SMS Freya SMS " Freya " was a protected cruiser of the " Victoria Louise " class , built for the German Imperial Navy ( " Kaiserliche Marine " ) in the 1890s , along with her sister ships , , , and . " Freya " was laid down at the Imperial Dockyard in Danzig in 1895 , launched in April 1897 , and commissioned into the Navy in October 1898 . The ship was armed with a battery of two 21 cm guns and eight 15 cm guns and had a top speed of . " Freya " served in the German fleet for the initial years of her career , unlike her sister ships , all of which served abroad on foreign stations . As a result , she led a fairly uneventful career in the fleet . After a modernization in 1905 – 1907 , " Freya " was used as a school ship for cadets . At the outbreak of World War I , " Freya " was mobilized into the 5th Scouting Group , but served in front - line duty only briefly . She was used as a barracks ship after 1915 , and ultimately sold for scrapping in 1921 . Design . " Freya " was ordered under the contract name " " Ersatz " " and was laid down at the Imperial Dockyard in Danzig in 1895 . She was launched on 27 April 1897 , after which fitting - out work commenced . She was commissioned into the German navy on 20 October 1898 . 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 three vertical 4 - cylinder triple expansion engines powered by twelve coal - fired Belleville boiler s . Her engines provided a top speed of and a range of approximately at . She had a crew of 31 officers and 446 enlisted men . The ship was armed with two 21 cm SK L / 40 guns in single turrets , one forward and one aft . The guns were supplied with supplied with 58 rounds of ammunition each . They had a range of . " Vineta " also carried eight 15 cm SK L / 40 guns . Four were mounted in turrets amidships and the other four were placed in casemate s . These guns had a range of . She also carried ten 8 . 8 cm SK L / 35 guns . The gun armament was rounded out by machine guns . She was also equipped with three torpedo tube s with eight torpedoes , two launchers were mounted on the broadside and the third was in the bow , all below the waterline . Service history . After her commissioning , " Freya " served with the German fleet . On 1 September 1902 , " Freya " joined the Cruiser Division of the I Squadron of the German home fleet . The Division consisted of the armored cruiser , the flagship , , and the light cruisers , , and . The Division participated in the summer fleet maneuvers of August – September 1902 . In 1905 , " Freya " went into drydock at the Imperial Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven for modernization . During the refit she was re - boilered ; she had been built originally with three stacks , and during the modernization they were trunked into two funnels . The refit was finished in 1907 , after which " Freya " was used as a training ship for naval cadets . In 1907 , Günther Lütjens served aboard the ship as a cadet ; Lütjens went on to command the task force composed of " Bismarck " and " Prinz Eugen " in World War II . In August 1908 , " Freya " represented Germany at celebrations in Halifax , Canada , commemorating the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Canadian Parliament . While entering the port at around midnight on 9 August , she inadvertently rammed a schooner in heavy fog . Nine sailors were killed in the accident . " Freya " had a short career during World War I . At the outbreak of hostilities , she was briefly mobilized into the 5th Scouting Group , which was tasked with training cadets in the Baltic Sea . By the end of 1914 , however , the ships were again removed from service . She was then put into service as a coastal defense ship . After 1915 , she was withdrawn from front - line duty again and returned to service as a training ship based in Flensburg . She served in this capacity through to the end of the war . In 1915 , Bernhard Rogge , who would go on to command the raider " Atlantis " during World War II , served aboard the ship as a cadet . The old aviso became " Freya " s tender starting in July 1915 . She was stricken on 25 January 1920 and used briefly as a barracks ship for police in Hamburg . She was ultimately broken up for scrap in Harburg in 1921 .