SMS Magdeburg SMS " Magdeburg " ( " His Majesty ' s Ship " Magdeburg " " ) was a lead ship of the of light cruiser s in the German " Kaiserliche Marine " ( Imperial Navy ) . Her class included three other ships : , , and . " Magdeburg " was built at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen from 1910 to August 1912 , when she was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet . The ship was armed with a main battery of twelve 10 . 5 cm SK L / 45 guns and had a top speed of . " Magdeburg " was used as a torpedo test ship after her commissioning until the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , when she was brought to active service and deployed to the Baltic . In the Baltic , " Magdeburg " fired the first shots of the war against the Russians on 2 August , when she shelled the port of Libau . She participated in a series of bombardments of Russian positions until late August . On the 26th , she participated in a sweep of the entrance to the Gulf of Finland ; while steaming off the Estonian coast , she ran aground off the island of Odensholm and could not be freed . A pair of Russian cruisers appeared and seized the ship . Fifteen crew members were killed in the brief engagement . They recovered three intact German code books , one of which they passed to the British . The ability to decrypt German wireless signals provided the British with the ability to ambush German units on several occasions during the war , including the Battle of Jutland . The Russians partially scrapped " Magdeburg " while she remained grounded before completely destroying the wreck . Design . " Magdeburg " was ordered under the contract name " " Ersatz " " and was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen in 1910 and launched on 13 May 1911 , after which fitting - out work commenced . She was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 20 August 1912 . The ship was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward . She displaced at full combat load . Her propulsion system consisted of two sets of AEG - Vulcan steam turbines driving two propellers . They were designed to give , but reached in service . These were powered by sixteen coal - fired Marine - type water - tube boilers , although they were later altered to use fuel oil that was sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate . These gave the ship a top speed of . " Magdeburg " carried of coal , and an additional of oil that gave her a range of approximately at . She had a crew of 18 officers and 336 enlisted men . The ship was armed with twelve 10 . 5 cm SK L / 45 guns in single pedestal mounts . Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle , eight were located amidships , four on either side , and two were side by side aft . The guns had a maximum elevation of 30 degrees , which allowed them to engage targets out to . They were supplied with 1 , 800 rounds of ammunition , for 150 shells per gun . She was also equipped with a pair of torpedo tube s with five torpedo es submerged in the hull on the broadside . She could also carry 120 mines . The ship was protected by a waterline armored belt that was thick amidships . The conning tower had thick sides , and the deck was covered with up to 60 mm thick armor plate . Service history . After her commissioning , " Magdeburg " was used as a torpedo test ship . Following the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , she was assigned to the Baltic Sea , under the command of Rear Admiral Robert Mischke . " Magdeburg " fired the first shots of the war with Russia on 2 August when she shelled the Russian port of Libau while laid a minefield outside the harbor . The Russians had in fact already left Libau , which was seized by the German Army . The minefield laid by " Augsburg " was poorly marked and hindered German operations more than Russian efforts . " Magdeburg " and the rest of the Baltic forces then conducted a series of bombardments of Russian positions , including one ten days later , on 12 August , where " Magdeburg " shelled the Dagerort lighthouse . On 17 August , " Magdeburg " , " Augsburg " , three destroyer s , and the minelayer encountered a pair of powerful Russian armored cruiser s , " Admiral Makarov " and " Gromoboi " . The Russian commander , under the mistaken assumption that the German armored cruisers and were present , did not attack and both forces withdrew . Prince Heinrich , the overall commander of the Baltic naval forces , replaced Mischke with Rear Admiral Behring . Behring ordered another operation for 26 August to sweep for Russian reconnaissance forces in the entrance to the Gulf of Finland . Early that morning , " Magedeburg " ran aground off the lighthouse at Odensholm on the Estonian coast . Her escorting destroyer , , attempted to pull her free but was unable to do so and began taking off part of " Magdeburg " s crew . While the evacuation was going on , the Russian cruisers " Bogatyr " and " Pallada " appeared and shelled the stranded cruiser . The Germans destroyed the forward section of the ship , but could not complete her destruction before the Russians reached the ship . Fifteen crew members from " Magdeburg " were killed in the attack . The German code books were also not destroyed ; the Russians were able to recover three of the books along with the current encryption key . They passed one copy to the British Royal Navy via a pair of Russian couriers on 13 October . The Russian Navy partially scrapped the ship in situ and eventually destroyed the wreck . The capture of the code books proved to provide a significant advantage for the Royal Navy . The Admiralty had recently created a deciphering department known as Room 40 to process intercepted German wireless signals . With the code books and cipher key , the British were able to track the movements of most German warships ; this information could be passed on to the Admiral John Jellicoe , the commander of the Grand Fleet . This allowed the British to ambush parts of or the entire German fleet on several occasions , most successfully at the Battles of Dogger Bank in January 1915 and Jutland in May 1916 .