SMS Nassau

Nassau, very early in her career
History
Germany
Name	Nassau
Namesake	Duchy of Nassau part of the Prussian province of Hesse Nassau[1]
Builder	Kaiserliche Werft, Wilhelmshaven
Laid down	22 July 1907
Launched	7 March 1908
Commissioned	1 October 1909
Fate	Ceded to Japan as war prize, sold for scrap in 1920
General characteristics
Class and type	Nassau-class battleship
Displacement	Normal: 18,873 t (18,575 long tons) Full load: 21,000 t (21,000 long tons)
Length	146.1 m (479 ft 4 in)
Beam	26.9 m (88 ft 3 in)
Draft	8.9 m (29 ft 2 in)
Installed power	12 × water-tube boilers 21,699 ihp (16,181 kW)
Propulsion	3 × triple-expansion steam engines 3 × screw propellers
Speed	20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Range	At 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph): 8,300 nmi (15,400 km; 9,600 mi)
Complement	40 officers 968 men
Armament	12 × 28 cm (11 in) guns 12 × 15 cm (6 in) guns 16 × 8.8 cm (3 in) guns 6 × 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes
Armor	Belt: 270 mm (10.6 in) Turrets: 280 mm (11 in) Deck: 80 mm (3.1 in) Conning Tower: 400 mm (15.7 in)

SMS Nassau^[a] was the first dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial German Navy, a response to the launching of the British battleship HMS Dreadnought.^[2] Nassau was laid down on 22 July 1907 at the Kaiserliche Werft in Wilhelmshaven, and launched less than a year later on 7 March 1908, approximately 25 months after Dreadnought. She was the lead ship of her class of four battleships, which included Posen, Rheinland, and Westfalen.

Nassau saw service in the North Sea at the beginning of World War I, in II Division of I Battle Squadron of the German High Seas Fleet. In August 1915, she entered the Baltic Sea and participated in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga, where she engaged the Russian battleship Slava. Following her return to the North Sea, Nassau and her sister ships took part in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916. During the battle, Nassau collided with the British destroyer HMS Spitfire. Nassau suffered a total of 11 killed and 16 injured during the engagement.

After World War I, the bulk of the High Seas Fleet was interned in Scapa Flow. As they were the oldest German dreadnoughts, the Nassau-class ships were for the time permitted to remain in German ports. After the German fleet was scuttled, Nassau and her three sisters were surrendered to the victorious Allied powers as replacements for the sunken ships. Nassau was ceded to Japan in April 1920. With no use for the ship, Japan sold her to a British wrecking firm which then scrapped her in Dordrecht, Netherlands.

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