SMS Siegfried SMS " Siegfried " was the lead ship of the six - member " Siegfried " class of coastal defense ship s ( " Küstenpanzerschiffe " ) built for the German Imperial Navy . Her sister ships were , , , , and . " Siegfried " was built by the Germaniawerft shipyard between 1888 and 1890 , and was armed with a main battery of three guns . She served in the German fleet throughout the 1890s and was rebuilt in 1903 – 1904 . She served in the VI Battle Squadron after the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , but saw no action . " Siegfried " was demobilized in 1915 and used as a barracks ship thereafter . She was ultimately broken up for scrap in 1920 . Design . " Siegfried " 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 . " Siegfried " 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 six 8 . 8 cm SK L / 30 guns in single mounts . " Siegfried " 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 . " Siegfried " was laid down in 1888 at the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel . She was launched on 10 August 1889 , and completed on 19 April 1890 . She was commissioned into the fleet on 29 April , and joined the I Division of the German fleet , along with the older ironclads , , and , under " Vizeadmiral " Karl Deinhard . The I Division participated in several fleet maneuvers in 1891 , where they typically served as the German side in the war games . " Siegfried " did not participate in the 1892 maneuvers , having been replaced in the I Division by her recently - commissioned sister ship . Over the winter of 1892 – 1893 , " Siegfried " and " Beowulf " joined the elderly ironclads and for a winter training cruise in the Mediterranean Sea . " Siegfried " again sat out the 1893 fleet maneuvers , instead of her sister , which had just joined the fleet . In the 1897 maneuvers , " Siegfried " and all five of her sister ships formed the III Division . In 1898 , " Siegfried " again participated in the annual summer maneuvers in the III Division , along with " Beowulf " and . Her other three sisters were assigned to the IV Division . During the 1900 summer maneuvers , " Siegfried " served in the simulated hostile squadron , alongside , " Hildebrand " , and . " Siegfried " served on active duty until 1903 , when she was withdrawn from service . Starting in 1903 , 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 1904 . She was brought back on active duty at the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , and mobilized into the VI Battle Squadron for coastal defense , along with her sister ships . On 31 August 1915 , the VI Battle Squadron was demobilized , and " Siegfried " s crew was transferred to other warships . She was then used as a barracks ship in Wilhelmshaven , a role she filled until the end of the war . On 17 June 1919 , she was stricken from the naval register . The navy planned to convert her into a salvage ship , but the plan was abandoned and she was instead sold for 425 , 000 marks to H . Peters in Wewelsfleth . " Siegfried " was broken up for scrap the following year in Kiel - Nordmole .