SMS Stuttgart SMS " Stuttgart " was a " Königsberg " class light cruiser of the Kaiserliche Marine , named after the city of Stuttgart . She had three sister ships : , , and . " Stuttgart " was laid down at the Imperial Dockyard in Danzig in 1905 , launched in September 1906 , and commissioned in February 1908 . Like her sisters , " Stettin " was armed with a main battery of ten guns and a pair of torpedo tube s , and was capable of a top speed in excess of . " Stuttgart " was used as a gunnery training ship from her commissioning to the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , when she was mobilized into the reconnaissance forces of the High Seas Fleet . There , she saw action at the Battle of Jutland , where she engaged the British cruiser . " Stuttgart " was not damaged during the battle . She was converted into a seaplane tender in 1918 , and after the end of the war , was surrendered to Britain as a war prize in 1920 and subsequently broken up for scrap . Construction . " Stuttgart " was ordered under the contract name " O " and was laid down at the Imperial Dockyard in Danzig in 1905 . She was launched on 22 September 1906 , after which fitting - out work commenced . She was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 1 February 1908 . 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 3 - cylinder triple expansion engines powered by eleven coal - fired Marine - type boilers . These provided a top speed of and a range of approximately at . " Stuttgart " had a crew of 14 officers and 308 enlisted men . The ship was armed with ten 10 . 5 cm SK L / 45 guns in single pedestal mounts . Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle , six were located amidships , three on either side , and two were side by side aft . The guns had a maximum elevation of 30 degrees , which allowed them to engage targets out to . They were supplied with 1 , 500 rounds of ammunition , for 150 shells per gun . The ship was also equipped with eight 5 . 2 cm SK L / 55 gun s with 4 , 000 rounds of ammunition . She was also equipped with a pair of torpedo tube s with five torpedo es submerged in the hull on the broadside . The ship was protected by an armored deck that was thick amidships . The conning tower had thick sides . Service history . After her commissioning into the High Seas Fleet , " Stuttgart " was used as a gunnery training ship for the Fleet ' s gunners . At the outbreak of World War I , she was mobilized and served with the Fleet , along with the other gunnery ships like the armored cruiser . After the outbreak of war , she and several other cruisers were tasked with patrol duties in the Heligoland Bight . The cruisers were divided with the torpedo boat flotillas , and assigned to rotate through nightly patrols into the North Sea . As part of this operation , " Stuttgart " conducted a patrol on the night of 15 August with and the I and II Torpedo - boat Flotillas , without incident . On 15 – 16 December , " Stuttgart " participated in the bombardment of Scarborough , Hartlepool and Whitby . She was assigned to the cruiser screen of the High Seas Fleet , which was providing distant cover to Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper ' s battlecruisers while they were conducting the bombardment . Following reports of British destroyers from the German screen , Admiral von Ingenohl ordered the High Seas Fleet to turn to port and head for Germany . At 06 : 59 , " Stuttgart " , the armored cruiser , and the light cruiser encountered Commander Jones ' destroyers . Jones shadowed the Germans until 07 : 40 , at which point " Stuttgart " and " Hamburg " were detached to sink their pursuers . At 08 : 02 , however , " Roon " signaled the two light cruisers and ordered them to abandon the pursuit and retreat along with the rest of the High Seas Fleet . On 7 May 1915 , the IV Scouting Group , which by then consisted of " Stuttgart " , " Stettin " , , and , and twenty - one torpedo boats was sent into the Baltic Sea to support a major operation against Russian positions at Libau . The operation was commanded by Rear Admiral Hopman , the commander of the reconnaissance forces in the Baltic . The IV Scouting Group was tasked with screening to the north to prevent any Russian naval forces from moving out of the Gulf of Finland undetected , while several armored cruiser s and other warships bombarded the port . The Russians did attempt to intervene with a force of four cruisers : " Admiral Makarov " , " Bayan " , " Oleg " , and " Bogatyr " . The Russian ships briefly engaged " München " , but both sides were unsure of the others ' strength , and so both disengaged . Shortly after the bombardment , Libau was captured by the advancing German army , and " Stuttgart " and the rest of the IV Scouting Group were recalled to the High Seas Fleet . Battle of Jutland . " Stuttgart " was assigned to the IV Scouting Group during the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916 . The IV Scouting Group , under the command of Commodore Ludwig von Reuter , departed Wilhelmshaven at 03 : 30 on 31 May , along with the rest of the fleet . Tasked with screening for the fleet , " Stuttgart " and the torpedo boat were positioned at the rear of the fleet , astern of the II Battle Squadron . " Stuttgart " and the IV Scouting Group were not heavily engaged during the early phases of the battle , but around 21 : 30 , they encountered the British 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron ( 3rd LCS ) . Reuter ' s ships were leading the High Seas Fleet south , away from the deployed Grand Fleet . Due to the long range and poor visibility , only " München " and " Stettin " were able to engage the British cruisers . " Stuttgart " was the fourth ship in the line , and her gunners could only make out one British ship in the haze . Since that ship was already being engaged by the other German cruisers , " Stuttgart " held her fire . Reuter turned his ships hard to starboard , in order to draw the British closer to the capital ship s of the German fleet , but the 3rd LCS refused to take the bait and disengaged . During the ferocious night fighting that occurred as the High Seas Fleet forced its way through the British rear , the IV Scouting Group encountered the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron at close range in the darkness . As the two squadrons closed on each other , the Germans illuminated and and concentrated their fire on the two ships . " Stuttgart " and fired on " Dublin " . During this period , " Dublin " was hit by eight shells , probably all from " Stuttgart " , though these hits did not do serious damage . The two British ships were badly damaged and set on fire and forced to retreat , while the Germans also fell back in an attempt to bring the British closer to the battlecruiser s and . In the melee , the cruiser was hit and sunk by a torpedo launched by " Southampton " ; this forced " Stuttgart " to haul out of line to starboard . She then lost contact with the rest of the IV Scouting Group , so she fell in with the I Battle Squadron . She was present during a later encounter with British light forces around midnight . She remained concealed in the darkness and observed the I Battle Squadron dreadnought s hammering several British destroyers . The British meanwhile launched torpedoes at the German line , which forced it to turn away . " Stuttgart " had to thread her way in between the battleships and in the darkness . By 02 : 30 , " Stuttgart " was steaming at the head of the German line , ahead of , the leading battleship . She led the I Battle Squadron back to port , and later assisted the III Battle Squadron and the fleet flagship , . In the course of the battle , " Stuttgart " had fired 64 rounds , the least of all of the German cruisers in the battle . She emerged from the battle unscathed , unlike many of the other German cruisers . Conversion and fate . Earlier in the war , the German Navy had experimented with converting steamers into seaplane tender s . They were too slow to operate with the fleet , however , and so a faster alternative was needed . By 1918 , the Navy had decided to convert " Stuttgart " , which was fast enough to steam with the fleet ; conversion work started in February 1918 . The work was done at the Imperial Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven , and was completed in May . As a seaplane tender , her forward and rear 10 . 5 cm guns , and the two rearmost broadside guns were removed , leaving only four broadside guns remaining . Two 8 . 8 cm SK L / 45 anti - aircraft guns were installed forward ; she retained her submerged torpedo tubes . Two large hangars were installed aft of the funnels , with space for two seaplane s ; a third seaplane was carried on top of the hangars . Since " Stuttgart " could carry only three aircraft , a number which was deemed insufficient to support the entire High Seas Fleet , plans were drawn up to convert " Roon " into a seaplane carrier as well . Neither ship was ever used operationally . " Stuttgart " survived the war , and was stricken from the naval register on 5 November 1919 . She was surrendered to the United Kingdom on 20 July 1920 , as the war prize " S " and subsequently broken up for scrap .