SMS Wittelsbach SMS " Wittelsbach " ( " His Majesty ' s Ship Wittelsbach " ) was the lead ship of the of pre - dreadnought battleship s of the Kaiserliche Marine . " Wittelsbach " was built at Wilhelmshaven Navy Dockyard . She was laid down in 1899 and completed in October 1902 , at the cost of 22 , 740 , 000 marks . " Wittelsbach " was the first capital ship built under the Navy Law of 1898 , brought about by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz . The ship served in the I Squadron of the German fleet for the majority of her career . " Wittelsbach " was rapidly superseded by new " all - big - gun " warships , and as a result served for less than eight years before being decommissioned on 20 September 1910 . After the start of World War I in August 1914 , " Wittelsbach " was brought back to active duty in the IV Battle Squadron . The ship saw limited duty in the Baltic Sea against Russian forces , though the threat from British submarines forced the ship to withdraw by 1916 . The ship then saw service in a number of auxiliary roles , ultimately as a tender for minesweepers after 1919 . In July 1921 , however , the ship was sold and broken up for scrap metal . Construction . " Wittelsbach " s keel was laid in 1899 , at the Kaiserliche Werft in Wilhelmshaven , under construction number 25 . She was ordered under the contract name " C " , as a new unit for the fleet . The vessel was the first battleship built under the direction of State Secretary Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz , according to the terms of the Navy Law of 1898 . " Wittelsbach " was launched on 3 July 1900 and commissioned on 15 October 1902 . The ship was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward . The ship was powered by three 3 - cylinder vertical triple expansion engines that drove three screws . Steam was provided by six naval and six cylindrical boilers . " Wittelsbach " s powerplant was rated at , which generated a top speed of . " Wittelsbach " s armament consisted of a main battery of four 24 cm ( 9 . 4 in ) SK L / 40 guns in twin gun turret s , one fore and one aft of the central superstructure . Her secondary armament consisted of eighteen 15 cm ( 5 . 9 inch ) SK L / 40 guns and twelve 8 . 8 cm ( 3 . 45 in ) SK L / 30 quick - firing guns . The armament suite was rounded out with six torpedo tubes , all in above - water swivel mounts . Service history . Upon commissioning in 1902 , " Wittelsbach " was assigned to the I Squadron of the Active Battle Fleet . In 1905 the German fleet was reorganized into two squadrons of battleships . " Wittelsbach " was assigned to the I Division of I Squadron . The ship was joined by her sisters and . The German fleet consisted of another three - ship division in the I Squadron and 2 three - ship divisions in the II Squadron . This was supported by a cruiser division , composed of two armored cruiser s and six protected cruiser s . That year , " Kapitän zur See " Maximilian von Spee , who would go on to command the East Asia Squadron at the outbreak of World War I , took command of the ship . In 1907 , the newest s were beginning to enter service . This provided the Navy with enough ships to form two full battle squadrons of eight ships each . The fleet was then renamed the " Hochseeflotte " ( High Seas Fleet ) . " Wittelsbach " served in the I Division until 20 September 1910 . The ship was then decommissioned and placed in reserve ; her crew was then sent to man the newly commissioned dreadnought . At the start of World War I , " Wittelsbach " was mobilized as part of the IV Battle Squadron , under the command of Vice Admiral Ehrhard Schmidt . Starting on 3 September , the IV Squadron , assisted by the armored cruiser , conducted a sweep into the Baltic . The operation lasted until 9 September and failed to bring Russian naval units to battle . In May 1915 , " Wittelsbach " and the rest of IV Squadron was transferred to support the German Army in the Baltic Sea area . " Wittelsbach " and her sisters were then based in Kiel . On 6 May , the IV Squadron ships were tasked with providing support to the assault on Libau . " Wittelsbach " and the other ships were stationed off Gotland to intercept any Russian cruisers that might attempt to intervene in the landings ; the Russians , however , did not do so . On 10 May , after the invasion force had entered Libau , the British submarines and spotted the IV Squadron , but were too far away to attack them . By 1916 , the threat from submarines in the Baltic convinced the German navy to withdraw the elderly " Wittelsbach " - class ships from active service . " Wittelsbach " was initially used as a training ship based in Kiel . The ship was then transferred to Wilhelmshaven for use as a fleet tender . " Wittelsbach " was converted into a depot ship in 1919 for minesweepers in the newly constituted Reichsmarine . She carried 12 of these shallow draft vessels . The ship served in this capacity for little more than a year ; on 8 March 1921 , " Wittelsbach " was stricken from the Navy List and sold four months later , on 7 July , for 3 , 561 , 000 Marks . The ship was then broken up for scrap in Wilhelmshaven . Notes . Footnotes Citations References . Books Journals