SMS Schwaben SMS " Schwaben " ( " His Majesty ' s Ship " Schwaben " " ) was the fourth ship of the of pre - dreadnought battleship s of the German Imperial Navy . " Schwaben " was built at Wilhelmshaven Navy Dockyard . She was laid down in 1900 , and completed in April 1904 , at the cost of 21 , 678 , 000 marks . Her sisters were , , and ; they were the first capital ships built under the Navy Law of 1898 , brought about by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz . " Schwaben " spent the majority of her career as a training ship for German naval cadets . The ship served as a gunnery training ship in the Baltic from 1904 to 1914 . After the start of World War I in August 1914 , the ship was mobilized with her sisters as the IV Battle Squadron . She saw limited duty in the Baltic Sea against Russian forces , though the threat from British submarines forced the ship to withdraw in 1916 . For the remainder of her career , " Schwaben " served as a training ship for navy cadets and later as a depot ship for F - type minesweepers . The ship was stricken from the navy list in March 1921 and sold for scrapping in that year . Construction . " Schwaben " s keel was laid 15 September 1900 , at the Imperial Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven , under construction number 27 . She was ordered under the contract name " D " , as a new unit for the fleet . The vessel was a member of the first class of battleships built under the direction of State Secretary Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz , according to the terms of the Navy Law of 1898 . " Schwaben " was launched on 19 August 1901 , when she was christened by Queen Charlotte of Württemberg , and commissioned on 13 April 1904 , the last ship of her class to enter active service . The ship ' s cost totaled 21 , 678 , 000 marks . The ship was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward . The ship was powered by three 3 - cylinder vertical triple expansion engines that drove three screws . Steam was provided by six naval and six cylindrical coal - fired boilers . " Schwaben " s powerplant was rated at , which generated a top speed of . " Schwaben " s armament consisted of a main battery of four 24 cm ( 9 . 4 in ) SK L / 40 guns in twin gun turret s , one fore and one aft of the central superstructure . Her secondary armament consisted of eighteen 15 cm ( 5 . 9 inch ) SK L / 40 guns and twelve 8 . 8 cm ( 3 . 45 in ) SK L / 30 quick - firing guns . The armament system was rounded out with six torpedo tubes , all in above - water swivel mounts . Service history . After commissioning in April 1904 , " Schwaben " was placed into service as an artillery training ship . The ship was based in Sonderburg in the Baltic Sea , along with the armored cruisers and , and several other training ships . In 1908 , the training ships based in the Baltic were placed under the command of Rear Admiral Hugo von Pohl ; Pohl would go on to command the High Seas Fleet in 1915 during World War I . After the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , " Schwaben " and the rest of her class were mobilized to serve in the IV Battle Squadron , under the command of Vice Admiral Ehrhard Schmidt . Starting on 3 September , the IV Squadron , assisted by the armored cruiser , conducted a sweep into the Baltic . The operation lasted until 9 September and failed to bring Russian naval units to battle . In May 1915 , IV Squadron , including " Schwaben " , was transferred to support the German Army in the Baltic Sea area . " Schwaben " and her sisters were then based in Kiel . On 6 May , the IV Squadron ships were tasked with providing support to the assault on Libau . " Schwaben " and the other ships stood off Gotland in order to intercept any Russian cruisers that might try to intervene in the landings , which the Russians did not attempt . On 10 May , after the invasion force had entered Libau , the British submarines and spotted the IV Squadron , but were too far away to make an attack . " Schwaben " and her sisters were not included in the German fleet that assaulted the Gulf of Riga in August 1915 , due to the scarcity of escorts . The increasingly active British submarines forced the Germans to employ more destroyers to protect the capital ships . By 1916 , the increasing threat from British submarines in the Baltic convinced the German navy to withdraw the elderly " Wittelsbach " - class ships from active service . " Schwaben " returned to her role as a training ship in Wilhelmshaven . After the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June , in which " Schwaben " did not take part , Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper , the commander of the German battlecruiser squadron , sent his four surviving battlecruisers in dock for repairs . Hipper made " Schwaben " , which was stationed in Wilhelmshaven , his temporary command ship while his force was being repaired . The ship was briefly retained by the Reichsmarine after the end of the war . " Schwaben " was converted into a depot ship for F - type minesweepers . This service did not last long , however , and the old battleship was stricken from the naval register on 8 March 1921 . She was sold for 3 , 090 , 000 marks and broken up for scrap that year in Kiel - Nordmole . Notes . Footnotes Citations References . Books Journals