SMS Nürnberg ( 1906 ) SMS " Nürnberg " ( " His Majesty ' s Ship " Nürnberg " " ) , named after the Bavarian city of Nuremberg , was a " Königsberg " class light cruiser built for the German Imperial Navy ( " Kaiserliche Marine " ) . Her sisters included , , and . She was built by the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel , laid down in early 1906 and launched in April of that year . She was completed in April 1908 . " Nürnberg " was armed with ten guns , eight guns , and two submerged torpedo tubes . Her top speed was . " Nürnberg " served with the fleet briefly , before being deployed overseas in 1910 . She was assigned to the East Asia Squadron . At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , she was returning to the German naval base at Tsingtao from Mexican waters . She rejoined the rest of the Squadron , commanded by Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee , which steamed across the Pacific Ocean and encountered a British squadron commanded by Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock . In the ensuing Battle of Coronel on 1 November , the British squadron was defeated ; " Nürnberg " finished off the British cruiser . A month later , the Germans attempted to raid the British base in the Falkland Islands ; a powerful British squadron that included a pair of battlecruiser s was in port , commanded by Vice Admiral Doveton Sturdee . Sturdee ' s ships chased down and destroyed four of the five German cruisers ; sank " Nürnberg " , with heavy loss of life . Construction . " Nürnberg " was ordered under the contract name " " Ersatz " " and was laid down at the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel on 16 January 1906 . At her launching on 28 August 1906 , the mayor of her namesake , Dr . Georg von Schuh , christened " Nürnberg " , after which fitting - out work commenced . She was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 10 April 1908 . 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 3 - cylinder triple expansion engines powered by eleven coal - fired Marine - type boilers . These provided a top speed of and a range of approximately at . " Nürnberg " had a crew of 14 officers and 308 enlisted men . The ship was armed with ten 10 . 5 cm SK L / 45 guns in single pedestal mounts . Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle , six were located amidships , three 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 , 500 rounds of ammunition , for 150 shells per gun . The ship was also equipped with eight 5 . 2 cm SK L / 55 gun s with 4 , 000 rounds of ammunition . She was also equipped with a pair of torpedo tube s with five torpedo es submerged in the hull on the broadside . The ship was protected by an armored deck that was thick amidships . The conning tower had thick sides . Service history . After serving briefly with the fleet in German waters , " Nürnberg " was sent overseas in 1910 . She was assigned to the Kaiserliche Marine ' s East Asia Station at Tsingtao as part of Admiral Count Maximilian von Spee ' s East Asia Squadron . During the Mexican revolution she was positioned off the west coast of Mexico . After being relieved by , " Nürnberg " returned to her home base at Tsingtao . In the summer of 1914 , " Nürnberg " was steaming across the Pacific to relieve " Leipzig " on the Mexico station . With the outbreak of World War I , Spee planned a return of his squadron to Germany , sailing through the Pacific , rounding Cape Horn , and then forcing his way north through the Atlantic . On 6 August 1914 , " Nürnberg " rendezvoused with the core of the East Asia Squadron , the armored cruiser s and , in Ponape . Spee decided the best place to concentrate his forces was Pagan Island in the northern Marianas Islands , a German possession in the central Pacific . All available colliers , supply ships , and passenger liners were ordered to meet the East Asia Squadron there . On 11 August , Spee arrived in Pagan ; he was joined by several supply ships , as well as " Emden " and the auxiliary cruiser " Prinz Eitel Friedrich " . The four cruisers then departed the central Pacific , bound for Chile . On 13 August the captain of the " Emden " , Commodore Karl von Müller , persuaded Spee to detach his ship for commerce raiding . The ships again coaled after their arrival at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands on 20 August . In order to keep the German high command informed of his activities , Spee detached " Nürnberg " on 8 September to Honolulu to send word through neutral countries . Spee chose the ship because the British were aware she had left Mexican waters , and so her presence in Hawaii would not betray the movements of the entire East Asia Squadron . She was also ordered to contact German agents to instruct them to prepare coal stocks in South America for the squadron ' s use . " Nürnberg " brought back news of the Allied conquest of the German colony at Samoa , before rejoining the fleet at sea on 6 September . After rejoining the fleet , Spee again detached " Nürnberg " , along with the tender " Titania " , to cut the British cable system at Fanning Island . The cruiser flew a French ensign to deceive the defenders , and succeeded in destroying the station on 7 September . " Nürnberg " then rejoined the fleet at Christmas Island . later that day . On 14 September , Spee decided to use his two armored cruisers to raid the British base at Apia ; he sent " Nürnberg " to escort the squadron ' s colliers to the rendezvous location . At the Battle of Papeete on 22 September , " Nürnberg " and the rest of the East Asia Squadron bombarded the colony . During the bombardment , the French gunboat " Zélée " was sunk by gunfire from the German ships . Fear of mines in the harbor prevented von Spee from seizing the coal that lay in the harbor . By 12 October , the squadron had reached Easter Island . There they were joined by " Dresden " and " Leipzig " , which had sailed from American waters . After a week in the area , the ships departed for Chile . Battle of Coronel . To oppose the German squadron off the coast of South America , the British had scant resources ; under the command of Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock were the armored cruisers and , the light cruiser , and the auxiliary cruiser . This flotilla was reinforced by the elderly pre - dreadnought battleship and the armored cruiser , the latter , however , did not arrive until after the Battle of Coronel . " Canopus " was left behind by Cradock , who likely felt that her slow speed would prevent him from bringing the German ships to battle . On the evening of 26 October , the East Asia Squadron steamed out of Mas a Fuera , Chile , and headed eastward . Spee learned that " Glasgow " had been spotted in Coronel on the 31st , and so turned towards the port . He arrived on the afternoon of 1 November , and to his surprise , encountered " Good Hope " , " Monmouth " , and " Otranto " as well as " Glasgow " . " Canopus " was still some behind , with the British colliers . At 17 : 00 , " Glasgow " spotted the Germans ; Cradock formed a line with " Good Hope " in the lead , followed by " Monmouth " , " Glasgow " , and " Otranto " in the rear . Spee decided to hold off on engaging the British until the sun had set more , at which point the British ships would be silhouetted by the sun . " Nürnberg " was some distance behind the rest of the German squadron , and joined the ensuing action later ; she had been delayed from searches of neutral steamers . Arriving late to the battle , " Nürnberg " found the drifting and finished her off with gunfire at a range of around . On 3 November , " Nürnberg " , " Scharnhorst " , and " Gneisenau " steamed into Valparaiso , Chile to resupply their coal and other supplies . They were limited to 24 hours per international law , which also allowed only three warships in any neutral port at a time ; the other two cruisers , " Leipzig " and " Dresden " , had to return to Mas a Fuera . After regrouping at Mas a Fuera , Spee had decided to raid British shipping routes in the South Atlantic . On 21 November , the East Asia Squadron put into St . Quentin Bay to coal ; the crews piled up coal on the ships ' decks to allow them to steam all the way to the Port of Santa Elena , where Spee had arranged for colliers out of Montevideo to meet them on 5 December . Battle of the Falkland Islands . In the aftermath of the Battle of Coronel , Spee decided to attack the British base at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands . " Nürnberg " and " Gneisenau " were to raid the harbor , destroy the wireless station , and burn the coal stocks , while the rest of the squadron screened for British warships . Spee was under the incorrect impression that the Falkland Islands were undefended . The British had detached a pair of battlecruiser s , and , and four cruisers , under the command of Vice Admiral Doveton Sturdee , to track down Spee ' s squadron and defeat it in return for Coronel . When " Nürnberg " and " Gneisenau " approached the islands early on 8 December , the old battleship " Canopus " opened fire and drove them off . The Germans were surprised to see the warships in the harbor , and Spee decided to retreat . The East Asia Squadron steamed away at in a single file line ; " Nürnberg " was the second ship in the line , between " Gneisenau " and " Scharnhorst " . Sturdee ordered his ships to raise steam and pursue the Germans . His battlecruisers caught up and opened fire at 12 : 50 ; Spee decided that he could hold off the battlecruisers with " Scharnhorst " and " Gneisenau " to allow the three light cruisers time to escape . In response , Sturdee sent his light cruisers to chase down " Nürnberg " , " Dresden " , and " Leipzig " . Only twelve men were picked up before the ship capsized and sank at 19 : 26 , and five of them died after being rescued . Among the dead was one of Spee ' s sons , Otto von Spee . In total , 327 officers and men were killed in the battle . In the course of the engagement , " Nürnberg " had hit " Kent " thirty - eight times , but did not cause significant damage . One shell struck one of " Kent " s casemate guns and ignited the propellant charges inside , but the magazine was flooded before the fire could destroy the ship . The sinking was commemorated in a painting entitled " The Last Man " by Hans Bohrdt , which depicted a German sailor waving the Imperial ensign as " Nürnberg " slipped beneath the waves . Notes . Footnotes Citations