SMS Elbing The SMS " Elbing " was a light cruiser ordered by the Russian navy under the name " Admiral Nevelskoy " from the Schichau - Werke shipyard in Danzig in 1913 . Following the outbreak of World War I , the ship was confiscated in August 1914 and launched on 21 November 1914 as SMS " Elbing " . She had one sister ship , , the lead ship of their class . The ship was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in September 1914 . She was armed with a main battery of eight 15 cm SK L / 45 guns and had a top speed of . " Elbing " participated in only two major operations during her career . The first , the bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft , occurred in April 1916 ; there , she briefly engaged the British Harwich Force . A month later , she took part in the Battle of Jutland , where she scored the first hit of the engagement . She was heavily engaged in the confused fighting on the night of 31 May – 1 June , and shortly after midnight she was accidentally rammed by the battleship , which tore a hole in the ship ' s hull . Flooding disabled the ship ' s engines and electrical generators , rendering her immobilized and without power . At around 02 : 00 , a German torpedo boat took off most of her crew , and an hour later the remaining men scuttled the ship ; they escaped in the ship ' s cutter and were later picked up by a Dutch steamer . Design . " Elbing " was ordered by the Russian Navy as " Admiral Nevelskoy " from the Schichau - Werke shipyard in Danzig . She was laid down in 1913 , requisitioned by the German Navy on 5 August 1914 , and was renamed " Elbing " . She was launched on 21 November 1914 , after which fitting - out work commenced . She was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 4 September 1915 . 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 sets of Marine steam turbines driving two propellers . They were designed to give . These were powered by six coal - fired Yarrow water - tube boilers , and four oil - fired Yarrow boilers . These gave the ship a top speed of . " Elbing " carried of coal , and an additional of oil that gave her a range of approximately at . " Elbing " had a standard crew of twenty - one officers and 421 enlisted men , though this was expanded in wartime . The ship was armed with eight 15 cm SK L / 45 guns in single pedestal mounts . Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle , four were located amidships , two on either side , and two were side by side aft . She also carried four 5 . 2 cm SK L / 55 anti - aircraft guns , though these were replaced with a pair of two 8 . 8 cm SK L / 45 anti - aircraft guns . She was also equipped with a pair of torpedo tube s mounted on the deck . She could also carry 120 mines . The conning tower had thick sides , and the deck was covered with up to thick armor plate . Service history . After her commissioning , " Elbing " was assigned to the II Scouting Group , which typically operated alongside the battlecruiser s of the I Scouting Group . Her first major operation was the bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft on 24 – 25 April . On the approach to Lowestoft , " Elbing " and spotted the Harwich Force , a squadron of three light cruisers and eighteen destroyer s , approaching the German formation from the south at 04 : 50 . Rear Admiral Friedrich Bödicker , the German commander , initially ordered his battlecruisers to continue with the bombardment , while " Elbing " and the other five light cruisers concentrated to engage the Harwich Force . At around 05 : 30 , the British and German light forces clashed , firing mostly at long range . The battlecruisers arrived on the scene at 05 : 47 , prompting the British squadron to retreat at high speed . A light cruiser and destroyer were damaged before Bödicker broke off the engagement after receiving reports of submarine s in the area . Battle of Jutland . In May 1916 , Admiral Reinhard Scheer , the fleet commander , planned to lure a portion of the British fleet away from its bases and destroy it with the entire High Seas Fleet . " Elbing " remained in the II Scouting Group , attached to the I Scouting Group , for the operation . The squadron left the Jade roadstead at 02 : 00 on 31 May , bound for the waters of the Skagerrak . The main body of the fleet followed an hour and a half later . At 15 : 00 , lookouts on " Elbing " spotted the Danish steamer " N . J . Fjord " ; " Elbing " detached a pair of torpedo boat s to investigate the steamer . Two British cruisers , and , were simultaneously steaming to inspect the steamer , and upon spotting the German torpedo boats , opened fire shortly before 15 : 30 . " Elbing " turned to support the destroyers , opening fire at 15 : 32 . She quickly scored the first hit of the battle , on " Galatea " , though the shell failed to explode . The British turned to the north back toward the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron , with " Elbing " still firing at long range . She was joined by and , but the three cruisers had to cease fire by 16 : 17 , as the British had drawn out of range . About fifteen minutes later , the three cruisers engaged a seaplane launched by the seaplane tender . They failed to score any hits , but the aircraft was forced off after which its engine broke down and it was forced to land . The three cruisers then returned to their stations ahead of the German battlecruisers . At around 18 : 30 , " Elbing " and the rest of the II Scouting Group encountered the cruiser ; they opened fire and scored several hits on the ship . As both sides ' cruisers disengaged , Rear Admiral Horace Hood ' s three battlecruisers intervened . His flagship scored a hit on " Wiesbaden " that exploded in her engine room and disabled the ship . " Elbing " and " Frankfurt " each fired a torpedo at the British battlecruisers , though both missed . " Elbing " was briefly engaged by the battlecruisers at very long range , though she was not hit . At around 20 : 15 , " Elbing " lost her port engine due to leaks in her boiler condensers . This limited her speed to for the next four hours . The II Scouting Group , along with the battlecruisers and had been ordered to take station ahead of the German line for its night cruising formation . " Elbing " was still having problems with her boiler condensers , and was unable to keep up the speed necessary to reach the front of the line , and so she fell in with the IV Scouting Group . At 23 : 15 , " Elbing " and spotted the British cruiser and several destroyers . They used the British recognition signal and closed to before turning on their searchlights and opening fire . " Castor " was hit seven times and set on fire , forcing the British to turn away . As they did , they fired several torpedoes at " Elbing " and " Hamburg " . One passed underneath " Elbing " but failed to explode . While this engagement was still on - going , the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron arrived and engaged the IV Scouting Group . " Elbing " was hit once , which destroyed her wireless transmitting station and killed four men and wounded twelve . Shortly after midnight , the German fleet ran into the British rear destroyer screen . " Elbing " was by this time steaming on the port side of the German line along with " Hamburg " and . The dreadnought — the first ship in the German line — opened fire first , followed quickly by " Elbing " , the other two cruisers , and the battleships and . The British destroyers launched a torpedo attack , which forced the three cruisers to turn to starboard to avoid them . This pointed the cruisers directly at the German line . " Elbing " attempted to steam between " Nassau " and , but " Posen " s captain wasn ' t aware of the movement until it was too late to avoid a collision . " Posen " turned hard to starboard , but still collided with " Elbing " s starboard quarter . The cruiser was holed below the waterline , which flooded the starboard engine room first . She initially took on a list of eighteen degrees , which allowed water to spread to the port engine room . With the engines shut down , steam began to condense in the pipes , which disabled the electric generators and caused the ship to lose electrical power . As water spread throughout the ship ' s engine compartments , the list was reduced . The ship was completely immobilized , though she was not in danger of sinking . At 02 : 00 , the torpedo boat came alongside and took off 477 officers and men of " Elbing " s crew . Her commander and a small group of officers and men remained on board . They rigged an improvised sail in an attempt to bring the ship closer to shore , but at around 03 : 00 , British destroyers were spotted to the south and the order to scuttle the ship was given . They then lowered the ship ' s cutter into the water and set off ; while steaming back to port , they rescued the surgeon from the destroyer . At around 07 : 00 , a Dutch trawler met the cutter and took the men to Holland . In the course of the Battle of Jutland , " Elbing " had fired 230 rounds of 15 cm ammunition and a single torpedo . Four of her crew were killed and twelve more were wounded .