentally rammed and sunk by SMS König Wilhelm 31 May 1878
General characteristics
Class and type	ironclad
Displacement	Design: 6,821 t (6,713 long tons) Full load : 7,718 t (7,596 long tons)
Length	96.59 m (316 ft 11 in)
Beam	16.30 m (53 ft 6 in)
Draft	7.11 m (23 ft 4 in)
Installed power	6 × boilers 4,998  PS (4,930 ihp )
Propulsion	1 × single-expansion steam engine and sail 1 × screw propeller
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Speed	14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Range	1,690 nmi (3,130 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h)
Complement	46 officers 454 enlisted men
Armament	4 × 26 cm (10 in) guns 2 × 17 cm (6.7 in) guns
Armor	Upper belt: 203 mm (8 in) Lower belt: 102 to 229 mm (4 to 9 in) Turrets: 203 to 254 mm (8 to 10 in)

SMS Grosser Kurfürst 

Grosser Kurfürst was sunk on her maiden voyage when she was accidentally rammed by the ironclad SMS König Wilhelm. The two ships, along with SMS Preussen, were steaming in the English Channel on 31 May 1878. The three ships encountered a group of fishing boats under sail; in turning to avoid them, Grosser Kurfürst inadvertently crossed König Wilhelm's path and was rammed, sinking within about fifteen minutes. Between 269 and 284 of her crew drowned. Her loss spurred a series of investigations into the circumstances of the collision, which ultimately resulted in the acquittal of both Rear Admiral Karl Ferdinand Batsch [de], the squadron commander, and Count Alexander von Monts, the captain of Grosser Kurfürst. Political infighting over the affair led to the ousting of Rear Admiral Reinhold von Werner from the navy.

Design

The three Preussen-class ironclads were authorized under the naval program of 1867, which had been approved by the

Grosser Kurfürst was 96.59 meters (316.9 ft)

metric horsepower (5,393 ihp). She was also equipped with a full ship rig of sails. Her standard complement was 46 officers and 454 enlisted men.^[3]

She was armed with a

bow and one in the stern.^[4] Grosser Kurfürst's armor was made of wrought iron backed with teak. The armored belt was arrayed in two strakes. The upper strake was 203 mm (8 in) thick; the lower strake ranged in thickness from 102 to 229 mm (4 to 9 in). Both were backed with 234 to 260 mm (9.2 to 10.2 in) of teak. The gun turrets were protected by 203 to 254 mm (8 to 10 in) armor on the sides, backed by 260 mm of teak.^[2]

Service history

Grosser Kurfürst ("Great Elector") was ordered by the Imperial Navy from the

Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Dockyard) in Wilhelmshaven; the date of her keel laying is unclear. According to the historian Erich Gröner, work on the ship began in 1869 under construction number 2,^[2] but the historians Hans Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, and Hans-Otto Steinmetz state that construction work on the newly built Kaiserliche Werft was not completed until December 1869, and that it was not clear whether any work on the ship had begun before the start of the Franco-Prussian War in July 1870 beyond collecting building materials. Furthermore, they state that the specific date has not survived in the available records. The ship's name was originally to have been Der Grosse Kurfürst, but it was changed slightly to Grosser Kurfürst during construction.^[5]

The ship was

In April 1878, the armored squadron was reactivated for the annual summer training cycle, under the command of Konteradmiral Carl Ferdinand Batsch. Stosch ordered Grosser Kurfürst to join the unit, which included her sisters Preussen and Friedrich der Grosse, the large ironclad König Wilhelm, and the aviso Falke after her commissioning on 6 May. She was to join the rest of the unit at 27 May, just three weeks after her crew came aboard the ship and before they were sufficiently familiar with the vessel. Batch recognized that the crew was not ready for major operation, but he instructed Grosser Kurfürst to join him anyway to comply with Stosch's orders. A grounding by Friedrich der Grosse caused serious damage to her hull and prevented her from taking part in the upcoming training cruise. The three ships left Wilhelmshaven on the 29th, bound for the Mediterranean Sea.^[5][8]

Shortly after leaving Germany, the squadron parted ways temporarily with Falke due to engine problems aboard the aviso. While crossing the

Five minutes after entering the Dover strait, Batsch ordered Grosser Kurfürst to close to within 100 m (330 ft) as the waterway narrowed. Monts took direct command of the

König Wilhelm slowly approached and lowered all of her boats to pick up the men in the water, while Preussen stopped some 800 m (2,600 ft) away, her captain having decided to strictly follow regulations. Nearby British fishing boats and other vessels also joined the rescue effort. They picked up some sixty men. Monts was picked up by one of König Wilhelm's boats, but it capsized due to overcrowding; he thereafter helped another man stay afloat until they were picked up by another boat.[14] Figures for the number of fatalities vary. Gröner reports that out of a crew of 500 men, 269 died in the accident;^[4] Hildebrand, Röhr, and Steinmetz concur with the fatality total, but state that there were only 487 men aboard the ship at the time of the sinking.^[14] Lawrence Sondhaus states that 276 men were killed,^[8] and Aidan Dodson reports 284 fatalities.^[15] Many of the bodies were ultimately buried in Cheriton Road Cemetery, Folkestone, where there is a substantial memorial. Arthur Sullivan, on his way to Paris, witnessed the incident, writing, "I saw it all – saw the unfortunate vessel slowly go over and disappear under the water in clear, bright sunshine, and the water like a calm lake. It was too horrible – and then we saw all the boats moving about picking up the survivors, some so exhausted they had to be lifted on to the ships."^[16]

König Wilhelm was badly damaged in the collision, with severe flooding forward. König Wilhelm's captain initially intended to beach the ship to prevent it from sinking, but determined that the ship's pumps could hold the flooding to an acceptable level. The ship made for

In the ensuing inquiry, chaired by Konteradmiral

Stosch was infuriated that the proceedings had been allowed to become a forum for criticism of his policies, for which he blamed Werner. He appealed to Kaiser Wilhelm, stating that the inquiry had unfairly blamed Batsch, and requested a new court-martial for the involved officers. Simultaneously, Stosch began a campaign to force Werner out of the navy. This was in part to ensure that Batsch would be next in line after Stosch retired.[21] Despite his popularity, particularly with Kaiser Wilhelm I and his son, Werner was unable to resist Stosch's efforts to force his ouster. On 15 October 1878, he requested retirement.^[22]

The second court-martial again found Batsch guilty and Monts innocent of negligence. A third investigation, held in January 1879, reversed the decision of the previous verdicts and convicted Monts and the

The incident provided clear evidence to senior naval leadership that new crews required significantly more time to familiarize themselves with a new ship before they could be pronounced ready for active service. The method for issuing commands to the rudder crews was also changed. Stosch's position both in the naval command structure and politically was weakened. Many navy officers ultimately blamed him for the accident, for having rushed the ship into service. They pointed to his career in the army, frequently citing the argument that "one cannot make a ship ready for service in a few days like a regiment or a brigade."^[24] Stosch was known to have been an ally of the liberal-left party of the Reichstag, but his relationship with the party was damaged when the reports on the incident, which he had promised to deliver to parliament, were labeled military secrets.^[25]

Another consequence of the sinking was to instill an aversion to naval expenditures in the German Reichstag that persisted for many years. Among the effects of this reluctance to spend on the navy was the refusal to authorize funding for new capital ships for most of the 1880s. In addition, the design for the ironclad Oldenburg, which was to have been a member of the Sachsen class, had to be reduced significantly as a result of the shortage of funds.^[26][27]

The lives lost in the sinking of the Grosser Kurfürst are commemorated by a large stone obelisk erected at the Cheriton Road Cemetery in Folkestone,^[28] which was erected on 12 January 1881. The sail training ship Niobe had brought it from Germany. Another monument was placed in front of the barracks of I. Seebataillon to memorialize the naval infantry who had died in the sinking.^[14]

An initial survey of the wreck by divers in the immediate aftermath of the sinking revealed the hull to be upside down and in good condition apart from the hole torn by König Wilhelm's ram. British authorities doubted the possibility of raising the ship, but the Germans nevertheless sent a team aboard a steamer Boreas and the aviso Loreley to make an initial attempt, which was not successful. A private salvage company offered to raise the wreck to recover her guns and other equipment, but it, too, came to nothing. Engineers at the Kaiserliche Werft in Kiel experimented using compressed carbon dioxide, but their tests did not work.^[29] The Germans considered additional projects to salvage the wreck as late as 1903.^[15]

In 2020, it was announced by

Citations

1. ^ Dodson, pp. 14, 20.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Gröner, p. 5.
3. ^ Gröner, pp. 5–6.
4. ^ ^{a b} Gröner, p. 6.
5. ^ ^{a b c d} Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 35.
6. ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 34–35.
7. ^ Lyon, p. 244.
8. ^ ^{a b} Sondhaus 1997, p. 124.
9. ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 35–36.
10. ^ ^{a b c} Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 36.
11. ^ ^{a b c} Irving, p. 135.
12. ^ Sondhaus 2001, p. 109.
13. ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 36–37.
14. ^ ^{a b c d} Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 37.
15. ^ ^{a b} Dodson, p. 26.
16. ^ Sullivan, in a letter to his mother dated 2 June 1878, quoted in Jacobs, pp. 119–120.
17. ^ The New York Times & 1879-01-09.
18. ^ Sondhaus 1997, pp. 127–128.
19. ^ ^{a b} Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 38.
20. ^ Sondhaus 1997, p. 128.
21. ^ Sondhaus 1997, pp. 128–129.
22. ^ Sondhaus 1997, pp. 129–130.
23. ^ Sondhaus 1997, pp. 131–132.
24. ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 39.
25. ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 39–40.
26. ^ Dodson, p. 30.
27. ^ Sondhaus 1997, p. 135.
28. ^ "Crew Of The German Warship Grosser Kurfurst". iwm.org.uk. Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
29. ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 37–38.
30. ^ Brown, Mark (5 June 2020). "German warship wreck off Kent coast given heritage protection". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 June 2020.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Großer Kurfürst (ship, 1878).

• ISBN 978-1-84832-229-5
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• ISBN 978-0-87021-790-6
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• 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. 4. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag.
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• Irving, Joseph (1879). The Annals of Our Time. London: Macmillan and Co.
• Jacobs, Arthur (1986). Arthur Sullivan – A Victorian Musician. Oxford University Press. pp. 119–120.
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• 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.
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• Sondhaus, Lawrence (2001). Naval Warfare, 1815–1914. London: Routledge.
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• Sondhaus, Lawrence (1997). Preparing for Weltpolitik: German Sea Power Before the Tirpitz Era. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press.
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• "Current Foreign Topics. A Court-Martial Ordered in the Case of the Collision of German War Ships" (PDF). The New York Times. 9 January 1879. Retrieved 5 October 2012.

51°0′36″N 1°9′39″E / 51.01000°N 1.16083°E / 51.01000; 1.16083