SMS Wettin SMS " Wettin " ( " His Majesty ' s Ship " Wettin " " ) was a German pre - dreadnought battleship of the of the Kaiserliche Marine . She was built in Schichau , in Danzig . " Wettin " was laid down in November 1899 , and completed October 1902 , at the cost of 22 , 597 , 000 marks . Her sister ships were , , and ; they were the first capital ship s built under the Navy Law of 1898 , brought about by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz . " Wettin " saw active duty in the I Squadron of the German fleet for the majority of her career . After the start of World War I in August 1914 , the ship was mobilized with her sisters as the IV Battle Squadron . She saw limited duty in the Baltic Sea against Russian forces , though the threat from British submarines forced the ship to withdraw by 1916 . For the remainder of the war , " Wettin " served as a training ship for navy cadets and as a depot ship . After the end of the war , the ship was stricken from the navy list and sold for scrapping in 1921 . Her bell is currently on display at the Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr in Dresden . Construction . " Wettin " s keel was laid in 1899 , at the Schichau - Werke in Danzig , under construction number 676 . She was ordered under the contract name " D " , as a new unit for the fleet . The vessel was a member of the first class of battleships built under the direction of State Secretary Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz , according to the terms of the Navy Law of 1898 . " Wettin " was launched on 6 June 1901 and commissioned on 1 October 1902 . The ship ' s cost totaled 22 , 597 , 000 marks . The ship was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward and aft . The ship was powered by three 3 - cylinder vertical triple expansion engines that drove three screws . Steam was provided by six naval and six cylindrical coal - fired boilers . " Wettin " s powerplant was rated at , which generated a top speed of . " Wettin " s armament consisted of a main battery of four 24 cm ( 9 . 4 in ) SK L / 40 guns in twin gun turret s , one fore and one aft of the central superstructure . Her secondary armament consisted of eighteen 15 cm ( 5 . 9 inch ) SK L / 40 guns and twelve 8 . 8 cm ( 3 . 45 in ) SK L / 30 quick - firing guns . The armament suite was rounded out with six torpedo tubes , all in above - water swivel mounts . Service history . After she was commissioned into the German fleet in October 1902 , " Wettin " was assigned to the I Squadron of the Active Battle Fleet . In 1905 the German fleet was reorganized into two squadrons of battleships . " Zähringen " was assigned to the I Division of I Squadron , alongside her sister ships and . The German fleet at that time consisted of another three - ship division in the I Squadron and 2 three - ship divisions in the II Squadron . This was supported by a reconnaissance division , composed of two armored cruiser s and six protected cruiser s . The s — the most powerful battleships yet built in Germany — were beginning to enter service by 1907 . This provided the Navy with enough ships to form a second full battle squadron composed of another eight ships . The fleet was then renamed the " Hochseeflotte " ( High Seas Fleet ) . Starting in 1911 , " Wettin " was employed as an artillery training ship for German gunners . This work lasted until 1914 . By 1914 , " Wettin " and her sisters were removed from active service and placed in the reserve squadron . However , after the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , " Wettin " and the rest of her class were mobilized to serve in the IV Battle Squadron , under the command of Vice Admiral Ehrhard Schmidt . Starting on 3 September , the IV Squadron , assisted by the armored cruiser , conducted a sweep into the Baltic . The operation lasted until 9 September and failed to bring Russian naval units to battle . In May 1915 , IV Squadron , including " Wettin " , was transferred to support the German Army in the Baltic Sea area . " Wettin " and her sisters were then based in Kiel . On 6 May , the IV Squadron ships were tasked with providing support to the assault on Libau . " Wettin " and the other ships stood off Gotland in order to intercept any Russian cruisers that might try to intervene in the landings , which the Russians did not attempt . On 10 May , after the invasion force had entered Libau , the British submarines and spotted the IV Squadron , but were too far away to make an attack . " Wettin " and her sister ships were not included in the German fleet that assaulted the Gulf of Riga in August 1915 , due to the scarcity of escorts . The increasingly active British submarines forced the Germans to employ more destroyers to protect the capital ships . By 1916 , the increasing threat from British submarines in the Baltic convinced the German navy to withdraw the elderly " Wittelsbach " - class ships from active service . " Wettin " was subsequently used as a training ship for naval cadets ; she also acted as a depot ship . The ship was stricken from the naval register on 11 March 1920 and sold to ship breakers on 21 November 1921 . " Wettin " was ultimately broken up for scrap the following year in Rönnebeck , a part of Bremen . Her bell is on display at the Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr in Dresden . Notes . Footnotes Citations References . Books Journals