SMS Ägir SMS " Ägir " was the second and final member of the " Odin " class of coastal defense ship s ( " Küstenpanzerschiffe " ) built for the German Imperial Navy . She had one sister ship , . " Ägir " was named for the eponymous norse god , and was built by the Kaiserliche Werft Danzig shipyard between 1893 and 1896 . She was armed with a main battery of three guns . She served in the German fleet throughout the 1890s and was rebuilt in 1901 – 1903 . She served in the VI Battle Squadron after the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , but saw no action . " Ägir " was demobilized in 1915 and used as a tender thereafter . After the war , she was rebuilt as a merchant ship and served in this capacity until December 1929 , when she was wrecked on the island of Gotland . Design . " Ägir " was long overall and had a beam of and a maximum draft of . She displaced at full combat load . Her propulsion system consisted of two vertical 3 - cylinder triple expansion engines . Steam for the engines was provided by eight coal - fired Thornycroft boiler s . The ship ' s propulsion system provided a top speed of . She carried of coal , which gave her a range of approximately at . Because she had twice the number of electrical generators as her sister , " Ägir " was nicknamed " " Elektrische Anna " " ( Electic Anna ) . The ship had a crew of 20 officers and 256 enlisted men . The ship was armed with three 24 cm K L / 35 guns mounted in three single gun turret s . Two were placed side by side forward , and the third was located aft of the main superstructure . They were supplied with a total of 204 rounds of ammunition . The ship was also equipped with ten 8 . 8 cm SK L / 30 guns in single mounts . " Ägir " also carried three torpedo tube s , two in swivel mounts on the deck amidships and one in the bow , submerged below the waterline . The ship was protected by an armored belt that was thick amidships , and an armored deck that was thick . The conning tower had thick sides . Service history . " Ägir " was laid down at the Kaiserliche Werft shipyard in Kiel in 1892 . She was launched on 3 April 1895 and completed on 15 January 1896 , after which she underwent a somewhat lengthy period of sea trials . The ship was commissioned into the German fleet on 15 October 1896 , where she served on active duty for the entirety of her peacetime career . During the 1900 summer maneuvers , " Ägir " served in the simulated hostile squadron , alongside , " Hildebrand " , and . The maneuvers lasted from 15 August to 15 September . In 1901 , " Ägir " was taken in hand at the Kaiserliche Werft in Danzig for an extensive reconstruction . Her old boilers were replaced with eight new Marine type boilers and her length was increased to . This increased her displacement to at full load . The lengthened hull , which improved her hydrodynamic shape , and the improved boilers increased her speed by a full knot , to . Her coal storage was increased to , which allowed her to steam for an additional . The modernization work was completed by 1903 , at which point she returned to active service . At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , " Ägir " was assigned to the VI Battle Squadron , along with her sister and the six s . The Squadron was disbanded on 31 August 1915 to free up the ships ' crews for more important tasks . " Ägir " was thereafter used as a barracks ship in Wilhelmshaven through to the end of the war . She was stricken from the naval register on 17 June 1919 and sold . In 1922 , she was rebuilt as a merchant ship at the Deutsche Werke shipyard in Rüstringen . She was operated by A . Bernstein Co . , out of Hamburg . She continued in this role until she was wrecked on the island of Gotland off the Karlsö lighthouse on 8 December 1929 . Her bow ornament is preserved at the Laboe Naval Memorial . Footnotes . Notes