Pillau - class cruiser The " Pillau " class of light cruiser s was a pair of ships built in Germany just before the start of World War I . The class consisted of and . The ships were initially ordered for the Russian Navy in 1912 , and were built by the Schichau - Werke shipyard in Danzig . After the outbreak of World War I , however , the German " Kaiserliche Marine " ( Imperial Navy ) confiscated the ships before they were completed . The ships were similar in design to other German light cruisers , although they lacked an armored belt . They were the first German light cruisers to be equipped with 15 cm SK L / 45 guns , of which they carried eight . The two ships had a top speed of . " Pillau " and " Elbing " saw extensive service with the German High Seas Fleet . " Pillau " participated in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915 , and " Elbing " took part in the bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft in April 1916 . The following month , both ships were heavily engaged in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June ; there , " Elbing " scored the first hit of either side in the battle . " Elbing " was accidentally rammed and immobilized by the German battleship in the confused night fighting , and her crew were ultimately forced to scuttle her . " Pillau " continued to serve with the fleet until the end of the war . After the German defeat , she was ceded to Italy as a war prize and renamed " Bari " . She served in the " Regia Marina " ( Royal Navy ) until June 1943 , when she was sunk in Livorno by USAAF bombers , and eventually broken up for scrap in 1948 . Design . In 1912 , the Russian Navy sought builders for a pair of light cruiser s ; the Schichau - Werke shipyard in Danzig won the contract . The two ships were originally ordered by the Russian Navy as " Maraviev Amurskyy " and " Admiral Nevelskoy " from the Schichau - Werke that year . The two ships were laid down in 1913 ; " Maraviev Amurskyy " was launched on 11 April 1914 , after which fitting - out work commenced . Both ships were requisitioned by the German Navy on 5 August 1914 , and were renamed " Pillau " and " Elbing " , respectively . " Elbing " was launched on 21 November 1914 . " Pillau " and " Elbing " were commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 14 December 1914 and 4 September 1915 , respectively . General characteristics and machinery . The " Pillau " class ships were long at the waterline and long overall They had a beam of and a draft of forward and aft . They displaced at designed displacement and at full combat load . The ships ' hulls were constructed with transverse and longitudinal steel frames . The hulls were divided into sixteen watertight compartments and had a double bottom that extended for 51 percent of the length of the hull . The ships had a crew of twenty - one officers and 421 enlisted men . They carried a number of smaller boats , including one picket boat , one barge , two yawls , and two dinghies . They were good sea boats , but were fairly stiff and suffered from severe roll . The cruisers were maneuverable , but were slow going into a turn . Steering was controlled by a single large rudder . They lost speed only slightly in a head sea , but lost up to sixty percent in hard turns . Their propulsion system consisted of two sets of Marine steam turbines driving two propellers . They were designed to give . These were powered by six coal - fired Yarrow water - tube boilers , and four oil - fired Yarrow boilers , trunked into three funnels on the centerline . These gave the ships a top speed of . The two ships carried of coal , and an additional of oil that gave them a range of approximately at . The two ships each had three turbo - generators that provided a combined electrical output of at 220 Volts . Armament and armor . As designed , the ships would have mounted eight L / 55 quick - firing guns and four L / 55 guns of Russian design . After they were seized by the German Navy , the planned armament was revised to be standardized with new German cruisers . The standard 10 . 5 cm SK L / 45 gun used on previous German cruisers was considered , but abandoned in favor of a larger weapon . As completed , the ships were armed with eight 15 cm SK L / 45 guns in single pedestal mounts . Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle , four were located amidships , two on either side , and two were side by side aft . They were the first German light cruisers to mount the 15 cm gun . These guns had a range of and were supplied with a total of 1 , 024 rounds of ammunition . " Pillau " and " Elbing " also carried four 5 . 2 cm SK L / 55 anti - aircraft guns , though these were replaced with a pair of two 8 . 8 cm SK L / 45 anti - aircraft guns . They were also equipped with a pair of torpedo tube s mounted on the deck . The ships could also carry 120 mines . Since they had been ordered and designed for the Russian Navy , the ships did not possess a waterline armored belt like contemporary German designs . The conning tower had thick sides and a thick roof . The deck was covered with thick armor plate forward , which was reduced to aft . Sloping armor thick provided a measure of protection on the upper portion of the ships ' sides . The main battery guns were equipped with 50 mm thick gun shields . Service history . " Pillau " . " Pillau " spent the majority of her career in the II Scouting Group , and saw service in both the Baltic and North Seas . In August 1915 , she participated in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga against the Russian Navy , and on 31 May – 1 June 1916 , she saw significant action at the Battle of Jutland . She was hit by a large - caliber shell once in the engagement , but suffered only moderate damage . She assisted the badly damaged battlecruiser reach port on 2 June after the conclusion of the battle . She also took part in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight , though was not damaged in the engagement . " Pillau " was assigned to the planned , final operation of the High Seas Fleet in the closing weeks of the war , but a large scale mutiny in the fleet forced it to be canceled . After the end of the war , " Pillau " was ceded to Italy as a war prize in 1920 . Renamed " Bari " , she was commissioned in the " Regia Marina " ( Royal Navy ) in January 1924 . She was modified and rebuilt several times over the next two decades . In the early years of World War II , she provided gunfire support to Italian troops in several engagements in the Mediterranean . In 1943 , she was slated to become an anti - aircraft defense ship , but while awaiting conversion , she was sunk by USAAF bombers in Livorno in June 1943 . The wreck was partially scrapped by the Germans in 1944 , and ultimately raised for scrapping in January 1948 . " Elbing " . " Elbing " participated in only two major operations during her career . The first , the bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft , occurred in April 1916 ; there , she briefly engaged the British Harwich Force . A month later , she took part in the Battle of Jutland , where she scored the first hit of the engagement . She was heavily engaged in the confused fighting on the night of 31 May – 1 June , and shortly after midnight she was accidentally rammed by the battleship , which tore a hole in the ship ' s hull . Flooding disabled the ship ' s engines and electrical generators , rendering her immobilized and without power . At around 02 : 00 , a German torpedo boat took off most of her crew , and an hour later the remaining men scuttled the ship ; they escaped in the ship ' s cutter and were later picked up by a Dutch steamer .