Brandenburg Class Battleship - SMS Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm, Brandenburg, Weissenburg, Wörth

Brandenburg Class. Unusual for a ship of this time in having a powerful main armament of 6 heavy guns and a weaker than normal secondary armament. The central turret guns were however shorter than the others and even then had considerable blast effects when fired. They were the first ships in the German Navy to be fitted with radio.

SMS Brandenburg
Built AG Vulcan, Stettin, laid down May 1890, completed November 1893, cost 15,832,000 Marks.

SMS Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm
Built Wilhelmshaven Navy Dockyard, laid down May 1890, completed November 1893.

SMS Weissenburg
Built AG Vulcan, Stettin, laid down May 1890, completed June 1894.

SMS Wörth
Built Germania, Kiel, laid down May 1890, completed October 1893, cost 16,054,000 Marks

Size:
Length 373 feet 8 inches waterline 379 feet 7 inches overall, beam 64 feet, draught 26 feet, displacement 10,500 tons deep load.

Propulsion:
2 shaft Triple Expansion, 10,000 ihp, 17 knots.

Trials:
Brandenburg 9,997 ihp = 16.3 knots
Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm 9,686 ihp = 16.9 knots
Weissenburg 10,103 ihp = 16.5 knots
Wörth 10,228 ihp = 16.9 knots.

Armour:
16-12in belt, 9in turrets, 3in decks

Armament:
4 x 11in 40cal (2 x 2), 2 x 11in 35 cal (1 x 2), 8 x 4.1in (8 x 1), 8 x 3.4in (8 x 1), 3 x 17.7in TT

Comments:
The first German ocean going battleships. Weissenburg and Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm were fitted with Krupp nickel steel armour but owing to delivery problems the other two had compound armour which effectively gave them twice the protection. Crew 568.

World War 1 Service:
Brandenburg
V Battle Squadron, used for coast defence.
December 1915 barrack ship.
1920 Scrapped in Danzig.

Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm
1910 sold to the Ottoman Empire.
8 August 1915 sunk by British submarine E11.

Weissenburg
1910 sold to the Ottoman Empire.
1938 scrapped.

Wörth
V Battle Squadron, used for coast defence.
December 1915 barrack ship.
1919 Scrapped in Danzig.

SMS Weissenburg, one of two of the class sold to the Ottoman Empire in 1910, both of which were the better armoured pair of the class. The remaining two ships only saw limited use as coast defence ships in World War 1 before being reduced to auxiliary use as barrack ships.