SMS Friedrich der Grosse ( 1874 ) SMS " Friedrich der Grosse " ( or " Große " ) was an armored frigate of the German Kaiserliche Marine . She was the second of three s , in addition to her two sister - ships and . Named for Frederick the Great , she was laid down at the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel in 1871 and completed in 1877 . Her main battery of four guns was mounted pair of twin gun turret s amidships . " Friedrich der Grosse " served with the fleet from her commissioning until 1896 , though she was frequently placed in reserve throughout her career . The ship was a regular participant in the annual fleet training maneuvers conducted with the exception of the mid - 1880s , when she was temporarily replaced by newer vessels . She participated in several cruises in the Baltic and Mediterranean , often escorting Kaiser Wilhelm II on official state visits . The ship was removed from active service in 1896 , after which she was used in secondary roles until 1919 , when she was stricken from the naval register and sold to a scrapyard . " Friedrich der Grosse " was broken up for scrap the following year . Construction . " Friedrich der Grosse " was ordered by the Imperial Navy from the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel ; her keel was laid in 1871 under construction number 1 . The ship was launched on 20 September 1874 and commissioned into the German fleet on 22 November 1877 . Although laid down a year before her sister , " Friedrich der Grosse " was not completed until a year after ; this was because she was built at a newly established and inexperienced Imperial Dockyard , while " Preussen " was built by AG Vulcan , an experienced private shipbuilder . The ship cost the German government 7 , 303 , 000 gold marks . The ship was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward . " Friedrich der Grosse " was powered by one 3 - cylinder single expansion steam engine , which was supplied with steam by six coal - fired transverse trunk boilers . The ship ' s top speed was , at . She was also equipped with a full ship rig . Her standard complement consisted of 46 officers and 454 enlisted men . She was armed with four L / 22 guns mounted in a pair of gun turret s placed amidships . As built , the ship was also equipped with two L / 25 chase gun s . After being rebuilt in 1888 – 1890 , her armament was increased by six and later ten L / 30 quick - firing guns , a pair of machine guns , and five torpedo tube s , all placed in the ship ' s hull below the waterline . " Preussen " s armor was made of wrought iron and backed with teak . The armored belt was arrayed in two strake s . The upper strake was thick ; the lower strake ranged in thickness from . Both were backed with of teak . The gun turrets were protected by armor on the sides , backed by 260 mm of teak . Service history . After her commissioning in November 1877 , " Friedrich der Grosse " served with the fleet . In April 1878 , " Friedrich der Grosse " was reactivated to participate in the annual summer fleet maneuvers , under the command of Rear Admiral Carl Ferdinand Batsch . Her newly commissioned sister - ship , , joined the squadron shortly before maneuvers were scheduled to begin . At the time , " Friedrich der Grosse " suffered from mechanical problems , and on 22 May , she ran aground off Nyborg while steaming from Kiel to Wilhelmshaven . The ship suffered serious damage to her hull , which , coupled with her chronic engine problems , forced her to miss the fleet maneuvers . While the squadron steamed in the English Channel on 31 May , the armored frigate accidentally rammed " Grosser Kurfürst " ; the latter quickly sank with the loss of 276 men . In the aftermath of the loss of " Grosser Kurfürst " , the Navy canceled the summer 1878 maneuvers . Apart from the small ironclad , all armored warships were put in reserve until the following year . In May 1879 , the armored squadron was reactivated , under the command of Rear Admiral Franz Kinderling . " Friedrich der Grosse " and " Preussen " were joined by the older ironclads and ; the squadron remained in the Baltic for the majority of the training period . Kinderling took his four ships out into the North Sea in June for a visit to Norway . The four ships returned to Kiel in September , when the squadron was disbanded for the winter . In the spring of 1880 , the squadron was again reestablished . The new armored corvette replaced " Kronprinz " in the squadron that year . Wilhelm von Wickede , a former Austrian naval officer , replaced Kinderling as the squadron commander . In June , the Italian frigate " Cristoforo Colombo " visited the armored squadron in Kiel . Again , the squadron remained in the Baltic for the summer cruise , with the exception of a short visit to Wilhelmshaven and Cuxhaven in August . The summer cruise in 1881 followed the same pattern as the year previous , though " Kronprinz " returned in place of " Sachsen " , which was plagued with engine problems . Wickede again served as the commander . In July , the ships hosted a visit by the British reserve squadron , which by this time included the first British ironclad , . " Preussen " and the rest of the squadron visited Danzig in September during a meeting between Kaiser Wilhelm I and the Russian Tsar Alexander III . The 1882 summer cruise included the same four ironclads from the previous year , and was again commanded by Wickede , who had by then been promoted to Rear Admiral . " Friedrich der Grosse " was kept in reserve during the annual summer maneuvers starting in 1883 , as new ships , including the rest of the s entered service . The ship was reactivated in July 1888 to participate in a tour of the Baltic for the newly enthroned Kaiser Wilhelm II . The voyage included visits to St . Petersburg , Stockholm , and Copenhagen . They met Tsar Alexander III and the Swedish King Oscar II , who inspected the German warships and conferred decorations on the senior officers . In August 1889 , " Friedrich der Grosse " participated in Kaiser Wilhelm II ' s visit to Great Britain . The ship was assigned to the II Division , along with her sister " Preussen " and the central battery ironclads and , under command of Rear Admiral Friedrich Hollmann . The fleet then conducted maneuvers in the North Sea before returning to Germany . " Friedrich der Grosse " and the rest of the II Division became the training squadron for the fleet in 1889 – 1890 , the first year the Kaiserliche Marine maintained a year - round ironclad force . The squadron escorted Wilhelm II ' s imperial yacht to the Mediterranean ; the voyage included state visits to Italy and the Ottoman Empire . The squadron remained in the Mediterranean until April 1890 , when it returned to Germany . " Friedrich der Grosse " participated in the ceremonial transfer of the island of Helgoland from British to German control in the summer of 1890 . She was present during the fleet maneuvers in September , where the entire eight - ship armored squadron simulated a Russian fleet blockading Kiel . The II Division , including " Friedrich der Grosse " , served as the training squadron in the winter of 1890 – 1891 . The squadron again cruised the Mediterranean , under the command of Rear Admiral Wilhelm Schröder . " Friedrich der Grosse " again saw service in the II Division in the winter of 1891 – 1892 and the 1892 maneuvers , under the command of Rear Admiral Hans Koester . The ship participated in the 1893 maneuvers , which included a simulation of a French naval attack in the North Sea . The following year , " Friedrich der Grosse " , " König Wilhelm " , and " Deutschland " joined the new battleship as re - designated II Division of the Maneuver Squadron , under the command of Rear Admiral Otto von Diederichs . The ships simulated a Russian attack on Germany ' s Baltic coast in the 1894 maneuvers . She was reduced to a harbor ship on 16 November 1896 . The ship was stricken from the active register on 21 May 1906 , after which she was used as a coal hulk for torpedo boat s . " Friedrich der Grosse " served in this capacity until after the end of World War I ; she was removed from the naval register on 27 January 1919 . She was sold to shipbreakers and broken up for scrap the following year in Rönnebeck . Footnotes . Notes Citations