SMS Victoria Louise SMS " Victoria Louise " was the lead ship of her class of protected cruiser s , built for the German Imperial Navy ( " Kaiserliche Marine " ) in the late 1890s . She was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in 1895 , launched in March 1897 , and commissioned into the German fleet in February 1899 . She was named after Princess Victoria Louise , the daughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II . The ship was armed with a battery of two 21 cm guns and eight 15 cm guns and had a top speed of . " Victoria Louise " served with the fleet for the first seven years of her career . During this time , she represented Germany during the funeral of Queen Victoria in 1901 . In 1906 , she was modernized and after 1908 , used as a training ship for naval cadets . In 1909 , she visited the United States , and at the outbreak of World War I , was mobilized into the 5th Scouting Group . She was attacked unsuccessfully by the British submarine in October 1914 , and at the end of the year she was withdrawn from service . She was used as a minelayer and barracks ship based in Danzig for the rest of the war . " Victoria Louise " was sold in 1919 and converted into a freighter the following year , though she served in this capacity until 1923 , when she was broken up for scrap . Design . " Victoria Louise " was ordered under the contract name " L " and was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen in 1895 . She was launched on 29 March 1897 , after which fitting - out work commenced . She was commissioned into the German navy on 20 February 1899 . 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 Dürr boilers . 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 . " Victoria Louise " 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 . " Victoria Louise " joined the squadron , commanded by Prince Heinrich , that went to Britain to participate in the funeral of Queen Victoria in 1901 . Along with " Victoria Louise " , , , and represented Germany at Spithead . In 1902 , " Victoria Louise " was assigned to 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 1906 , the ship went into dock for modernization in the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel . After emerging from the drydock in 1908 , " Victoria Louise " served as a training ship for naval cadets and cabin boys . In September – October 1909 , " Victoria Louise " , " Hertha " , , and traveled to the United States to represent Germany during the Hudson - Fulton Celebration . In 1912 , Theodor Krancke served aboard the ship as a cadet ; he would go on to command the heavy cruiser " Admiral Scheer " in World War II . She served as a school ship until the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 . She was briefly mobilized into the 5th Scouting Group , which was tasked with training cadets in the Baltic Sea . Shortly after 0900 on 17 October , the British submarine , commanded by Noel Laurence , attempted to torpedo " Victoria Louise " at a range of . The torpedo ran too deep , however , and missed . By the end of 1914 , however , the ships were again removed from service . She was put into service as a coastal defense ship . After 1915 , she was withdrawn from front - line duty again and employed as a minelayer and barracks ship in Danzig . In 1916 , " Victoria Louise " was disarmed . She remained in service in Danzig until 1 October 1919 , when she was stricken from the naval register . She was sold to the Norddeutscher Tiefbau company and rebuilt in 1920 into a freighter . She was renamed " Flora Sommerfeld " and operated by Danziger Hoch - und Tiefbau GmbH . She served in this capacity only briefly ; she was broken up for scrap in 1923 in Danzig .