Wiesbaden - class cruiser The " Wiesbaden " class of light cruiser s was a class of ships built by the German " Kaiserliche Marine " ( Imperial Navy ) shortly before the outbreak of World War I . Two ships were built in this class , and . They were very similar to the preceding design , the , though they were armed with eight 15 cm SK L / 45 guns instead of the twelve 10 . 5 cm SK L / 45 guns on the earlier vessels . The ships had a top speed of . " Wiesbaden " saw only one major action , the Battle of Jutland , on 31 May – 1 June 1916 . She was badly damaged and immobilized during the battle and became the center of a melee as both sides fought over the crippled ship . She eventually sank in the early morning hours of 1 June , with only one survivor . " Frankfurt " was only lightly damaged at Jutland and saw extensive service with the II Scouting Group , including during Operation Albion against the Russians in the Baltic and at the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight , both in 1917 . She was interned with the rest of the fleet at the end of the war and scuttled at Scapa Flow , though British sailors prevented her from sinking . " Frankfurt " was ceded to the US Navy as a war prize and eventually expended as a target in July 1921 . Design . Dimensions and machinery . The ships were long at the waterline and long overall . They had a beam of and a draft of forward and aft . They displaced at designed displacement and at full combat load . The hulls were built with longitudinal steel frames and contained seventeen watertight compartments and a double bottom that extended for forty - seven percent of the length of the keel . Steering was controlled by a single rudder . " Wiesbaden " and " Frankfurt " had a crew of 17 officers and 457 enlisted men . They carried a number of smaller craft , including one picket boat , one barge , one cutter , two yawls , and two dinghies . Their propulsion systems consisted of two sets of Marine steam turbines driving two propellers . They were designed to give . These were powered by twelve coal - fired Marine - type water - tube boilers and two oil - fired double - ended boilers . These gave the ship a top speed of . The ships of the class carried of coal , and an additional of oil that gave them a range of at . At , the cruising radius dropped significantly , to . " Wiesbaden " was equipped with a pair of turbo generators and one diesel generator rated at a combined at 220 Volts . " Frankfurt " only had the two turbo generators , which provided . Armament and armor . The ships of the " Wiesbaden " class were armed with eight 15 cm SK L / 45 guns in single pedestal mounts . Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle , four were located amidships , two on either side , and two were placed in a superfiring pair aft . The guns could engage targets out to . They were supplied with 1 , 024 rounds of ammunition , for 128 shells per gun . The ships ' antiaircraft armament initially consisted of four L / 44 guns , though these were replaced with a pair of 8 . 8 cm SK L / 45 anti - aircraft guns . The ships were also equipped with four torpedo tube s with eight torpedo es . Two were submerged in the hull on the broadside and two were mounted on the deck amidships . They could also carry 120 mines . " Wiesbaden " and " Frankfurt " were protected by a waterline armored belt that was thick amidships ; the belt was reduced to forward . The stern was not armored . The conning tower had thick sides and a thick roof . The rangefinder atop the conning tower had worth of armor protection . The deck was covered with 60 mm thick armor plate forward , amidships , and 20 mm aft . Sloped armor 40 mm thick connected the deck to the belt armor . The main battery gun shields were thick . Service history . " Wiesbaden " . " Wiesbaden " was ordered under the contract name " " Ersatz " " and was laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin in 1913 and launched on 20 January 1915 , after which fitting - out work commenced . She was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 23 August 1915 , after being rushed through trials . The ship saw only one major action , the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916 . The ship was badly damaged by gunfire from the battlecruiser . Immobilized between the two battle fleets , " Wiesbaden " became the center of a hard - fought action that saw the destruction of two British armored cruisers . Heavy fire from the British fleet prevented evacuation of the ship ' s crew . " Wiesbaden " remained afloat until the early hours of 1 June and sank sometime between 01 : 45 and 02 : 45 . Only one crew member survived the sinking ; the wreck was located by German Navy divers in 1983 . " Frankfurt " . " Frankfurt " was ordered under the contract name " " Ersatz " " and was laid down at the " Kaiserliche Werft " shipyard in Kiel in 1913 and launched on 20 March 1915 . The ships was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 20 August 1915 . " Frankfurt " saw extensive action with the High Seas Fleet during World War I . She served primarily in the North Sea , and participated in the Bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft and the battles of Jutland and Second Heligoland . At Jutland , she was lightly damaged by a British cruiser and her crew suffered minor casualties . The ship was also present during Operation Albion in the Baltic Sea in October 1917 . At the end of the war , she was interned with the bulk of the German fleet in Scapa Flow . When the fleet was scuttled in June 1919 , " Frankfurt " was one of the few ships that were not successfully sunk . She was ceded to the US Navy as a war prize and ultimately expended as a bomb target in tests conducted by the US Navy and Army Air Force in July 1921 . References .