SMS Prinz Adalbert (1901)

SMS Prinz Adalbert
History
German Empire
Name	Prinz Adalbert
Namesake	Prince Adalbert of Prussia
Builder	Kaiserliche Werft, Kiel
Laid down	April 1900
Launched	22 June 1901
Christened	Princess Irene of Prussia
Commissioned	12 January 1904
Fate	Torpedoed and sunk 23 October 1915
General characteristics
Class and type	Prinz Adalbert-class cruiser
Displacement	Normal: 9,087 metric tons (8,943 long tons) Full load: 9,875 t (9,719 long tons)
Length	126.5 m (415 ft) o/a
Beam	19.6 m (64 ft 4 in)
Draft	7.43 m (24 ft 5 in)
Installed power	14 × Dürr water-tube boilers 16,200 PS (16,000 ihp)
Propulsion	3 × screw propellers 3 × triple-expansion steam engines
Speed	20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Range	5,080 nautical miles (9,410 km; 5,850 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement	35 officers 551 enlisted men
Armament	4 × 21 cm (8.3 in) 10 × 15 cm (5.9 in) 12 × 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/35 4 × 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes
Armor	Belt: 100 mm (3.9 in) Turrets: 150 mm (5.9 in) Deck: 40 to 80 mm (1.6 to 3.1 in) Conning tower: 150 mm

SMS Prinz Adalbert ('His Majesty's Ship Prince Adalbert')^[a] was an armored cruiser built in the early 1900s for the Imperial German Navy. She was named after Prince Adalbert of Prussia, former Commander-in-Chief of the Prussian Navy, and was the lead ship of her class.

Prinz Adalbert was built at the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel. Her keel was laid in April 1900, and she was launched in June 1901. Her completion in January 1904 had been delayed by an excess of construction projects at the Imperial Dockyard. She was armed with a main battery of four 21 cm (8.3 in) guns, a significant improvement over the previous armored cruiser, Prinz Heinrich, which carried only two 24 cm (9.4 in) guns. The ship was capable of a top speed of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph).

Upon commissioning, Prinz Adalbert served as a gunnery training ship, a role she held for the majority of her career. She trained with the Home Fleet, later renamed the High Seas Fleet, throughout the early 1900s, and she made several visits to foreign countries. After the outbreak of World War I in July 1914, she was assigned to the reconnaissance forces in the Baltic and was tasked with protecting the German coast from Russian attacks. After her sister ship was sunk in November 1914, she became the flagship of the cruiser squadron in the Baltic. She conducted operations against Russian forces, including bombarding the port of Libau in support of the German Army. She was torpedoed by a British submarine in July 1915, but was able to return to port and was repaired. She was torpedoed a second time on 23 October 1915; the torpedo detonated her ammunition magazines, rapidly sinking the ship. Only three men were rescued from a crew of 675, in the worst German naval loss in the Baltic during the war.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).