The German: Siegfried class was a group of six coastal defense ships built by the German German: [[Kaiserliche Marine]] ("Imperial Navy") in the late 19th century. The ships were intended to protect the German coastline from naval attacks. The class comprised the lead ship, along with her sisters,,,, and . All six ships were named after Norse mythological figures. Two further vessels, the, were built to a similar design but were not identical.
The German: Siegfried-class ships were obsolete by the outbreak of World War I, and saw only limited service in their intended role before they were withdrawn from active duty. The ships then served in a variety of secondary duties, including barracks ships, target ships, and in the case of German: Beowulf, an icebreaker in the Baltic Sea. All six ships were struck from the naval register on 17 June 1919, days before the Treaty of Versailles was signed. Five of the ships were sold for scrapping immediately after they were struck from the register (with German: Hildebrand being lost in transit), but German: Frithjof was purchased by a shipping company, and converted into a freighter. She served in this capacity until she too was scrapped in 1930.
In the late 1880s, the German German: [[Kaiserliche Marine]] grappled with the problem of what type of capital ship to build in the face of limited naval budgets (owing to parliamentary objections to naval spending and the cost of dredging the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal). General Leo von Caprivi, the new German: [[German Imperial Admiralty|Chef der Admiralität]] (Chief of the Admiralty), requested a series of design proposals, which ranged in size from small coastal defense ships armed with a battery of two guns to heavily armed ocean-going battleships equipped with seven guns. Caprivi ordered ten coastal defense ships to guard the entrances to the canal, since even opponents of the navy in the German: [[Reichstag (German Empire)|Reichstag]] (Imperial Diet) agreed that such vessels were necessary.
The first six of these, the German: Siegfried class, were based on the smallest proposal, though they were scaled up to add a third main battery gun, the caliber of which was increased from 21 cm to . Two of these guns were carried in open barbettes side-by-side forward, as German naval theorists still favored ramming attacks that required a capability for end-on fire. The ships were to carry a secondary battery of six Hotchkiss revolver cannon for defense against torpedo boats, but tests conducted at the firing range at Meppen revealed that the guns were insufficient against modern vessels. As a result, the battery was increased to eight guns.
The ships of the German: Siegfried class were 76.4m (250.7feet) long at the waterline and 79m (259feet) long overall. The ships had a beam of 14.9m (48.9feet) and a draft of between 5.51m (18.08feet) forward and 5.74m (18.83feet) aft. All six ships were heavily rebuilt, each undergoing refits at various times between 1898 and 1904. During the rebuilding, the ships were lengthened, to 84.8m (278.2feet) at the waterline and 86.13m (282.58feet) overall. The ships' beams remained the same, but their draft was slightly decreased, to 5.45m (17.88feet) forward and 5.47m (17.95feet) aft. The ships had a designed displacement of 3500MT, and a maximum displacement of 3741t. After the reconstruction, the displacement was increased to between 4000to, depending on the ship.
The ships used transverse and longitudinal steel frames in the hull. They had eight watertight compartments and a double bottom that ran for 60% of the hull. After the refits, one more watertight compartment was added. The ships were described as good sea boats; they had gentle motion and were very responsive to commands from the helm. The ships lost significant speed in heavy seas, however. The ships had a crew of 20 officers and 256 enlisted men, with an additional 6 officers and 22 men when serving as a flagship. The refit increased crew requirements, to an additional 31 sailors normally, and the extra flagship crew increased to 9 officers and 34 men. The ships carried a number of smaller boats, including one picket boat, one pinnace, two cutters, one yawl, and one dinghy.
The ships were powered by two sets of 3-cylinder triple-expansion engines, each in its own engine room. This was the first use of triple-expansion machinery in a major German warship. These engines drove a pair of three-bladed screws that were 3.5m (11.5feet) in diameter. The ships had eight marine type boilers, with the exception of German: Hagen, which was equipped with eight Thornycroft boilers. The ships had similar maximum speeds, with German: Beowulf the fastest at 15.1kn and German: Heimdall the slowest at . Each ship had three electric generators that provided between 29–26 kilowatts at 67 volts.
The ships stored up to 220MT of coal and 220MT of fuel oil, which enabled a range of 1490nmi at a cruising speed of . At, the ships could only steam 740nmi. With the refit, fuel bunkerage was more than doubled, to 580MT of coal and 500MT of oil. This dramatically increased the sailing range, to 3400nmi at 10 knots and 1940nmi at 14 knots. German: Siegfried received completely oil-fired boilers during her refit in 1895, but these boilers proved to be very inefficient and she later received the mixed-firing boilers installed on the other vessels.
The ships' primary armament consisted of three 24 cm K L/35 guns. In an arrangement very unusual for such large guns, two of which were mounted in a pair of MPL C/88 turrets forward side-by-side, while the third was mounted in a single turret aft. The guns could train 150 degrees to either side of the centerline, and depress to −4 degrees and elevate to 25 degrees. This enabled a maximum range of 13000m (43,000feet). The guns had an ammunition storage of 204 rounds, or 68 shells per gun. The guns had a rate of fire of around 2 shells per minute. The 1895 design for the armor-piercing shell weighed 140kg (310lb).
The ships also had a secondary battery of eight 8.8 SK L/30 guns with 1,500 rounds of ammunition, though German: Siegfried only had six of these guns. After the refit, this was increased to ten 8.8 cm guns, and the munition storage correspondingly increased to 2,500 rounds. The 8.8 cm gun fired a 100NaN0 projectile at a muzzle velocity of 590 m/s (1,936 m/s). The guns could sustain a rate of fire of approximately 15 rounds per minute. Six machine guns were temporarily fitted.
The ships were also equipped with four 35cm (14inches) torpedo tubes. One tube was mounted in the stern in an above-water swivel mount, two were placed laterally, also above water, and the fourth was in the bow. The torpedo tubes were supplied with a total of 10 torpedoes. After the refit, the stern and lateral tubes were replaced with 45cm (18inches) weapons, but the lateral torpedo tubes were submerged. They had 8 torpedoes between them. The bow tube was retained, but also moved below the waterline; it had three torpedoes.
The ships' armor consisted of compound steel for the first three ships and Krupp armor for the last three, coupled with teak. The upper section of the main armored belt was 240mm thick in the central citadel of the ship and reduced to 180mm at either end. This was mounted on 330mm of timber. The lower section of the belt was 140mm thick in the central area, and 100mm on the bow and stern. This portion of the armored belt was mounted on 290mm of timber. The main armored deck was 30mm thick, though on German: Hagen and German: Heimdall this was increased to 50mm. The conning tower had a roof that was 30mm thick and sides that were 80mm thick; the armor protection on the conning tower sides was also increased on German: Hagen and German: Heimdall, to 160mm.
The six ships of the German: Siegfried class were built by a combination of private and government shipyards. German: Siegfried was laid down at the Germaniawerft dockyard in Kiel in 1888. The ship was ordered as the coast defense ship "O" under construction number 44. She was launched on 10 August 1889 and commissioned into the fleet on 29 April 1890. German: Beowulf was built at AG Weser in Bremen from 1890 to 1892. She had been ordered as "P", under construction number 100. German: Beowulf was launched on 8 November 1890 and commissioned on 1 April 1892. German: Frithjof was also built at AG Weser, under construction number 101 and the provisional name "Q". She was launched on 21 July 1891 and commissioned into active service on 23 February 1893.
German: Heimdall, German: Hildebrand, and German: Hagen were all built at Imperial Navy dockyards, with German: Heimdall at the German: [[Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven|Kaiserliche Werft]] in Wilhelmshaven and the latter two at the German: [[Kaiserliche Werft Kiel|Kaiserliche Werft]] in Kiel. German: Heimdall was laid down in 1891 under construction number 14 and the provisional name "U"; she was launched on 27 July 1892 and commissioned on 7 April 1894. German: Hildebrand and German: Hagen were ordered as "R" and "S", respectively. German: Hildebrand was laid down in 1890, launched on 6 August 1892, and commissioned on 28 October 1893. German: Hagen, the last ship of the class, was laid down in 1891, launched on 21 October 1893, and completed on 2 October 1894.
| Ship name | Commissioned | Decommissioned | Fate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 April 1890 | 31 August 1915 | Sold for scrap, 1920 | ||
| 1 April 1892 | 31 August 1915 | Sold for scrap, 1921 | ||
| 23 February 1893 | 31 August 1915 | Sold for scrap, 1930 | ||
| 7 April 1894 | 31 August 1915 | Sold for scrap, 1921 | ||
| 28 October 1893 | 31 August 1915 | Sunk while en route to scrapping, 1919; raised and scrapped, 1933 | ||
| 2 October 1894 | 31 August 1915 | Sold for scrap, 1919 |
The ships of the German: Siegfried class saw only limited service in their intended roles. The revolutions in capital ship building in the first decade of the 20th century rapidly made these ships obsolete. The Second Naval Law, passed on 27 March 1908, reduced the service life of all capital ships from 25 years to 20 years. This meant that the German: Siegfried-class ships, along with a number of other vessels, were to be replaced as soon as possible. German: Siegfried, German: Beowulf, and German: Frithjof were replaced by the s,, and . German: Heimdall, German: Hildebrand, and German: Hagen were replaced by the s,, and, respectively.
As the new battleships were intended for offensive operations, the German: Siegfried class was still retained for coast defense duties. The ships served in this capacity through the start of World War I, until they were withdrawn from active service in 1915. Afterward, all six ships served in a variety of secondary roles, primarily as barracks ships. All six ships were struck from the naval register on 17 June 1919, shortly before the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the First World War, was signed. German: Siegfried was a barracks ship in Wilhelmshaven from 1916. She was intended to be rebuilt as a salvage ship, but this plan was abandoned and the vessel was sold to H. Peters, Wewelsfleth, in 1919 for 425,000 marks. She was broken up in 1920 in Kiel. German: Beowulf served as a target ship for U-boats from 1916 to 1918, when she transitioned to ice-breaking duty in the Baltic Sea. German: Frithjof was a barracks ship in Danzig after 1916. Following her removal from navy service, she was sold to A Bernstein in Hamburg. She was rebuilt as a freighter by Deutsche Werke, and served in this capacity until she was broken up in 1930. She was the longest serving German: Siegfried-class ship.
German: Heimdall was a barracks ship for the crews of U-boats and the Ems coast defense flotilla based in Emden. Like German: Siegfried, German: Heimdall was intended to be reconstructed as a salvage ship, and this was likewise abandoned. She was broken up for scrap metal in 1921. German: Hildebrand was a barracks ship in Windau after she was removed from active duty. She was sold to a Dutch ship-breaking firm in 1919, but while en route to the scrapyard, she became grounded on the Dutch coast. The wreck was blown up in 1933, and eventually scrapped in situ. German: Hagen was a barracks ship in Libau, Danzig, and Warnemünde during the remainder of World War I. She was sold for scrapping to German: Norddeutsche Tiefbaugesellschaft after the end of the war.