Greek battleship Lemnos Lemnos , sometimes spelled Limnos ( Greek : Θ / Κ Λήμνος ) , was a 13 , 000 ton originally built by the United States Navy in 1904 – 1908 . As , she was purchased by the Greek Navy in 1914 and renamed " Lemnos " , along with her sister , renamed " Kilkis " . " Lemnos " was named for the Battle of Lemnos , a crucial engagement of the First Balkan War . Armed with a main battery of four guns , " Lemnos " and her sister were the most powerful vessels in the Greek fleet . The ship saw limited action during World War I . Greece ' s pro - German monarch , Constantine I opted to remain neutral until October 1916 , when pressure from the Triple Entente forced him to abdicate in favor of a pro - Entente government . For the remainder of the war , " Lemnos " operated solely as a harbor defense ship . In the aftermath of World War I , she saw service during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and the Greco - Turkish War of 1919 – 1922 . During the war with Turkey , " Lemnos " supported Greek landings in Turkey and participated in the final Greek sea - borne withdrawal in 1922 . She remained in service until 1932 , when she was used as a barracks ship and subsequently disarmed . During the German invasion of Greece in 1941 , she and her sister were sunk in Salamis by German Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers . The two ships were ultimately raised and broken up for scrap after the end of the war . Construction . Laid down on 12 May 1904 , the ship was launched on 9 December 1905 and commissioned into the United States Navy on 1 April 1908 as . She served in the US Navy until 1914 , when she and her sister were sold on 30 June 1914 . The two ships were transferred to the Greek Navy in Newport News , Virginia the following month . The ship was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of . She displaced as designed and up to at full combat load . The ship was powered by two - shaft vertical triple expansion engines and eight coal - fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers rated at and a top speed of . Lattice mast s were installed in 1909 . She had a crew of 744 officers and enlisted men . The ship was armed with a main battery of four L / 45 guns in two twin turrets , one on either end of the superstructure . Eight L / 45 guns were mounted in four twin turrets , two on other side of the vessel amidships . The secondary battery was rounded out with eight L / 45 guns mounted individually in casemate s along the length of the hull . Close - range defense against torpedo boat s was protected by a battery of twelve L / 50 guns , six 3 - pounder guns and two 1 - pounder guns . The ship ' s armament system was completed by two torpedo tube s submerged in her hull . " Lemnos " and " Kilkis " were the most powerful vessels in the Greek Navy . Service history . " Lemnos " and " Kilkis " quickly left the United States after their transfer in July 1914 , due to the rising tensions in Europe following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria the previous month . At the outbreak of World War I in at the end of the month , Greece ' s pro - German monarch , Constantine I , decided to remain neutral . The Entente powers landed troops in Salonika in 1915 , which was a source of tension between France and Greece . Ultimately , the French seized the Greek Navy on 19 October 1916 ( see " Noemvriana " and National Schism ) . " Lemnos " was reduced to a skeleton crew and had the breech blocks for her guns removed to render them inoperable . All ammunition and torpedoes were also removed . Ultimately , a pro - Entente government replaced Constantine and declared war on the Central Powers . " Lemnos " , however , did not see active service with Greece ' s new allies , and instead was used solely for harbor defense until the end of the war . After the end of World War I , " Lemnos " joined the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and served with the Crimean Expedition . There , she aided the White Russians against the Communists . She then saw service during the Greco - Turkish War , where she supported landings to seize Ottoman territory . The Ottoman Navy had been interned by the Allies after the end of World War I , and so provided no opposition to the Greek Navy ' s activities . Operations came to a close in September 1922 when the Greek Army was forced to evacuate by sea , along with a sizable number of civilians , from Asia Minor . The fleet transported a total of 250 , 000 soldiers and civilians during the evacuation . In 1932 , " Lemnos " was placed in inactive reserve ; sections of her armor plate was removed to build fortifications on the island of Aegina . She was disarmed in 1937 and thereafter used as a barracks ship . The hulk of " Lemnos " was bombed in Salamis Naval Base by Junkers Ju 87 dive bomber s on April 23 , 1941 , during the German invasion of Greece . The ship was beached to prevent her from sinking ; her wreck was broken up after the end of the war .