SMS Stettin SMS " Stettin " ( " His Majesty ' s Ship " Stettin " " ) was a " Königsberg " - class light cruiser of the Kaiserliche Marine . She had three sister ships : , , and . Laid down at AG Vulcan Stettin shipyard in 1906 , " Stettin " was launched in March 1907 and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet seven months later in October . 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 . In 1912 , " Stettin " joined the battlecruiser and cruiser for a goodwill visit to the United States . After the outbreak of World War I , " Stettin " served in the reconnaissance forces of the German fleet . She saw heavy service for the first three years of the war , including at the Battle of Heligoland Bight in August 1914 and the Battle of Jutland in May – June 1916 , along with other smaller operations in the North and Baltic Seas . In 1917 , she was withdrawn from frontline service and used as a training ship until the end of the war . In the aftermath of Germany ' s defeat , " Stettin " was surrendered to the Allies and broke up for scrap in 1921 – 1923 . Construction . " Stettin " was ordered under the contract name " " Ersatz " " and was laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in her namesake city in 1906 . She was launched on 7 March 1907 , after which fitting - out work commenced . She was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 29 October 1907 . 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 . " Stettin " 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 , amounting to 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 , " Stettin " served with the High Seas Fleet in German waters . In early 1912 , " Stettin " was assigned to a goodwill cruise to the United States , along with the battlecruiser , the only German capital ship to ever visit the US , and the light cruiser . On 11 May 1912 the ships left Kiel and arrived off Hampton Roads , Virginia , on 30 May . There , they met the US Atlantic Fleet and were greeted by then - President William Howard Taft aboard the presidential yacht . After touring the East Coast for two weeks , they returned to Kiel on 24 June . Actions in the North Sea . At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , " Stettin " was serving in the North Sea with the High Seas Fleet . On 6 August , she and the cruiser escorted a flotilla of U - boat s into the North Sea in an attempt to draw out the British fleet , which could then be attacked by the U - boats . The force returned to port on 11 August , without having encountered any British warships . Some two weeks later , on 28 August , " Stettin " was involved in the Battle of Heligoland Bight . At the start of the engagement , " Stettin " , , and stood in support of the line of torpedo boats patrolling the Heligoland Bight ; " Stettin " was at anchor to the northeast of Heligoland island , and the other two ships were on either side . The German screen was under the command of Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper , the commander of reconnaissance forces for the High Seas Fleet . When the British first attacked the German torpedo boats , Hipper immediately dispatched " Stettin " and " Frauenlob " , and several other cruisers that were in distant support , to come to their aid . At 08 : 32 , " Stettin " received the report of German torpedo boats in contact with the British , and immediately weighed anchor and steamed off to support them . Twenty - six minutes later , she encountered the British destroyers and opened fire , at a range of . The attack forced the British ships to break off and turn back west . During the engagement , lookouts aboard " Stettin " spotted a British cruiser in the distance , but it did not join the battle . By 9 : 10 , the British had withdrawn out of range , and " Stettin " fell back to get steam in all of her boilers . During this portion of the battle , the ship was hit once , on the starboard No . 4 gun , which killed two men and badly injured another . Her intervention prevented the British from sinking the torpedo boats and . By 10 : 00 , " Stettin " had steam in all of her boilers , and was capable of her top speed . She therefore returned to the battle , and at 10 : 06 , she encountered eight British destroyers and immediately attacked them , opening fire at 10 : 08 . Several hits were observed in the British formation , which dispersed and fled . By 10 : 13 , the visibility had decreased , and " Stettin " could no longer see the fleeing destroyers , and so broke off the chase . The ship had been hit several times in return , without causing significant damage , but killing another two and wounding another four men . At around 13 : 40 , " Stettin " reached with the cruiser , which was just coming under attack from several British battlecruisers . " Stettin " s crew could see the large muzzle flashes in the haze , which after having disabled " Ariadne " , turned on " Stettin " at 14 : 05 . The haze saved the ship , which was able to escape after ten salvos missed her . At 14 : 20 , she encountered . The German battlecruisers and " Moltke " reached the scene by 15 : 25 , by which time the British had already disengaged and withdrawn . Hipper , in , followed closely behind , and ordered the light cruisers to fall back on his ships . After conducting a short reconnaissance further west , the Germans returned to port , arriving in Wilhelmshaven by 21 : 30 . On 15 December , the battlecruisers of the I Scouting Group , led by Hipper , conducted a bombardment of Scarborough , Hartlepool , and Whitby on the English coast . The main body of the High Seas Fleet , commanded by Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl , stood by in distant support ; " Stettin " and two flotillas of torpedo boats screened the rear of the formation . That evening , the German battle fleet of some twelve dreadnought s and eight pre - dreadnought s came to within of an isolated squadron of six British battleships . However , skirmishes between the rival screens in the darkness convinced Ingenohl that he was faced with the entire Grand Fleet . Under orders from Kaiser Wilhelm II to avoid risking the fleet unnecessarily , Ingenohl broke off the engagement and turned the battle fleet back toward Germany . Operations in the Baltic . On 7 May 1915 , the IV Scouting Group , which by then consisted of " Stettin " , " Stuttgart " , , and " Danzig " , 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 " Stettin " and the rest of the IV Scouting Group were recalled to the High Seas Fleet . Battle of Jutland . In May 1916 , the German fleet commander , Admiral Reinhard Scheer , planned a major operation to cut off and destroy an isolated squadron of the British fleet . The operation resulted in the battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916 . During the battle , " Stettin " served as the flagship of Commodore Ludwig von Reuter , the commander of the IV Scouting Group . The IV Scouting Group was tasked with screening for the main German battlefleet . As the German fleet approached the scene of the unfolding engagement between the British and German battlecruiser squadrons , " Stettin " steamed ahead of the leading German battleship , , with the rest of the Group dispersed to screen for submarines . " Stettin " and the IV Scouting Group were not heavily engaged during the early phases of the battle , but around 21 : 30 , they encountered the British cruiser . " Stettin " and " München " briefly fired on the British ship , but poor visibility forced the ships to cease fire . Reuter turned his ships 90 degrees away and disappeared in the haze . During the withdrawal from the battle on the night of 31 May at around 23 : 30 , the battlecruisers " Moltke " and " Seydlitz " passed ahead of " Stettin " too closely , forcing her to slow down . The rest of the IV Scouting Group did not notice the reduction in speed , and so the ships became disorganized . Shortly thereafter , the British 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron came upon the German cruisers , which were joined by " Hamburg " , , and . A ferocious firefight at very close range ensued ; " Stettin " was hit twice early in the engagement and was set on fire . A shell fragment punctured the steam pipe for the ship ' s siren , and the escaping steam impaired visibility and forced the ship to abandon an attempt to launch torpedoes . In the melee , was hit by approximately eighteen 10 . 5 cm shells , including some from " Stettin " . In the meantime , the German cruiser " Frauenlob " was set on fire and sunk ; as the German cruisers turned to avoid colliding with the sinking wreck , the IV Scouting Group became dispersed . Only " München " remained with " Stettin " . The two ships accidentally attacked the German destroyers , " V1 " , and at 23 : 55 . By 04 : 00 on 1 June , the German fleet had evaded the British fleet and reached Horns Reef ; the Germans then returned to port . In the course of the battle , " Stettin " had suffered eight men killed and another 28 wounded . She had fired a total of 81 rounds of ammunition from her 10 . 5 cm guns . Fate . In 1917 , " Stettin " was withdrawn from front line service and used as a training ship with the U - boat school . She served in this capacity until the end of the war . Under Article 185 of the Treaty of Versailles , which ended the war after the Armistice that ceased fighting on 11 November 1918 , " Stettin " was listed among the warships still in German service that were to be surrendered to the Allied powers , and accordingly she was stricken on 5 November 1919 . She was surrendered to Great Britain as a war prize on 15 September 1920 , under the transfer name " T " . She was then sold to shipbreakers in Copenhagen and dismantled for scrap in 1921 – 1923 .