SMS Baden (1880)

Lithograph of Baden in 1900
History
German Empire
Name	SMS Baden
Builder	Kaiserliche Werft, Kiel
Laid down	August 1876
Launched	28 July 1880
Commissioned	24 September 1883
Stricken	24 October 1910
Fate	Broken up, 1938
General characteristics
Class and type	Sachsen-class ironclad
Displacement	7,938 t (7,813 long tons)
Length	98.2 m (322 ft 2 in)
Beam	18.4 m (60 ft 4 in)
Draft	6.32 m (20 ft 9 in)
Installed power	8 × Dürr boilers 5,600 ihp (4,200 kW)
Propulsion	2 × single-expansion steam engines 2 × screw propellers
Speed	13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Range	1,940 nmi (3,590 km; 2,230 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	32 officers 285 enlisted men
Armament	6 × 26 cm (10.2 in) L/22 guns 6 × 8.7 cm (3.4 in) guns 8 × 3.7 cm (1.5 in) guns
Armor	Belt: 203–254 mm (8–10 in) Deck: 50–75 mm (2–3 in)

SMS Baden^[a] was one of four Sachsen-class armored frigates of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy). Her sister ships were Sachsen, Bayern, and Württemberg. Baden was built in the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Dockyard) in Kiel from 1876 to 1883. The ship was commissioned into the Imperial Navy in September 1883. She was armed with a main battery of six 26 cm (10.2 in) guns in two open barbettes.

After her commissioning, Baden served with the fleet on numerous training exercises and cruises in the 1880s and 1890s, during which she frequently simulated hostile naval forces. She participated in several cruises escorting Kaiser Wilhelm II on state visits to Great Britain and to various countries in the Baltic Sea in the late 1880s and early 1890s. During 1896–1897, the ship was extensively rebuilt at the Germaniawerft dockyard in Kiel. She was removed from active duty in 1910 and thereafter served in a number of secondary roles, finally serving as a target hulk in the 1920s and 1930s. She was sold in April 1938 and broken up in 1939–1940 in Kiel.
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