SMS Zähringen SMS " Zähringen " ( " His Majesty ' s Ship " Zähringen " " ) was third ship of the of pre - dreadnought battleship s of the German Imperial Navy . Laid down in 1899 at the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel , she was launched on 12 June 1901 and commissioned on 25 October 1902 . Her sisters were , , and ; they were the first capital ships built under the Navy Law of 1898 , brought about by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz . " Zähringen " saw active duty in the I Squadron of the German fleet for the majority of her career . The ship was rapidly superseded by new " all - big - gun " warships , however , and as a result served for less than eight years before being decommissioned on 21 September 1910 . After the start of World War I in August 1914 , " Zähringen " was brought back to active duty in the IV Battle Squadron . The ship saw limited duty in the Baltic Sea against Russian forces , though the threat from British submarines forced the ship to withdraw by 1916 . " Zähringen " was converted into a target ship in 1917 for the remainder of the war . In the mid - 1920s , " Zähringen " was heavily reconstructed and equipped for use as a radio - controlled target ship . She served in this capacity until 1944 , when she was sunk in Gotenhafen by British bombers during World War II . The retreating Germans raised the ship and moved it to the harbor mouth where they scuttled it to block the port . " Zähringen " was broken up in situ in 1949 – 50 . Construction . " Zähringen " s keel was laid in November 1899 , at Friedrich Krupp ' s Germaniawerft dockyard in Kiel . She was ordered under the contract name " E " , as a new unit for the fleet . The " Wittelsbach " class was the first battleship class built under the terms of the Navy Law of 1898 , the chief proponent of which was Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz . " Zähringen " was launched on 12 June 1901 and commissioned on 25 October 1902 . " Zähringen " was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward . 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 boilers . " Zähringen " s powerplant was rated at , which generated a top speed of . " Zähringen " 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 . Imperial Navy . After she was commissioned into the German fleet in October 1902 , " Zähringen " 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 sisters 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 two full battle squadrons of eight ships each . The fleet was then renamed the " Hochseeflotte " ( High Seas Fleet ) . On 21 September 1910 , " Zähringen " was decommissioned and her crew was transferred to the new dreadnought , which had recently been completed . In 1912 , " Zähringen " and her sisters were recommissioned as the III Squadron of the High Seas Fleet to augment the forces available for the annual summer fleet maneuvers in the North Sea . The exercises began on 2 September and were conducted in the area between Wilhelmshaven , Helgoland , and Cuxhaven . While on maneuvers southwest of Helgoland on 14 September 1912 , " Zähringen " accidentally rammed the torpedo boat . The torpedo boat was cut in half and quickly sank ; six men drowned and a seventh died after being pulled from the sea . By 1914 , " Zähringen " 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 , " Zähringen " 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 " Zähringen " , was transferred to support the German Army in the Baltic Sea area . " Zähringen " 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 . " Zähringen " 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 . " Zähringen " and her sisters 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 . " Zähringen " was initially used as a training ship in Kiel . In 1917 , the ship was used to train stokers but then became a target ship . Reichsmarine and Kriegsmarine . As of April 1919 , " Zähringen " lay in the harbor in Danzig ; the ship had been decommissioned but retained its armament . According to Article 181 of the Treaty of Versailles , " Zähringen " and her sisters were to be demilitarized . This would permit the newly reorganized Reichsmarine to retain the vessels for auxiliary purposes . " Zähringen " was therefore stricken from the navy list on 11 March 1920 and disarmed . She was then used as a hulk in Wilhelmshaven until 1926 . In 1927 – 28 , the Reichsmarine rebuilt the ship as a radio - controlled target vessel . The ship had its engine system overhauled ; the three - shaft arrangement was replaced by a pair of vertical 3 - cylinder triple expansion engines . These were supplied with steam by two naval oil - fired boilers . The system was designed to be operated remotely via wireless telegraph . The new propulsion system provided a top speed of . The superstructure was also cut down and the hull was filled with cork . When the conversion was completed , " Zähringen " displaced . While not in use as a target , the ship was manned by a crew of 67 . She served as a target vessel for the Reichsmarine and then the Kriegsmarine , together with the old battleship . On 18 December 1944 , the old ship was hit by bombs during an air raid on Gotenhafen and sank in shallow water . She was temporarily refloated and towed to the harbor entrance , where she was scuttled to block the port on 26 March 1945 . The wreck was broken up in situ starting in 1949 ; work lasted until 1950 . Notes . Footnotes Citations References . Books Journals