SMS Yorck SMS " Yorck " was the second and final ship of the of armored cruiser s built for the German Imperial Navy . " Yorck " was named for Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg , a Prussian field marshal . She was laid down in 1903 at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg , and finished in November 1905 , at the cost of 16 , 241 , 000 marks . She displaced up to and was armed with a main battery of four guns . Her top speed was . The ship had a short career ; she served with the fleet for the first seven years , after which she was decommissioned and placed in reserve . After the outbreak of World War I , she was reactivated and returned to front - line service . After returning from the raid on Yarmouth on 3 – 4 November , the ship made a navigational error in heavy fog and accidentally sailed into a German defensive minefield . The ship sank quickly with heavy loss of life , though sources disagree on the exact number of fatalities . Her commander was court - martialled and imprisoned for disobedience and negligent homicide . " Yorck " was broken up incrementally , with work occurring in 1929 – 30 , 1965 , and finally completed in 1982 . Construction . " Yorck " was ordered under the provisional name " Ersatz Deutschland " and built at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg under construction number 167 . Her keel was laid in 1902 and she was launched on 14 May 1904 . Fitting - out work was completed by 21 November 1905 , being commissioned into the Imperial German Navy the same day . She had cost the Imperial German Government 16 , 241 , 000 " Goldmarks " . " Yorck " displaced as built and fully loaded , with a length of , a beam of and a draft of forward . She was powered by three vertical triple expansion engines , which developed a total of and yielded a maximum speed of on trials . She carried up to of coal , which enabled a maximum range of up to at a cruising speed of . She was armed with four guns arranged in two twin gun turret s , one on either end of the superstructure . Her secondary armament consisted of ten 15 cm ( 5 . 9 in ) guns , four in single turrets arranged two each on either side , the rest in casemates amidships , fourteen guns and four underwater torpedo tubes , one in the bow , one in the stern , and one on both beams . Service history . Peacetime . " Yorck " was launched on 14 May 1904 , and commissioned into the German navy on 21 November 1905 . At the commissioning Field Marshal Wilhelm von Hahnke spoke , saying , " old wisdom , " si vis pacem , para bellum " — he who wants peace shall be prepared for war . . . may the guns and machines of the " Yorck " be operated only by men with iron hearts and an iron will , men who know no other order than to put their lives at risk when the might , the greatness and honor of the German people are being fought for . " After her commissioning , " Yorck " served with the fleet in the cruiser squadron . In 1908 – 1909 , Erich Raeder served aboard the ship as " Yorck " s navigation officer . From 1 October 1911 to 26 January 1912 , Franz von Hipper , later commander - in - chief of the German navy , served as the ship ' s commanding officer . In early March 1913 , the fleet conducted maneuvers off the island of Helgoland in the North Sea . Early on 4 March , the destroyer fell out of formation in heavy seas and attempted to cross in front of " Yorck " . The destroyer was caught by a large wave and thrown into " Yorck " , which cut " S178 " in half . Out of a crew of 83 men , only 13 were pulled from the stormy sea . " Yorck " was decommissioned and laid up in the reserve fleet in May 1913 with most of her crew transferring to the newly completed battlecruiser . Hipper , by now the deputy commander of the battlecruiser squadron , stated that " the " Seydlitz " has a fine spirit and high morale , having carried over the spirit of the old " Yorck " crew . " On 12 August 1914 " Yorck " was recommissioned and assigned to III Scouting Group . First World War . On 3 November , " Yorck " participated in the first offensive operation of the war conducted by the German fleet . She augmented the forces assigned to the I Scouting Group , which primarily consisted of the battlecruisers , , and and the large armored cruiser . The I Scouting Group , commanded by Rear Admiral Hipper , was ordered to bombard Great Yarmouth on the English coast . The four large cruisers bombarded the port but inflicted little damage ; minelayers laid minefields off the coast , which sank British submarine . Upon returning to the Heligoland Bight late that day , Hipper ' s forces encountered heavy fog . The fog prevented the ships from entering Wilhelmshaven ; instead , they anchored for the night in the Schillig roadstead . " Yorck " attempted to enter Wilhelmshaven early on the 4th , but her crew made a navigational error which led the ship into a German defensive minefield . She struck two mines , and capsized and sank with heavy loss of life . Sources disagree on the exact figures ; V . E . Tarrant ' s " Jutland : The German Perspective " , states that 127 men out of a crew of 629 were rescued , while Erich Gröner ' s " German Warships 1815 – 1945 " indicates that there were only 336 fatalities . Daniel Butler ' s " Distant Victory " states that " some 235 " men perished in the sinking . The " Norddeutsche Volksblatt " reported " the loss of over 300 men " at the time of the court - martial on the sinking ; this report was echoed around the world . " Yorck " s commanding officer , Captain Piper , was among those rescued . In December 1914 he was court - martial led and sentenced to two years ' imprisonment for negligence , disobedience of orders , and homicide through negligence . The ship ' s wreck was partially scrapped in 1929 – 30 ; more work was done in 1965 , though the ship was not completely removed until work resumed in 1982 .