SMS König Albert SMS " König Albert " was the fourth vessel of the of battleship s of the Imperial German Navy . " König Albert " s keel was laid on 17 July 1910 at the Schichau - Werke dockyard in Danzig . She was launched on 27 April 1912 and was commissioned into the fleet on 31 July 1913 . The ship was equipped with ten guns in five twin turrets , and had a top speed of . " König Albert " was assigned to the III Battle Squadron and later the IV Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet for the majority of her career , including World War I . Along with her four sister ships , , , , and , " König Albert " participated in most of the major fleet operations of World War I , though she was in drydock for maintenance during the Battle of Jutland between 31 May and 1 June 1916 . As a result , she was the only battleship actively serving with the fleet that missed the largest naval battle of the war . The ship was also involved in Operation Albion , an amphibious assault on the Russian - held islands in the Gulf of Riga , in late 1917 . After Germany ' s defeat in the war and the signing of the Armistice in November 1918 , " König Albert " and most of the capital ship s of the High Seas Fleet were interned by the Royal Navy in Scapa Flow . The ships were disarmed and reduced to skeleton crews while the Allied powers negotiated the final version of the Treaty of Versailles . On 21 June 1919 , days before the treaty was signed , the commander of the interned fleet , Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter , ordered the fleet to be scuttled to ensure that the British would not be able to seize the ships . " König Albert " was raised in July 1935 and subsequently broken up for scrap in 1936 . Construction . Ordered under the contract name " Ersatz Ägir " as a replacement for the obsolete coastal defense ship , " König Albert " was laid down at the Schichau - Werke dockyard in Danzig on 17 July 1910 . She was launched on 27 April 1912 ; Princess Mathilde of Saxony christened the ship , and her brother , the last king of Saxony , Friedrich August III gave the speech . Following the completion of fitting - out work , the ship was commissioned into the fleet on 31 July 1913 . The ship was long overall and displaced a maximum of . She had a beam of and a draft of forward and aft . " König Albert " was powered by three sets of Schichau turbines , supplied with steam by 16 coal - fired boilers . The powerplant produced a top speed of . She carried of coal , which enabled a maximum range of at a cruising speed of . She had a crew of 41 officers and 1 , 043 enlisted . " König Albert " was armed with a main battery of ten 30 . 5 cm SK L / 50 gun s in five twin turrets . The ship disposed of the inefficient hexagonal turret arrangement of previous German battleships ; instead , three of the five turrets were mounted on the centerline , with two of them arranged in a superfiring pair aft . The other two turrets were placed " en echelon " amidships , such that both could fire on the broadside . The ship was also armed with fourteen SK L / 45 guns in casemate s amidships , eight SK L / 45 guns in casemates and four 8 . 8 cm L / 45 anti - aircraft gun s . The ship ' s armament was rounded out by five torpedo tube s , all mounted in the hull . Service history . Although " König Albert " was the last ship in her class to be launched , she was the third to be commissioned , owing to turbine damage on and delays on ' s diesel engine . The ship was selected to form part of the special Detached Division , alongside her sister and the light cruiser . The Division was placed under the command of " Konteradmiral " ( Rear Admiral ) von Rebeur Paschwitz and sent on a tour of South America , with the goals of testing the new turbine propulsion system and representing the growing power of the Imperial Navy . The three ships left Wilhelmshaven on 9 December 1913 and steamed for German West Africa , where they made several stops , including Lomé , Togo , and Victoria and Duala , Kamerun . The Division then proceeded to German South - West Africa , making stops in Swakopmund and Lüderitzbucht , and South Africa , stopping in Saint Helena en route . On 15 February 1914 , the Division reached Rio de Janeiro , which ceremonially greeted the visiting German warships . From Rio de Janeiro , " Strassburg " went to Buenos Aires , Argentina , while " König Albert " and " Kaiser " steamed to Montevideo , Uruguay . " Strassburg " then rejoined the battleships in Montevideo , and all three then rounded Cape Horn and steamed to Valparaíso , Chile . Between 2 and 11 April they remained in Valparaiso , which marked the furthest point of their journey . On the return voyage , the three ships made additional stops , including in Bahía Blanca , Argentina , before returning to Rio de Janeiro . The Division then began the trip back to Germany , stopping in Cape Verde , Madeira , and Vigo . The ships reached Kiel on 17 June 1914 , after having traveled some without incident . On 24 June , the Detached Division was dissolved , and " König Albert " and " Kaiser " joined their classmates in the III Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet . World War I . Throughout the first two years of the war , the High Seas Fleet , including " König Albert " , conducted a number of sweeps and advances into the North Sea . The first occurred on 2 – 3 November 1914 , though no British forces were encountered . Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl , the commander of the High Seas Fleet , adopted a strategy in which the battlecruisers of Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper ' s I Scouting Group raided British coastal towns to lure out portions of the Grand Fleet where they could be destroyed by the High Seas Fleet . The raid on Scarborough , Hartlepool and Whitby on 15 – 16 December 1914 was the first such operation . On the evening of 15 December , the German battle fleet of some twelve dreadnoughts — including " König Albert " and her four sisters — and eight pre - dreadnoughts came to within of an isolated squadron of six British battleships . However , skirmishes between the rival destroyer screens in the darkness convinced von Ingenohl that he was faced with the entire British Grand Fleet . Under orders from Kaiser Wilhelm II to avoid risking the fleet unnecessarily , von Ingenohl broke off the engagement and turned back toward Germany . Following the loss of at the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915 , the Kaiser removed Admiral von Ingenohl from his post on 2 February . Admiral Hugo von Pohl replaced him as commander of the fleet . Admiral von Pohl conducted a series of fleet advances in 1915 in which " König Albert " took part ; in the first one on 29 – 30 March , the fleet steamed out to the north of Terschelling and returned without incident . Another followed on 17 – 18 April , where " König Albert " and the rest of the fleet covered a mining operation by the II Scouting Group . Three days later , on 21 – 22 April , the High Seas Fleet advanced toward the Dogger Bank , though again failed to meet any British forces . On 15 May , a bushing came loose in the ship ' s starboard turbine , which forced the crew to turn the engine off and decouple it . The center and port side shafts were still capable of propelling the ship at , however . On 29 – 30 May , the fleet attempted to conduct a sweep in the North Sea , but inclement weather forced Pohl to cancel the operation some off Schiermonnikoog . The fleet remained in port until 10 August , when it sortied to Helgoland to cover the return of the auxiliary cruiser . A month later , on 11 – 12 September , the fleet covered another mine - laying operation off the Swarte Bank . The last operation of the year , conducted on 23 – 24 October , was an advance in the direction of Horns Reef which concluded without result . On 11 January 1916 , Admiral Reinhard Scheer replaced the ailing von Pohl , who was suffering from liver cancer . Scheer proposed a more aggressive policy designed to force a confrontation with the Grand Fleet ; he received approval from the Kaiser in February . The first of Scheer ' s operations was conducted the following month , on 5 – 7 March , with an uneventful sweep of the Hoofden . On 25 – 26 March , Scheer attempted to attack British forces that had raided Tondern , but failed to locate them . Another advance to Horns Reef followed on 21 – 22 April . On 24 April , the battlecruiser s of the I Scouting Group conducted a raid on the English coast . " König Albert " and the rest of the fleet sailed in distant support . The battlecruiser struck a mine while en route to the target , and had to withdraw . The other battlecruisers bombarded the town of Lowestoft unopposed , but during the approach to Yarmouth , they encountered the British cruisers of the Harwich Force . A short artillery duel ensued before the Harwich Force withdrew . Reports of British submarines in the area prompted the retreat of the I Scouting Group . At this point , Scheer , who had been warned of the sortie of the Grand Fleet from its base in Scapa Flow , also withdrew to safer German waters . After the raid on Yarmouth , several of the III Squadron battleships developed problems with their condensers . This included " König Albert " ; tubing needed to be replaced in all three main condensers , which necessitated extensive dockyard work . The ship went into drydock in the Imperial Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven on 29 May , two days before the rest of the fleet departed for the Battle of Jutland . Work on the ship was not completed until 15 June , and as a result , " König Albert " was the only German dreadnought in active service to miss the battle . On 18 August 1916 , " König Albert " took part in an operation to bombard Sunderland . Admiral Scheer attempted a repeat of the original 31 May plan : the two serviceable German battlecruisers — and — augmented by three faster dreadnoughts , were to bombard the coastal town of Sunderland in an attempt to draw out and destroy Vice Admiral David Beatty ' s battlecruisers . Scheer would trail behind with the rest of the fleet and provide support . Scheer turned north after receiving a false report from a zeppelin about a British unit in the area . As a result , the bombardment was not carried out , and by 14 : 35 , Scheer had been warned of the Grand Fleet ' s approach and so turned his forces around and retreated to German ports . Another fleet operation took place on 18 – 19 October , though it ended without encountering any British units . Unit training in the Baltic was then conducted , and on the return voyage the III Squadron was diverted to assist in the recovery of a pair of U - boat s stranded on the Danish coast . The fleet was reorganized on 1 December ; the four " König " - class battleships remained in the III Squadron , along with the newly commissioned , while the five " Kaiser " - class ships , including " König Albert " , were transferred to IV Squadron . " König Albert " saw no major operations in the first half of 1917 , and on 18 August she went into drydock at the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel for periodic maintenance , which lasted until 23 September . Operation Albion . In early September 1917 , following the German conquest of the Russian port of Riga , the German naval command decided to eliminate the Russian naval forces that still held the Gulf of Riga . On 18 September , the " Admiralstab " ( the Navy High Command ) issued the order for a joint operation with the army to capture Ösel and Moon Islands . The naval component , organized as a Special Unit ( " Sonderverband " ) , was to comprise the flagship , " Moltke " , along with the III and IV Battle Squadrons of the High Seas Fleet . Along with nine light cruisers , three torpedo boat flotillas , and dozens of mine warfare ships , the entire force numbered some 300 ships , supported by over 100 aircraft and six zeppelins . Opposing the Germans were the old Russian pre - dreadnought s and , the armored cruiser s , , and , 26 destroyers , and several torpedo boats and gunboats . The garrison on Ösel numbered some 14 , 000 men . The operation began on the morning of 12 October , when " Moltke " and the III Squadron ships engaged Russian positions in Tagga Bay while " König Albert " and the rest of IV Squadron shelled Russian gun batteries on the Sworbe Peninsula on Ösel . The coastal artillery in both locations were quickly silenced by the battleships ' heavy guns . On the morning of the 14th , " König Albert " , " Friedrich der Grosse " , and " Kaiserin " were detached to support German troops advancing toward Anseküll . " König Albert " and " Kaiserin " were assigned to suppress a Russian battery at Zerel , though heavy fog delayed them from engaging the target . The Russians opened fire first , which was quickly returned by the two ships . " Friedrich der Grosse " came to the two ships ' assistance and the three battleships fired a total of 120 large - caliber shells at the battery at Zerel over the span of an hour . The battleships ' gunfire prompted most of the Russian gun crews to flee their posts . On the night of 15 October , " König Albert " and " Kaiserin " were sent to replenish their coal stocks in Putzig . On the 19th , they were briefly joined in Putzig by " Friedrich der Grosse " , which continued on to Arensburg with " Moltke " . The next morning , Vice Admiral Schmidt ordered the special naval unit to be dissolved ; in a communique to the naval headquarters , Schmidt noted that " " Kaiserin " and " König Albert " can immediately be detached from Putzig to the North Sea . " The two ships then proceeded to Kiel via Danzig , where they transited the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal back to the North Sea . After returning to the North Sea on 23 October , " König Albert " served as the flagship for a force of heavy ships , including " Kaiserin " , , , and the battlecruiser , supporting a mine - sweeping operation in the German Bight . Afterward she resumed guard duty in the Bight . Fate . " König Albert " and her four sisters were to have taken part in a final fleet action at the end of October 1918 , days before the Armistice was to take effect . The bulk of the High Seas Fleet was to have sortied from their base in Wilhelmshaven to engage the British Grand Fleet ; Scheer — by now the Grand Admiral ( " Großadmiral " ) of the fleet — intended to inflict as much damage as possible on the British navy , in order to retain a better bargaining position for Germany , despite the expected casualties . However , many of the war - weary sailors felt the operation would disrupt the peace process and prolong the war . On the morning of 29 October 1918 , the order was given to sail from Wilhelmshaven the following day . Starting on the night of 29 October , sailors on and then on several other battleships mutinied . The ship remained on picket duty in the Bight until 10 November . This kept her away from the mutinous vessels , until she returned to port and her crew joined the mutiny . The unrest ultimately forced Hipper and Scheer to cancel the operation . Informed of the situation , the Kaiser stated " I no longer have a navy . " Following the capitulation of Germany in November 1918 , most of the High Seas Fleet , under the command of Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter , were interned in the British naval base in Scapa Flow . Prior to the departure of the German fleet , Admiral Adolf von Trotha made it clear to von Reuter that he could not allow the Allies to seize the ships , under any conditions . The fleet rendezvoused with the British light cruiser , which led the ships to the Allied fleet that was to escort the Germans to Scapa Flow . This consisted of some 370 British , American , and French warships . Once the ships were interned , their guns were disabled through the removal of their breech blocks , and their crews were reduced to 200 officers and enlisted men . The fleet remained in captivity during the negotiations that ultimately produced the Treaty of Versailles . Von Reuter believed that the British intended to seize the German ships on 21 June 1919 , which was the deadline for Germany to have signed the peace treaty . Unaware that the deadline had been extended to the 23rd , Reuter ordered the ships to be sunk at the next opportunity . On the morning of 21 June , the British fleet left Scapa Flow to conduct training maneuvers , and at 11 : 20 Reuter transmitted the order to his ships . " König Albert " capsized and sank at 12 : 54 . On 31 July 1935 , the ship was raised and broken up for scrap over the following year in Rosyth . Notes . Footnotes Citations