SMS Seydlitz

SMS Seydlitz

Class overview
Operators	Imperial German Navy
Preceded by	Moltke class
Succeeded by	Derfflinger class
Completed	1
Lost	1
History
German Empire
Name	Seydlitz
Namesake	Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz
Ordered	21 March 1910
Builder	Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
Laid down	4 February 1911
Launched	30 March 1912
Commissioned	22 May 1913
Motto	Always forward
Fate	Scuttled at Scapa Flow, 21 June 1919 Salvaged in 1928, scrapped
General characteristics
Class and type	Unique battlecruiser
Displacement	Design: 24,988 t (24,593 long tons) Full load: 28,550 t (28,100 long tons)
Length	200.6 m (658 ft 2 in)
Beam	28.5 m (93 ft 6 in)
Draft	9.29 m (30 ft 6 in)
Installed power	27 × water-tube boilers 88,510 shp (66,002 kW)
Propulsion	4 × screw propellers 4 × Parsons turbines
Speed	26.5 knots (49.1 km/h; 30.5 mph)
Range	4,200 nmi (7,800 km; 4,800 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement	1,068
Armament	10 × 28 cm (11 in) SK L/50 guns (5 × 2) 12 × 15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/45 guns 12 × 8.8 cm (3.5 in)guns 4 × 50 cm (19.7 in) torpedo tubes
Armor	Belt: 100 to 300 mm (3.9 to 11.8 in) Deck: 30 to 80 mm (1.2 to 3.1 in) Gun turrets: 250 mm (9.8 in) Conning tower: 350 mm (13.8 in)

SMS Seydlitz^[a] was a battlecruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), built in Hamburg. She was ordered in 1910 and commissioned in May 1913, the fourth battlecruiser built for the High Seas Fleet. She was named after Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, a Prussian general during the reign of King Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' War.^[1] Seydlitz represented the culmination of the first generation of German battlecruisers, which had started with the Von der Tann in 1906 and continued with the pair of Moltke-class battlecruisers ordered in 1907 and 1908. Seydlitz featured several incremental improvements over the preceding designs, including a redesigned propulsion system and an improved armor layout. The ship was also significantly larger than her predecessors—at 24,988 metric tons (24,593 long tons; 27,545 short tons), she was approximately 3,000 metric tons heavier than the Moltke-class ships.

Seydlitz participated in many of the large fleet actions during World War I, including the battles of Dogger Bank and Jutland in the North Sea. The ship suffered severe damage during both engagements; during the Battle of Dogger Bank, a 13.5 in (34.3 cm) shell from the British battlecruiser Lion struck Seydlitz's rearmost turret and nearly caused a magazine explosion that could have destroyed the ship. At the Battle of Jutland she was hit twenty-one times by large-caliber shells, one of which penetrated the working chamber of the aft superfiring turret. Although the resulting fire destroyed the turret, the safety measures imposed after the battle of Dogger Bank prevented a catastrophe. The ship was also hit by a torpedo during the battle, causing her to take in over 5,300 metric tons of water and her freeboard was reduced to 2.5 m. She had to be lightened significantly to permit her crossing of the Jade Bar. The ship inflicted severe damage on her British opponents as well; early in the battle, salvos from both Seydlitz and the battlecruiser Derfflinger destroyed the battlecruiser Queen Mary in seconds.

Seydlitz saw limited action in the Baltic Sea, when she provided screening for the German flotilla that at Battle of the Gulf of Riga attempted to clear the gulf in 1915. As with the rest of the German battlecruisers that survived the war, the ship was interned in Scapa Flow in 1918. The ship, along with the rest of the High Seas Fleet, was scuttled in June 1919, to prevent her seizure by the British Royal Navy. She was raised on 2 November 1928 and scrapped by 1930 in Rosyth.

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