SMS Goeben SMS " Goeben " was the second of two s of the Imperial German Navy , launched in 1911 and named after the German Franco - Prussian War veteran General August Karl von Goeben . Along with her sister ship , " Goeben " was similar to the previous German battlecruiser design , , but larger and with increased armor protection and two more main guns in an additional turret . Compared to their British rivals in the , " Goeben " and " Moltke " were significantly larger and better armored . Several months after her commissioning in 1912 , " Goeben " , with the light cruiser , formed the German Mediterranean Division and patrolled there during the Balkan Wars . After the outbreak of World War I on 28 July 1914 , " Goeben " and " Breslau " evaded British naval forces in the Mediterranean and reached Constantinople . The two ships were transferred to the Ottoman Empire on 16 August 1914 , and " Goeben " became the flagship of the Ottoman Navy as Yavuz Sultan Selim , usually shortened to Yavuz . By bombarding Russian facilities in the Black Sea , she brought Turkey into World War I on the German side . In 1936 she was officially renamed TCG " Yavuz " ( " Ship of the Turkish Republic " Yavuz " " ) ; she carried the remains of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk from Istanbul to İzmit in 1938 . " Yavuz " remained the flagship of the Turkish Navy until she was decommissioned in 1950 . She was scrapped in 1973 , after the West German government declined an invitation to buy her back from Turkey . She was the last surviving ship built by the Imperial German Navy , and the longest - serving battlecruiser or dreadnought - type ship in any navy . Construction . The Imperial German Navy ( " Kaiserliche Marine " ) ordered " Goeben " , the third German battlecruiser , on 8 April 1909 under the provisional name " H " from the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg , under construction number 201 . Her keel was laid on 19 August ; the hull was completed and the ship was launched on 28 March 1911 . Fitting - out work followed , and she was commissioned into the German Navy on 2 July 1912 . " Goeben " was long , wide , and had a draft of fully loaded . The ship displaced normally , and fully loaded . " Goeben " was powered by four - shaft Parsons steam turbines in two sets and 24 coal - fired Schulz - Thornycroft water - tube boilers , which provided a rated and a top speed of . At , the ship had a range of . The ship was armed with a main battery of ten 28 cm SK L / 50 gun s in five twin gun turrets . Her secondary armament consisted of twelve 15 cm SK L / 45 guns in casemate s in the central portion of the ship and twelve 8 . 8 cm SK L / 45 guns in the bow , in the stern , and around the forward conning tower . She was also equipped with four 50 cm ( 20 in ) submerged torpedo tube s . Balkan Wars . When the First Balkan War broke out in October 1912 , the German General Staff determined that a naval Mediterranean Division ( " Mittelmeer - Division " ) was needed to project German power in the Mediterranean , and thus dispatched " Goeben " and the light cruiser to Constantinople . The two ships left Kiel on 4 November and arrived on 15 November 1912 . Beginning in April 1913 , " Goeben " visited many Mediterranean ports including Venice , Pola , and Naples , before sailing into Albanian waters . Following this trip , " Goeben " returned to Pola and remained there from 21 August to 16 October for maintenance . On 29 June 1913 , the Second Balkan War broke out and the Mediterranean Division was retained in the area . On 23 October 1913 , " Konteradmiral " Souchon assumed command of the squadron . " Goeben " and " Breslau " continued their activities in the Mediterranean , and visited some 80 ports before the outbreak of World War I . The navy made plans to replace " Goeben " with her sister , but the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo , Bosnia , on 28 June 1914 and the subsequent rise in tensions between the Great Powers made this impossible . After the assassination , Admiral Souchon assessed that war was imminent between the Central Powers and the Triple Entente , and ordered his ships to make for Pola for repairs . Engineers came from Germany to work on the ship . " Goeben " had 4 , 460 boiler tubes replaced , among other repairs . Upon completion , the ships departed for Messina . World War I . Pursuit of " Goeben " and " Breslau " . Kaiser Wilhelm II had ordered that in the event of war , " Goeben " and " Breslau " should either conduct raids in the western Mediterranean to prevent the return of French troops from North Africa to Europe , or break out into the Atlantic and attempt to return to German waters , on the squadron commander ' s discretion . On 3 August 1914 , the two ships were en route to Algeria when Souchon received word of the declaration of war against France . " Goeben " bombarded Philippeville ( now Skikda , Algeria ) for about 10 minutes early on 3 August while " Breslau " shelled Bône ( now Annaba , on the site of the ancient city of Hippo ) in accordance with the Kaiser ' s order . Admirals Alfred von Tirpitz and Hugo von Pohl then transmitted secret orders to Souchon instructing him to sail to Constantinople , in direct contravention of the Kaiser ' s instructions and without his knowledge . Since " Goeben " could not reach Constantinople without coaling , Souchon headed for Messina . The Germans encountered the British battlecruisers and , but as Germany was not yet at war with Britain , no violence ensued . The British turned to follow " Goeben " and " Breslau " , but they were able to outrun the British ships , and arrived in Messina by 5 August . Refueling in Messina was complicated by the declaration of Italian neutrality on 2 August . Under international law , combatant ships were permitted only 24 hours in a neutral port . Sympathetic Italian naval authorities in the port allowed " Goeben " and " Breslau " to remain in port for around 36 hours while the ships coaled from a German collier . Despite the additional time , " Goeben " s fuel stocks were not sufficient to permit the voyage to Constantinople , so Souchon arranged to rendezvous with another collier in the Aegean Sea . The French fleet remained in the western Mediterranean , since the French naval commander in the Mediterranean , Admiral Lapeyrère , was convinced the Germans would either attempt to escape to the Atlantic or join the Austrians in Pola . Souchon ' s two ships departed Messina early on 6 August through the southern entrance to the strait and headed for the eastern Mediterranean . The two British battlecruisers were 100 miles away , while a third , , was coaling in Bizerta , Tunisia . The only British naval force in Souchon ' s way was the 1st Cruiser Squadron , which consisted of the four armored cruisers , , and under the command of Rear Admiral Ernest Troubridge . The Germans headed initially towards the Adriatic in a feint ; the move misled Troubridge , who sailed to intercept them in the mouth of the Adriatic . After realizing his mistake , Troubridge reversed course and ordered the light cruiser and two destroyers to launch a torpedo attack on the Germans . " Breslau " s lookouts spotted the ships , and in the darkness , she and " Goeben " evaded their pursuers undetected . Troubridge broke off the chase early on 7 August , convinced that any attack by his four older armored cruisers against " Goeben " — armed with her big 28 cm guns — would be suicidal . Souchon ' s journey to Constantinople was now clear . " Goeben " refilled her coal bunkers off the island of Donoussa near Naxos . During the afternoon of 10 August , the two ships entered the Dardanelles . They were met by an Ottoman picket boat , which guided them through to the Sea of Marmara . To circumvent neutrality requirements , Germany transferred the two ships to the Ottoman Navy on 16 August . On 23 September , Souchon accepted an offer to command the Turkish fleet . " Goeben " was renamed " Yavuz Sultan Selim " and " Breslau " was renamed ; their German crews donned Ottoman uniforms and fezzes . Black Sea operations . 1914 . On 29 October " Yavuz " bombarded Sevastopol in her first operation against Imperial Russia , though the Ottoman Empire was not yet at war with the Entente ; Souchon conducted the operation to force Turkey into the war on the side of Germany . A shell struck the ship in the after funnel , but it failed to detonate and did negligible damage . Two other hits inflicted minor damage . The ship and her escorts passed through an inactive Russian minefield during the bombardment . As she returned to Turkish waters , " Yavuz " came across the Russian minelayer which scuttled itself with 700 mines on board . During the engagement the escorting Russian destroyer was damaged by two of " Yavuz " s secondary battery shells . In response to the bombardment , Russia declared war on 1 November , forcing the Ottomans into the war . France and Great Britain bombarded the Turkish fortresses guarding the Dardanelles on 3 November and formally declared war two days later . From this engagement , the Russians drew the conclusion that the entire Black Sea Fleet would have to remain consolidated so it could not be defeated in detail ( one ship at a time ) by " Yavuz " . " Yavuz " , escorted by " Midilli " , intercepted the Russian Black Sea Fleet off the Crimean coastline on 18 November as it returned from a bombardment of Trebizond . Despite the noon hour the conditions were foggy and none of the capital ships were spotted initially . The Black Sea Fleet had experimented with concentrating fire from several ships under the control of one " master " ship before the war , and held her fire until , the master ship , could see " Yavuz " . When the gunnery commands were finally received they showed a range over in excess of " Evstafi " s own estimate of , so " Evstafi " opened fire using her own data before " Yavuz " turned to fire its broadside . She scored a hit with her first salvo as a 12 - inch shell partially penetrated the armor casemate protecting one of " Yavuz " s secondary guns . It detonated some of the ready - use ammunition , starting a fire that filled the casemate and killed the entire gun crew . A total of thirteen men were killed and three were wounded . " Yavuz " returned fire and hit " Evstafi " in the middle funnel ; the shell detonated after it passed through the funnel and destroyed the antennae for the fire - control radio , so that " Evstafi " could not correct " Ioann Zlatoust " s inaccurate range data . The other Russian ships either used " Ioann Zlatoust " s incorrect data or never saw " Yavuz " and failed to register any hits . " Yavuz " hit " Evstafi " four more times , although one shell failed to detonate , before Rear Admiral Wilhelm Souchon decided to break contact after 14 minutes of combat . The four hits out of nineteen shells fired killed 34 men and wounded 24 . The following month , on 5 – 6 December , " Yavuz " and " Midilli " provided protection for troop transports , and on 10 December , " Yavuz " bombarded Batum . On 23 December , " Yavuz " and escorted three transports to Trebizond . While returning from another transport escort operation on 26 December , " Yavuz " struck a mine that exploded beneath the conning tower , on the starboard side , about one nautical mile outside the Bosphorus . The explosion tore a hole in the ship ' s hull , but the torpedo bulkhead held . Two minutes later , " Yavuz " struck a second mine on the port side , just forward of the main battery wing barbette ; this tore open a hole . The bulkhead bowed in but retained watertight protection of the ship ' s interior . However , some 600 tons of water flooded the ship . There was no dock in the Ottoman Empire large enough to service " Yavuz " , so temporary repairs were effected inside steel cofferdam s , which were pumped out to create a dry work area around the damaged hull . The holes were patched with concrete , which held for several years before more permanent work was necessary . 1915 . Still damaged , " Yavuz " sortied from the Bosphorus on 28 January and again on 7 February 1915 to help " Midilli " escape the Russian fleet ; she also covered the return of the protected cruiser . " Yavuz " then underwent repair work to the mine damage until May . On 1 April , with repairs incomplete , " Yavuz " left the Bosphorus in company with " Breslau " to cover the withdrawal of " Hamidiye " and the protected cruiser , which had been sent to bombard Odessa . Strong currents , however , forced the cruisers east to the approaches of the Dnieper - Bug Liman ( bay ) that led to Nikolayev . As they sailed west after a course correction , " Mecidiye " struck a mine and sank , so this attack had to be aborted . After " Yavuz " and " Midilli " appeared off Sevastopol and sank two cargo steamers , the Russian fleet chased them all day , and detached several destroyers after dusk to attempt a torpedo attack . Only one destroyer , the , was able to close the distance and launch an attack , which missed . " Yavuz " and " Midilli " returned to the Bosporus unharmed . On 25 April , the same day the Allies landed at Gallipoli , Russian naval forces arrived off the Bosporus and bombarded the forts guarding the strait . Two days later " Yavuz Sultan Selim " headed south to the Dardanelles to bombard Allied troops at Gallipoli , accompanied by the pre - dreadnought battleship . They were spotted at dawn from a kite balloon as they were getting into position . When the first round from the dreadnought landed close by , " Yavuz " moved out of firing position , close to the cliffs , where " Queen Elizabeth " could not engage her . On 30 April " Yavuz " tried again , but was spotted from the pre - dreadnought which had moved into the Dardanelles to bombard the Turkish headquarters at Çanakkale . The British ship only managed to fire five rounds before " Yavuz " moved out of her line of sight . On 1 May , " Yavuz " sailed to the Bay of Beikos in the Bosphorus after the Russian fleet bombarded the fortifications at the mouth of the Bosphorus . Around 7 May , " Yavuz " sortied from the Bosphorus in search of Russian ships as far as Sevastopol , but found none . Running short on main gun ammunition , she did not bombard Sevastopol . While returning on the morning of 10 May , " Yavuz " s lookouts spotted two Russian pre - dreadnoughts , and , and she opened fire . Within the first 10 minutes she had been hit twice , although she was not seriously damaged . Admiral Souchon disengaged and headed for the Bosphorus , pursued by Russian light forces . Later that month two of the ship ' s 15 cm guns were taken ashore for use there , and the four 8 . 8 cm guns in the aft superstructure were removed at the same time . Four 8 . 8 cm anti - aircraft were installed on the aft superstructure by the end of 1915 . On 18 July , " Midilli " struck a mine ; the ship took on some of water and was no longer able to escort coal convoys from Zonguldak to the Bosphorus . " Yavuz " was assigned to the task , and on 10 August she escorted a convoy of five coal transports , along with " Hamidiye " and three torpedo boat s . During transit , the convoy was attacked by the Russian submarine " Tyulen " , which sank one of the colliers . The following day , " Tyulen " and another submarine tried to attack " Yavuz " as well , though they were unable to reach a firing position . Two Russian destroyers , and , attacked a Turkish convoy escorted by " Hamidiye " and two torpedo boats on 5 September . " Hamidiye " s guns broke down during combat , and the Turks summoned " Yavuz " , but she arrived too late : the Turkish colliers had already been beached to avoid capture by the Russian destroyers . On 21 September , " Yavuz Sultan Selim " was again sent out of the Bosphorus to drive off three Russian destroyers which had been attacking Turkish coal ships . Escort missions continued until 14 November , when the submarine nearly hit " Yavuz " with two torpedoes just outside the Bosphorus . Admiral Souchon decided the risk to the battlecruiser was too great , and suspended the convoy system . In its stead , only those ships fast enough to make the journey from Zonguldak to Constantinople in a single night were permitted ; outside the Bosphorus they would be met by torpedo boats to defend them against the lurking submarines . By the end of the summer , the completion of two new Russian dreadnought battleship s , and , further curtailed " Yavuz " s activities . 1916 – 17 . Admiral Souchon sent " Yavuz " to Zonguldak on 8 January to protect an approaching empty collier from Russian destroyers in the area , but the Russians sank the transport ship before " Yavuz " arrived . On the return trip to the Bosporus , " Yavuz " encountered " Imperatritsa Ekaterina " . The two ships engaged in a brief artillery duel , beginning at a range of 18 , 500 meters . " Yavuz " turned to the southwest , and in the first four minutes of the engagement , fired five salvos from her main guns . Neither ship scored any hits , though shell splinters from near misses struck " Yavuz " . Though nominally much faster than " Imperatritsa Ekaterina " , the Turkish battlecruiser ' s bottom was badly fouled and her propeller shafts were in poor condition . This made it difficult for " Yavuz " to escape from the powerful Russian battleship , which was reported to have reached . Russian forces were making significant gains into Ottoman territory during the Caucasus Campaign . In an attempt to prevent further advances by the Russian army , " Yavuz " rushed 429 officers and men , a mountain artillery battery , machine gun and aviation units , 1 , 000 rifles , and 300 cases of munitions to Trebizond on 4 February . On 4 March , the Russian navy landed a detachment of some 2 , 100 men , along with mountain guns and horses , on either side of the port of Atina . The Turks were caught by surprise and forced to evacuate . Another landing took place at Kavata Bay , some 5 miles east of Trebizond , in June . In late June , the Turks counterattacked and penetrated around 20 miles into the Russian lines . " Yavuz " and " Midilli " conducted a series of coastal operations to support the Turkish attacks . On 4 July , " Yavuz " shelled the port of Tuapse , where she sank a steamer and a motor schooner . The Turkish ships sailed northward to circle back behind the Russians before the two Russian dreadnoughts left Sevastopol to try to attack them . They then returned to the Bosphorus , where " Yavuz " was docked for repairs to her propeller shafts until September . The coal shortage continued to worsen until Admiral Souchon was forced to suspend operations by " Yavuz " and " Midilli " through 1917 . After an armistice between Russia and the Ottoman Empire was signed in December 1917 following the Bolshevik revolution , formalized in the Treaty of Brest - Litovsk in March 1918 , coal started to arrive again from eastern Turkey . 1918 . On 20 January 1918 , " Yavuz " and " Midilli " left the Dardanelles under the command of Vice Admiral Rebeur - Paschwitz , who had replaced Souchon the previous September . Rebeur - Paschwitz ' s intention was to draw Allied naval forces away from Palestine in support of Turkish forces there . Outside the straits , in the course of what became known as the Battle of Imbros , " Yavuz " surprised and sank the monitors and which were at anchor and unsupported by the pre - dreadnoughts that should have been guarding them . Rebeur - Paschwitz then decided to proceed to the port of Mudros ; there the British pre - dreadnought battleship was raising steam to attack the Turkish ships . While en route , " Midilli " struck several mines and sank ; " Yavuz " hit three mines as well . Retreating to the Dardanelles and followed by the British destroyers and , she was intentionally beached near Nagara Point just outside the Dardanelles . The British attacked " Yavuz " with bombers from No . 2 Wing of the Royal Naval Air Service while she was grounded and hit her twice , but the bombs from the light aircraft were not heavy enough to do any serious damage . The monitor attempted to shell " Yavuz " on the evening of 24 January , but only managed to fire 10 rounds before withdrawing to escape the Turkish artillery fire . The submarine was sent to destroy the damaged ship , but was too late ; the old ex - German pre - dreadnought had towed " Yavuz " off and returned her to the safety of Constantinople . " Yavuz " was crippled by the extensive damage ; cofferdams were again built around the hull , and repairs lasted from 7 August to 19 October . " Yavuz " escorted the members of the Ottoman Armistice Commission to Odessa on 30 March 1918 , after the Treaty of Brest - Litovsk was signed . After returning to Constantinople she sailed in May to Sevastopol where she had her hull cleaned and some leaks repaired . " Yavuz " and several destroyers sailed for Novorossiysk on 28 June to intern the remaining Soviet warships , but they had already been scuttled when the Turkish ships arrived . The destroyers remained , but " Yavuz " returned to Sevastopol . On 14 July the ship was laid up for the rest of the war . While in Sevastopol , dockyard workers scraped fouling from the ship ' s bottom . " Yavuz " subsequently returned to Constantinople , where from 7 August to 19 October a concrete cofferdam was installed to repair one of the three areas damaged by mines . The German navy formally transferred ownership of the vessel to the Turkish government on 2 November . According to the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres between the Ottoman Empire and the Western Allies , " Yavuz " was to have been handed over to the Royal Navy as war reparations . After the Turkish War of Independence , led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk , the Treaty of Sèvres was discarded , and the Treaty of Lausanne was signed in its place in 1923 . Under this treaty , the new Turkish republic regained possession of much its fleet , including " Yavuz " . Post - war service . During the 1920s , a commitment to refurbish " Yavuz " as the centerpiece of the new country ' s fleet was the only constant element of the various naval policies which were put forward . The battlecruiser remained in İzmit until 1926 , in a neglected state : only two of her boilers worked , she could not steer or steam , and she still had two unrepaired scars from the mine damage in 1918 . Enough money was raised to allow the purchase of a new floating dock from Germany , as " Yavuz " could not be towed anywhere without risk of her sinking in rough seas . The French company Atelier et Chantiers de St . Nazaire - Penhöet was contracted in December 1926 to oversee the subsequent refit , which was carried out by the Gölcük Naval Shipyard . Work proceeded over three years ( 1927 – 1930 ) ; it was delayed when several compartments of the dock collapsed while being pumped out . " Yavuz " was slightly damaged before she could be refloated and the dock had to be repaired before the repair work could begin . The Minister of Marine , Ihsan Bey ( İhsan Eryavuz ) , was convicted of embezzlement in the resulting investigation . Other delays were caused by fraud charges which resulted in the abolition of the Ministry of Marine . The Turkish Military ' s Chief of Staff , Marshal Fevzi , opposed naval construction and slowed down all naval building programs following the fraud charges . Intensive work on the battlecruiser only began after the Greek Navy conducted a large - scale naval exercise off Turkey in September 1928 and the Turkish Government perceived a need to counter Greece ' s naval superiority . The Turks also ordered four destroyers and two submarines from Italian shipyards . The Greek Government proposed a 10 - year " holiday " from naval building modeled on the Washington Treaty when it learned that " Yavuz " was to be brought back into service , though it reserved the right to build two new cruisers . The Turkish Government rejected this proposal , and claimed that the ship was intended to counter the growing strength of the Soviet Navy in the Black Sea . Over the course of the refit , the mine damage was repaired , her displacement was increased to , and the hull was slightly reworked . She was reduced in length by a half meter but her beam increased by . " Yavuz " was equipped with new boilers and a French fire control system for her main battery guns . Two of the 15 cm guns were removed from their casemate positions . Her armor protection was not upgraded to take the lessons of the Battle of Jutland into account , and she had only of armor above her magazines . " Yavuz " was recommissioned in 1930 , resuming her role as flagship of the Turkish Navy , and performed better than expected in her speed trials ; her subsequent gunnery and fire control trials were also successful . The four destroyers , which were needed to protect the battlecruiser , entered service between 1931 and 1932 ; their performance never met the design specifications . In response to " Yavuz " s return to service , the Soviet Union transferred the battleship and light cruiser from the Baltic in late 1929 to ensure that the Black Sea Fleet retained parity with the Turkish Navy . The Greek Government also responded by ordering two destroyers . In 1933 , she took Prime Minister İsmet İnönü from Varna to Istanbul and carried the Shah of Iran from Trebizond to Samsun the following year . " Yavuz Sultan Selim " had her name officially shortened to " Yavuz Sultan " in 1930 and then to " Yavuz " in 1936 . Another short refit was conducted in 1938 , and in November that year she carried the remains of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk from Istanbul to İzmit . She and the other ships of the navy were considered outdated by the British Naval Attache by 1937 , partly due to their substandard anti - aircraft armament , but in 1938 the Turkish government began planning to expand the force . Under these plans the surface fleet was to comprise two 10 , 000 ton cruisers and twelve destroyers . " Yavuz " would be retained until the second cruiser was commissioned in 1945 , and the navy expected to build a 23 , 000 ton ship between 1950 and 1960 . The naval building program did not come about , as the foreign shipyards which were to build the ships concentrated on the needs of their own nations leading up to World War II . " Yavuz " remained in service throughout World War II . In November 1939 she and " Parizhskaya Kommuna " were the only capital ships in the Black Sea region , and " Life " magazine reported that " Yavuz " was superior to the Soviet ship because the latter was in poor condition . In 1941 , her anti - aircraft battery was strengthened to four guns , ten guns , and four guns . These were later increased to twenty - two 40 mm guns and twenty - four 20 mm guns . On 5 April 1946 , the American battleship , light cruiser , and destroyer arrived in Istanbul to return the remains of Turkish ambassador Münir Ertegün . " Yavuz " greeted the ships in the Bosphorus , where she and " Missouri " exchanged 19 - gun salutes . After 1948 , the ship was stationed in either İzmit or Gölcük . She was decommissioned from active service on 20 December 1950 and stricken from the Navy register on 14 November 1954 . When Turkey joined NATO in 1952 , the ship was assigned the hull number B70 . The Turkish government offered to sell the ship to the West German government in 1963 , but the offer was declined . Turkey sold the ship to M . K . E . Seyman in 1971 for scrapping . She was towed to the breakers on 7 June 1973 , and the work was completed in February 1976 . By the time of her disposal she was the last dreadnought in existence outside of the United States . Notes . Footnotes Citations References . Other sources