SMS Elsass SMS " Elsass " . was the second of five pre - dreadnought battleship s of the in the German Imperial Navy laid down in 1901 and commissioned 1904 . She was named for the German province of Elsass , now the French region of Alsace . Her sister ships were , , and . The ship served in the II Squadron of the German fleet after commissioning , though by the outbreak of World War I she had been moved to the IV Squadron . " Elsass " saw action in the Baltic Sea against the Russian Navy . In August 1915 , the ship participated in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga , during which she engaged the Russian battleship . In 1916 , the ship was placed in reserve owing to crew shortages . She spent the remainder of World War I as a training ship . Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles , she was retained after the end of the war and modernized in 1923 – 24 . " Elsass " served in the reformed Reichsmarine with the surface fleet until 1930 , when she was again placed in reserve . She was stricken in 1931 used for a short time as a hulk in Wilhelmshaven . She was sold to Norddeutscher Lloyd in late 1935 and subsequently broken up for scrap the following year . Construction . " Elsass " was laid down in 1901 , at the Schichau - Werke in Danzig under construction number 97 . The second unit of her class , she was ordered under the contract name " J " as a new unit for the fleet . The ship cost 24 , 373 , 000 marks . " Elsass " was launched on 26 May 1903 and commissioned into the fleet on 29 November 1904 . 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 eight naval and six cylindrical boilers , all of which burned coal . " Elsass " s powerplant was rated at , which generated a top speed of . " Elsass " s armament consisted of a main battery of four 28 cm ( 11 in ) SK L / 40 guns in twin gun turret s , one fore and one aft of the central superstructure . Her secondary armament consisted of fourteen 17 cm ( 6 . 7 inch ) SK L / 40 guns and eighteen 8 . 8 cm ( 3 . 45 in ) SK L / 35 quick - firing guns . The armament suite was rounded out with six torpedo tubes , all mounted submerged in the hull . Service history . Upon commissioning in November 1904 , " Elsass " was assigned to the IV Division of the II Squadron of the German fleet . She joined her sister and the old battleship . The German Navy in 1905 consisted of four divisions of three battleships each , with two divisions per squadron . This was supported by a cruiser division , composed of two armored cruiser s and six protected cruiser s . " Kapitän zur See " Reinhard Scheer assumed command of the vessel in 1907 ; he would go on to command the entire High Seas Fleet at the Battle of Jutland and eventually serve as the Chief of Naval Staff . Scheer held command of the ship for two years . In 1909 , the ship was transferred to the III Division , II Squadron alongside her sisters and ; by this time , enough battleships had been built to increase the size of each division from three to four vessels . In March 1909 , a mine exploded aboard the ship during training in Kiel . Two sailors were killed and another six men were wounded . After the outbreak of World War I in 1914 , " Elsass " was assigned to the IV Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet . The squadron was commanded by Vice Admiral Ehrhard Schmidt . In July 1915 , following the loss of the minelaying cruiser in the Baltic , the IV Squadron ships were transferred to reinforce the German naval forces in the area . On 11 and 19 July , German cruisers , with the IV Squadron ships in support , conducted sweeps in the Baltic , though without engaging Russian forces . In August 1915 , the German fleet attempted to clear the Gulf of Riga of Russian naval forces , in order to aid the German Army advancing on the city . The IV Squadron was joined by the I Squadron , which consisted of the eight and s , from the High Seas Fleet , along with three battlecruiser s and a host of smaller craft . The task force was placed under command of Vice Admiral Franz von Hipper , though operational command remained with Vice Admiral Schmidt . On the morning of 8 August , the Germans made their initial push into the Gulf ; " Elsass " and " Braunschweig " were tasked with engaging the Russian pre - dreadnought and preventing her from disrupting the German minesweepers . However , when it became clear that the minesweepers could not clear the minefield before nightfall , Schmidt called off the attempt . A second attempt was made on 16 August ; this time , " Elsass " remained outside the Gulf while the dreadnought s and took over the task of dealing with " Slava " . By 19 August , the Russian minefields had been cleared and the flotilla entered the Gulf . Reports of Allied submarines in the area , however , prompted the Germans to call off the operation the following day . Due to manpower shortages , the IV Squadron ships were demobilized . On 25 July 1916 , " Elsass " became a drill ship , as well as a floating barracks , based in Kiel . The Treaty of Versailles , which ended the war , specified that Germany was permitted to retain six battleships of the " " Deutschland " or " Lothringen " types . " She was subsequently used as a training ship in the Reichsmarine . In 1923 , the ship was taken in hand for a major overhaul . " Elsass " was dry - docked in the Kriegsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven , where the conning tower was rebuilt . Work lasted until 1924 . She and " Braunschweig " , along with the , were assigned to the North Sea Station . " Elsass " served with the fleet until 1930 ; she was withdrawn from active service on 25 February 1930 . The ship was stricken from the naval register on 31 March 1931 and used as a hulk in Wilhelmshaven until 1935 . The Reichsmarine sold the old battleship to " Technischer Betrieb des Norddeutscher Lloyd " on 31 October . " Elsass " was broken up for scrap the following year . Notes . Footnotes Citations References . Books Journals