SMS Beowulf SMS " Beowulf " was the second vessel of the six - member " Siegfried " class of coastal defense ship s ( " Küstenpanzerschiffe " ) built for the German Imperial Navy . Her sister ships were , , , , and . " Beowulf " was built by the AG Weser shipyard between 1890 and 1892 , and was armed with a main battery of three guns . She served in the German fleet throughout the 1890s and was rebuilt in 1900 – 1902 . She served in the VI Battle Squadron after the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , but saw no action . " Beowulf " was demobilized in 1915 and used as a target ship for U - boat s thereafter . She was ultimately broken up for scrap in 1921 . Design . " Beowulf " 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 four coal - fired boilers . The ship ' s propulsion system provided a top speed of and a range of approximately at . " Beowulf " 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 eight 8 . 8 cm SK L / 30 guns in single mounts . " Beowulf " also carried four torpedo tube s , all in swivel mounts on the deck . One was at the bow , another at the stern , and two amidships . The ship was protected by an armored belt that was amidships , and an armored deck that was thick . The conning tower had thick sides . Service history . " Beowulf " was laid down in 1890 at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen . She was launched on 8 November 1890 , and completed on 1 April 1892 . Among the crew that commissioned the ship was the officer Franz von Hipper , who would go on to command the German battle fleet during World War I . Directly after her commissioning , she joined the I Division of the fleet for its annual training exercises , along with the three ironclads , , and . " Beowulf " remained on active service through the winter of 1892 – 1893 , when she and her sister ship joined the elderly ironclads and for a winter training cruise in the Mediterranean Sea . In 1893 , " Beowulf " again participated in the annual fleet maneuvers , this time alongside her recently - commissioned sister and several old ironclads . On the first set of maneuvers , " Beowulf " and the other capital ship s performed as the hostile French fleet , which was " attacked " by torpedo boat s in the North Sea . The second set of maneuvers took place in the Baltic Sea , and " Beowulf " and the ironclads again simulated a French fleet . In 1897 , " Beowulf " again participated in the annual summer maneuvers in the III Division , along with " Siegfried " and . Her other three sisters were assigned to the IV Division . Following her service in the 1899 summer maneuvers , " Beowulf " was placed in reserve , as the flagship of the reserve squadron in the North Sea . " Beowulf " served on active duty with the fleet until 1900 , when she was taken into drydock at the Kaiserliche Werft shipyard in Danzig for an extensive reconstruction . The ship was lengthened to , which increased displacement to . Her old boilers were replaced with eight new Marine type boilers , and a second funnel was added . Her secondary battery was increased to ten 8 . 8 cm guns , and the 35 cm torpedo tubes were replaced with three tubes . Work was completed by 1902 . She then returned to service with the fleet , and in 1903 , was assigned to the II Division , along with three of her sister ships . She remained in the fleet until the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , when she was mobilized into the VI Battle Squadron for coastal defense , along with her sister ships . In May 1915 , " Beowulf " participated in a combined naval and ground assault on the port of Libau in the Baltic . The attack took place on 7 May , and consisted of " Beowulf " , the armored cruiser s , , and , and the light cruiser s , , and . They were escorted by a number of destroyers , torpedo boats , and minesweepers . The IV Scouting Group of the High Seas Fleet was detached from the North Sea to provide cover for the operation . The bombardment went as planned , though the destroyer struck a mine in Libau ' s harbor , which blew off her bow and destroyed the ship . German ground forces were successful in their assault however , and took the city . On 31 August 1915 , the VI Battle Squadron was demobilized , and " Beowulf " s crew was transferred to other warships . She was then used as a target ship for U - boat s . Starting in 1918 , she was used as an icebreaker in the Baltic Sea . On 17 June 1919 , she was stricken from the naval register . She was sold to Norddeutscher Tiefbaugesellschaft in Berlin . " Beowulf " was broken up for scrap in 1921 in Danzig .