SMS Seydlitz
Encyclopedia : S : SM : SMS : SMS Seydlitz
| |
| Career |
|
|---|---|
| Shipyard: | Blohm & Voss, Hamburg |
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | February 4, 1911 |
| Launched: | March 30, 1912 |
| Commissioned: | May 22, 1913 |
| Fate: | scuttled |
| Struck: | |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 24,594 normal, 28,100 tons loaded |
| Length: | 657 ft 11 in(200.5m) |
| Beam: | 93 ft 6 in(28.5m) |
| Draught: | 26 ft 11 in(30.3m) |
| Propulsion: | 4 screws, Parsons turbines, 63,000 hp |
| Speed: | 26.5 knots |
| Range: | 4,700nm at 14 knots |
| Complement: | 1,068 |
| Armament: | 10-11.2 in (284 mm) 50-calibre guns (5x2) 12-5.9 in (150 mm) guns 12-3.45 in (88 mm) guns |
| Aircraft: | None |
At the Battle of Dogger Bank (1915), 24 January 1915, in World War I SMS Seydlitz was the flagship of Admiral Franz von Hipper. She was hit by a 13.5-inch shell from HMS Lion which penetrated the working chamber of her after turret. The resulting explosion knocked out the rear turret and, due to an open door to the adjacent turret, knocked out that one as well, with the loss of the 160 men of the two turrets’ crews. Only the prompt action of her executive officer in flooding the magazines saved Seydlitz from a magazine explosion that would have destroyed the ship. At the Battle of Jutland, a similar situation befell Lion.
At the Battle of Jutland in 1916 she fought in Hipper's battlecruiser squadron. Her gunfire led to the explosion of HMS Queen Mary. Seydlitz was heavily damaged herself, being hit by twenty-one heavy shells and one torpedo and suffering 98 men killed and 55 injured. She shipped 5,000 tons of water, reducing her freeboard to almost nothing, but made it back to port.
After the armistice she was interned at Scapa Flow where she was scuttled by her crew with the rest of the High Seas Fleet on 21 June 1919. She was salvaged in 1928 and scrapped.
External links
- [by Moritz von Egidy], captain of SMS Seydlitz
- [by Richard Foerster], gunnery officer on the Seydlitz
- [Maritimequest SMS Seydlitz Photo Gallery]
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