SMS Danzig SMS " Danzig " was a light cruiser of the Imperial German Navy . Named for the city of Danzig ( Gdańsk ) , she was the seventh and last ship of the . She was begun by the Imperial Dockyard in her namesake city in 1904 , launched on 23 September 1905 and commissioned on 1 December 1907 . Armed with a main battery of ten guns and two torpedo tube s , " Danzig " was capable of a top speed of . " Danzig " spent the first ten years of her career in the reconnaissance forces of the High Seas Fleet . The ship saw extensive service during the First World War ; she was present at the Battle of Heligoland Bight in August 1914 , but did not engage British warships . She also saw action in the Baltic Sea against Russian forces , and was badly damaged by a Russian mine in November 1915 . " Danzig " was also involved in Operation Albion , the seizure of the islands at the entrance of the Gulf of Riga , in September 1917 . She was thereafter withdrawn from service , and surrendered to Britain after the end of the war as a war prize . " Danzig " was dismantled for scrap starting in 1921 . Construction . " Danzig " was ordered under the contract name " Ersatz " and was laid down at the Imperial Dockyard in Danzig in 1904 and launched on 23 September 1905 , after which fitting - out work commenced . She was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 1 December 1907 . The ship was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward . She displaced at full combat load . Her propulsion system consisted of two triple - expansion engine s , designed to give for a top speed of . The engines were powered by ten coal - fired Marine - type water - tube boilers . " Danzig " carried up to of coal , which gave her a range of at . She had a crew of 14 officers and 274 – 287 enlisted men . The ship was armed with ten 10 . 5 cm SK L / 40 guns in single mounts . Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle , six were located amidships , three on either side , and two were placed side by side aft . The guns could engage targets out to . They were supplied with 1 , 500 rounds of ammunition , for 150 shells per gun . She was also equipped with two torpedo tube s with five torpedo es . They were submerged in the hull on the broadside . " Danzig " was also fitted to carry fifty naval mine s . The ship was protected by an armored deck that was up to thick . The conning tower had thick sides , and the guns were protected by thick shields . Service history . After her commissioning , " Danzig " served in the reconnaissance forces of the High Seas Fleet . In 1910 , she was used as a training ship for the fleet ' s gunners . She returned to fleet service in August 1914 after the outbreak of World War I . She was moored in Brunsbüttel with her sister - ship , en route to Kiel via the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal on the morning of 28 August 1914 , when the British attacked the German patrol line in the Heligoland Bight . During the ensuing Battle of Heligoland Bight , " Danzig " and " München " were recalled and ordered to steam to the mouth of the Elbe and wait for further orders . " Danzig " reached the stricken cruiser shortly before 15 : 00 and lowered boats to rescue survivors . " Konteradmiral " Franz von Hipper , the commander of the I Scouting Group , issued an order for all cruisers to regroup on the approaching battlecruiser s and , but " Fregattenkapitän " Reiß , " Danzig " s commander , refused , replying that he was " Rescuing people from " Ariadne " . " On 7 May 1915 , the IV Scouting Group , which by then consisted of " Danzig " , " München " , , and , and twenty - one torpedo boats was sent into the Baltic Sea to support a major operation against Russian positions at Libau . The operation was commanded by Rear Admiral Hopman , the commander of the reconnaissance forces in the Baltic . The IV Scouting Group was tasked with screening to the north to prevent any Russian naval forces from moving out of the Gulf of Finland undetected , while several armored cruiser s and other warships bombarded the port . The Russians did attempt to intervene with a force of four cruisers : , , , and . The Russian ships briefly engaged " München " , but both sides were unsure of the others ' strength , and so both disengaged . Shortly after the bombardment , Libau was captured by the advancing German army , and " Stettin " and the rest of the IV Scouting Group were recalled to the High Seas Fleet . On 8 May , " Danzig " joined the old pre - dreadnought battleship s of the IV Battle Squadron on a reconnaissance toward Gotland ; the operation lasted until 10 May , but encountered no Russian forces . " Danzig " ran into a Russian minefield on the evening of 25 November 1915 , and was badly damaged by one of the mines . She was towed back to port , however , and repaired . In early September 1917 , following the German conquest of the Russian port of Riga , the German navy decided to eliminate the Russian naval forces that still held the Gulf of Riga . The " Admiralstab " ( the Navy High Command ) planned an operation to seize the Baltic island of Ösel , and specifically the Russian gun batteries on the Sworbe Peninsula . On 18 September , the order was issued for a joint operation with the army to capture Ösel and Moon Islands ; the primary naval component was to comprise the flagship , , along with the III and IV Battle Squadrons of the High Seas Fleet . The invasion force amounted to approximately 24 , 600 officers and enlisted men . " Danzig " had by this time been transferred to the II Scouting Group , which was tasked with screening for the invasion force . During the operation , Prince Adalbert , Kaiser Wilhelm II ' s son , was the ship ' s commander . " Danzig " s only significant action during the operation came on the 19th , when she and and were sent to intercept two Russian torpedo boat s reported to be in the area . The Germans could not locate the vessels , and broke off the operation . " Danzig " was withdrawn from active service in late 1917 . She survived the end of the war , and was stricken from the naval register on 5 November 1919 . The ship was surrendered to the United Kingdom as the war prize " R " on 15 September 1920 , and broken up for scrap in Whitby in 1921 – 1922 .