SMS Baden ("His Majesty's Ship Baden

Grand Duchy of Baden

The Grand Duchy of Baden was a historical state in the southwest of Germany, on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918.-History:...

")"SMS" stands for "Seiner Majestät Schiff

Seiner Majestät Schiff

Seiner Majestät Schiff was the ship prefix used by the Prussian Maritime Enterprise , the Prussian Navy, the Imperial German Navy and the Austro-Hungarian Navy...

", or "His Majesty's Ship" was a dreadnought battleship of the German Imperial Navy

Kaiserliche Marine

The Imperial German Navy was the German Navy created at the time of the formation of the German Empire. It existed between 1871 and 1919, growing out of the small Prussian Navy and Norddeutsche Bundesmarine, which primarily had the mission of coastal defense. Kaiser Wilhelm II greatly expanded...

 built during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. Launched in October 1915 and completed in March 1917, she was the last battleship completed for use in the war; two of her sisters

Sister ship

A sister ship is a ship of the same class as, or of virtually identical design to, another ship. Such vessels share a near-identical hull and superstructure layout, similar displacement, and roughly comparable features and equipment...

—Sachsen and Württemberg—were incomplete when the war ended. The ship mounted eight 38 centimetres (15 in) guns in four twin turrets

Gun turret

A gun turret is a weapon mount that protects the crew or mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon and at the same time lets the weapon be aimed and fired in many directions.The turret is also a rotating weapon platform...

, displaced 32200 metric tons (31,691.4 LT) at full combat load, and had a top speed of 21 knots (11.4 m/s). Along with her sister , Baden was the largest and most powerfully armed battleship built by the Imperial Navy.

Upon commissioning into the High Seas Fleet

High Seas Fleet

The High Seas Fleet was the battle fleet of the German Empire and saw action during World War I. The formation was created in February 1907, when the Home Fleet was renamed as the High Seas Fleet. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was the architect of the fleet; he envisioned a force powerful enough to...

, Baden was made the fleet flagship

Flagship

A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...

, replacing . Baden saw little action during her short career; the only major sortie in April 1918 ended without any combat. Following the German collapse in November 1918, Baden was interned with the majority of the High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow

Scapa Flow

right|thumb|Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern endScapa Flow is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsay and Hoy. It is about...

 by the British Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. On 21 June 1919, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter

Ludwig von Reuter

Ludwig von Reuter was a German admiral during World War I, who commanded the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet when it was interned at Scapa Flow at the end of the war. On 21 June 1919 he ordered the scuttling of the fleet to prevent the British from seizing the ships.-Early life:Reuter was...

 ordered the scuttling of the fleet

Scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow

The scuttling of the German fleet took place at the Royal Navy's base at Scapa Flow, in Scotland, after the end of the First World War. The High Seas Fleet had been interned there under the terms of the Armistice whilst negotiations took place over the fate of the ships...

. However, British sailors in the harbor managed to board Baden and beach her to prevent her sinking. The ship was re-floated, thoroughly examined, and eventually sunk in extensive gunnery testing by the Royal Navy in 1921.

Construction

Baden was ordered under the provisional name Ersatz Wörth in 1912,Baden was ordered as a replacement for the old battleship ; Ersatz

Ersatz

Ersatz means 'substituting for, and typically inferior in quality to', e.g. 'chicory is ersatz coffee'. It is a German word literally meaning substitute or replacement...

 means "replacement" in German. under the fourth and final Naval Law, which was passed that year. Construction began at the Schichau-Werke

Schichau-Werke

The Schichau-Werke was a German engineering works and shipyard based in Elbing, formerly part of the German Empire, and which is today the town of Elbląg in northern Poland. It also had a subsidiary shipyard in Danzig .-Early years:...

 dockyard in Danzig under construction number 913. The ship was laid down on 20 December 1913 and launched on 30 October 1915. After fitting-out

Fitting-out

Fitting-out, or "outfitting”, is the process in modern shipbuilding that follows the float-out of a vessel and precedes sea trials. It is the period when all the remaining construction of the ship is completed and readied for delivery to her owners...

, sea trials were conducted; the ship was commissioned into service on 14 March 1917. She had cost the Imperial German Government 49 million Goldmarks

German gold mark

The Goldmark was the currency used in the German Empire from 1873 to 1914.-History:Before unification, the different German states issued a variety of different currencies, though most were linked to the Vereinsthaler, a silver coin containing 16⅔ grams of pure silver...

. Badens two sisterships, Sachsen and Württemberg, both lay incomplete at the end of World War I and were subsequently scrapped, leaving Baden the last battleship built for the Imperial Navy.

Baden was 179.4 metre long at the waterline, and 180 metre long overall. She had a draft

Draft (hull)

The draft of a ship's hull is the vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of the hull , with the thickness of the hull included; in the case of not being included the draft outline would be obtained...

 of between 9.3 and 9.4 m (30.5 and 30.8 ft). Baden displaced

Displacement (ship)

A ship's displacement is its weight at any given time, generally expressed in metric tons or long tons. The term is often used to mean the ship's weight when it is loaded to its maximum capacity. A number of synonymous terms exist for this maximum weight, such as loaded displacement, full load...

 28530 metric tons (28,079.3 LT) at her designed displacement, which did not include a full load of combat supplies, fuel, and other operational necessities; at full combat load, she displaced up to 32200 metric tons (31,691.4 LT). Badens displacement was more than 3000 MT (2,952.6 LT) greater than that of the preceding ships, making her the largest battleship built by the Imperial Navy. Baden was powered by three sets of Schichau steam turbine

Steam turbine

A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....

s, which were rated at 35,000 shaft horsepower, and produced a maximum of 56275 shp. Designed speed was 21 kn (41.2 km/h), but Baden achieved a maximum speed of 22.1 kn (43.3 km/h).

She was armed with eight 38 cm (15 in) guns arranged in four twin gun turret

Gun turret

A gun turret is a weapon mount that protects the crew or mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon and at the same time lets the weapon be aimed and fired in many directions.The turret is also a rotating weapon platform...

s: two superfiring

Superfire

The idea of superfire is to locate two turrets in a row, one behind the other, but with the second turret located above the one in front so that the second turret could fire over the first...

 turret pairs fore and aft of the superstructure

Superstructure

A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships...

. Baden and her sister Bayern were the first German warships to feature guns of this caliber; earlier battleships carried either 28 or 30.5 cm (11 or 12 inch) guns. Her secondary armament consisted of sixteen 15 cm (5.9 in) guns, six 8.8 cm (3.45 in) guns and five 60 cm (23.6 in) underwater torpedo

Torpedo

The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...

 tubes, one in the bow and two on each beam. Upon commissioning, she carried a crew of 42 officers and 1,129 enlisted men.

Service history

After her commissioning into the High Seas Fleet

High Seas Fleet

The High Seas Fleet was the battle fleet of the German Empire and saw action during World War I. The formation was created in February 1907, when the Home Fleet was renamed as the High Seas Fleet. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was the architect of the fleet; he envisioned a force powerful enough to...

, Baden was placed in the role of flagship

Flagship

A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...

 for the commander of the fleet, Admiral Franz von Hipper

Franz von Hipper

Franz Ritter von Hipper was an admiral in the German Imperial Navy . Franz von Hipper joined the German Navy in 1881 as an officer cadet. He commanded several torpedo boat units and served as watch officer aboard several warships, as well as Kaiser Wilhelm II's yacht Hohenzollern...

, a position she held until the end of the war. At the end of August 1917, Baden took Kaiser Wilhelm II to visit the fortified island of Helgoland; the ship was escorted by the battlecruiser and the light cruisers and . After the conclusion of the visit, Baden returned the Kaiser to Cuxhaven. The ship struck the sea bottom outside Cuxhaven, though no major damage was done.

Advance of 23 April 1918

In late 1917, light forces of the High Seas Fleet began interdicting

Interdiction

Interdiction is a military term that refers to the act of delaying, disrupting, or destroying enemy forces or supplies en route to the battle area. A distinction is often made between strategic and tactical interdiction...

 British convoys to Norway.Britain had promised to ship 250000 short tons (223,213.6 LT) of coal to Norway every month. See: Massie, p. 747 On 17 October the light cruisers and intercepted one of the convoys, sinking nine of the twelve cargo ships and the two escorting destroyers before turning back to Germany. On 12 December, four German destroyers ambushed a second British convoy of five cargo vessels and two British destroyers. All five transports were sunk, as was one of the destroyers. Following these two raids, Admiral David Beatty

David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty

Admiral of the Fleet David Richard Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO was an admiral in the Royal Navy...

, the commander of the Grand Fleet, detached battleships from the battle fleet to protect the convoys. The German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) was now presented with an opportunity for which it had been waiting the entire war: a portion of the numerically stronger Grand Fleet was separated and could be isolated and destroyed. Vice Admiral Franz von Hipper

Franz von Hipper

Franz Ritter von Hipper was an admiral in the German Imperial Navy . Franz von Hipper joined the German Navy in 1881 as an officer cadet. He commanded several torpedo boat units and served as watch officer aboard several warships, as well as Kaiser Wilhelm II's yacht Hohenzollern...

 planned the operation: the battlecruisers of the I Scouting Group

I Scouting Group

The I Scouting Group was a special reconnaissance unit within the German Kaiserliche Marine. The unit was famously commanded by Admiral Franz von Hipper during World War I. The I Scouting Group was one of the most active formations in the High Seas Fleet during the war; the unit took part in every...

, along with light cruisers and destroyers, would attack one of the large convoys, while the rest of the High Seas Fleet would stand by, ready to attack the British dreadnought battleship squadron.

At 05:00 on 23 April 1918, the German fleet departed from the Schillig roadstead

Roadstead

A roadstead is a place outside a harbor where a ship can lie at anchor. It is an enclosed area with an opening to the sea, narrower than a bay or gulf. It has a surface that cannot be confused with an estuary. It can be created artificially by jetties or dikes...

. Hipper, aboard Baden, ordered wireless transmissions be kept to a minimum, to prevent radio intercepts by British intelligence. At 06:10 the German battlecruisers had reached a position approximately 60 kilometres (37.3 mi) southwest of Bergen

Bergen

Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....

 when the battlecruiser lost her inner starboard propeller, which severely damaged the ship's engines. The crew effected temporary repairs that allowed the ship to steam at 4 kn (7.8 km/h), but it was decided to take the ship under tow. Despite this setback, Hipper continued northward. By 14:00, Hipper's force had crossed the convoy route several times but had found nothing. At 14:10, Hipper turned his ships southward. By 18:37, the German fleet had made it back to the defensive minefields surrounding their bases. It was later discovered that the convoy had left port a day later than expected by the German planning staff.

On 24 May, Baden again steamed to Helgoland, this time to take the commander in chief of the fleet, Admiral Reinhard Scheer

Reinhard Scheer

Reinhard Scheer was an Admiral in the German Kaiserliche Marine. Scheer joined the navy in 1879 as an officer cadet; he progressed through the ranks, commanding cruisers and battleships, as well as major staff positions on land. At the outbreak of World War I, Scheer was the commander of the II...

, and Grand Duke Friedrich von Baden to visit the island. Only Karlsruhe joined the ship on this voyage.

Wilhelmshaven mutiny

As the fleet flagship, Baden was to have taken part in a final fleet action days before the Armistice

Armistice with Germany (Compiègne)

The armistice between the Allies and Germany was an agreement that ended the fighting in the First World War. It was signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest on 11 November 1918 and marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany, although not technically a surrender...

, an operation which envisioned the bulk of the High Seas Fleet sortieing from their base in Wilhelmshaven to engage the British Grand Fleet. In order to obtain a better bargaining position for Germany, Admirals Hipper and Scheer intended to inflict as much damage as possible on the British navy, whatever the cost to the fleet. Consequently on 29 October 1918, the order was given to depart from Wilhelmshaven to consolidate the fleet in the Jade roadstead, with the intention of departing the following morning. However, starting on the night of 29 October, sailors on mutinied.

Early on the 30th, the crew of Helgoland, which was directly behind Thüringen, joined in the mutiny. Both ships surrendered after two torpedo boat

Torpedo boat

A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval vessel designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs rammed enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes, and later designs launched self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. They were created to counter battleships and other large, slow and...

s arrived and threatened to open fire, and the battleships' crews were taken ashore and incarcerated. The mood of Badens crew was reported as "dangerous". The rebellion then spread ashore; on 3 November, an estimated 20,000 sailors, dock workers, and civilians fought a battle against the authorities in Kiel

Kiel

Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...

 in an attempt to secure the release of the jailed mutineers. Meanwhile, on 9 November, the Socialists' red flag

Red flag

In politics, a red flag is a symbol of Socialism, or Communism, or sometimes left-wing politics in general. It has been associated with left-wing politics since the French Revolution. Socialists adopted the symbol during the Revolutions of 1848 and it became a symbol of communism as a result of its...

 was hoisted aboard Baden, which finally convinced Hipper and Scheer to abandon the plan.

Scapa Flow

Baden was not originally intended to be surrendered under the terms of the Armistice, but was substituted for the battlecruiser Mackensen, which lay incomplete and could not put to sea. As a result, instead of joining the High Seas Fleet when it departed for Scapa Flow on 21 November 1918, Baden left Germany on 7 January 1919. The Royal Navy inspected the ship on 9 January, but many of the technical instruments, including gunnery equipment, had been removed before the ship left Germany.

The fleet remained in captivity during the negotiations in Versailles that ultimately produced the treaty that ended the war. A copy of The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

 informed Rear Admiral von Reuter that the Armistice was to expire at noon on 21 June 1919, the deadline by which Germany was to have signed the peace treaty. Von Reuter came to the conclusion that the British intended to seize the German ships after the Armistice expired.By this time, the Armistice had been extended to 23 June, though there is some contention as to whether von Reuter was aware of this. Admiral Sydney Fremantle

Sydney Fremantle

Admiral Sir Sydney Robert Fremantle GCB, MVO was an officer of the Royal Navy, who served during the Victorian era and had risen to the rank of rear-admiral by the outbreak of the First World War...

 stated that he informed von Reuter on the evening of the 20th, though von Reuter claims he was unaware of the development. For Fremantle's claim, see Bennett, p. 307. For von Reuter's statement, see Herwig, p. 256 To prevent this, he decided to scuttle

Scuttling

Scuttling is the act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull.This can be achieved in several ways—valves or hatches can be opened to the sea, or holes may be ripped into the hull with brute force or with explosives...

 his ships at the first opportunity. On the morning of 21 June, the British fleet left Scapa Flow to conduct training maneuvers; at 11:20 Reuter transmitted the order to his ships. Baden was the last major warship to begin the scuttling process, and British forces in the harbor managed to secure the ship and run it aground before it could sink in deeper water. She was the only capital ship

Capital ship

The capital ships of a navy are its most important warships; they generally possess the heaviest firepower and armor and are traditionally much larger than other naval vessels...

 not successfully sunk in the scuttling. The ship was refloated in July, after which she was towed to the British naval base at Invergordon

Invergordon

Invergordon is a town and port in Easter Ross, in Ross and Cromarty, Highland, Scotland.-History:The town is well known for the Invergordon Mutiny of 1931. More recently it was also known for the repair of oil rigs which used to be lined up in the Cromarty Firth on which the town is situated...

.

British service

After the ship arrived in Invergordon, Baden was carefully examined by Royal Navy technicians. Naval engineers inspected the hull, including the screws, bilge keel

Bilge keel

A bilge keel is used to reduce the hull's tendency to roll. Bilge keels are employed in pairs . A ship may have more than one bilge keel per side, but this is rare. Bilge keels increase hydrodynamic resistance to rolling, making the ship roll less...

s, and rudders, to determine the water resistance of the hull form. The ship was found to have been approximately as efficient as the British s. The ship's armor system was extensively investigated; the British team concluded that the ship had not been modified to incorporate the lessons from the Battle of Jutland

Battle of Jutland

The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet during the First World War. The battle was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916 in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark. It was the largest naval battle and the only...

 of 31 May – 1 June 1916.

The main battery turrets and ammunition magazines were also the subject of intense scrutiny; among the tests conducted was a trial to see how fast the magazines could be flooded—the result was 12 minutes.In case of an ammunition fire, magazines were fitted to be flooded so as to prevent a catastrophic explosion. The gunnery school HMS Excellent ran loading trials on the main battery guns. It was found that the guns could be prepared to fire in 23 seconds, 13 seconds faster than in the s. The ship's watertight bulkhead and underwater protection systems also particularly interested the inspection team; they paid close attention to the ship's pumping and counter-flooding equipment. Commander W M Phipps Hornby, who lived on board Baden for weeks during the examination, wrote to the naval historian Arthur Marder

Arthur Marder

Arthur Jacob Marder was a highly regarded American historian specializing in British naval history in the period 1880 - 1945.-Early life and education:...

 in 1969 that it was his "considered opinion—which I know coincided with that of others engaged on the same job—that, considered as a fighting machine, anyhow on balance the Baden was markedly in advance of any comparable ship of the Royal Navy".

After the inspection was concluded, it was determined to expend Baden as a gunnery target. In January 1921 the first round of gunnery tests was ordered. The gunners at HMS Excellent fired the new armor-piercing

Armor-piercing shot and shell

An armor-piercing shell is a type of ammunition designed to penetrate armor. From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armor-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armor carried on many warships. From the 1920s onwards, armor-piercing weapons were required for anti-tank missions...

 (AP) shells that had been introduced after the Battle of Jutland. This round of tests was used to determine the most efficient ratio of explosives in the detonator caps; the shells fired at Jutland had a tendency to fragment when striking heavy armor rather than penetrate. The monitor

Monitor (warship)

A monitor was a class of relatively small warship which was neither fast nor strongly armoured but carried disproportionately large guns. They were used by some navies from the 1860s until the end of World War II, and saw their final use by the United States Navy during the Vietnam War.The monitors...

  moored some 500 yd (457.2 m) away from Baden to fire her 15 in (38.1 cm) guns from point-blank range. Baden was made to list to starboard by the removal of coal and armor from the port side, to simulate the effect of a shell striking armor from a plunging angle. The forward-most gun turret had by this time been removed. Terror fired 17 shells of various types into the ship. The Royal Navy concluded after these tests that the new shells were sufficiently powerful to penetrate heavy armor, and were much more effective than the previous versions that had been employed at Jutland. Following the tests, heavy seas caused the ship to sink in the shallow water; after three months she was again raised and docked for repairs. The ship was readied for a second round of testing by August 1921.

The second series of tests was scheduled for 16 August 1921. The monitor fired a mix of shell types into Baden with her 15 in guns. This time, the shells did not perform as well against Badens heavy armor; one of the AP shells failed to explode and two semi-AP shells appear to have broken up on impact. Six aerial bombs were also detonated on the ship, though they had been placed on board and were detonated remotely. The bombs did not perform as well as had been expected. Immediately following the second round of gunnery trials, Baden was scuttled. The ship sank in Hurd Deep in a depth of approximately 180 m (600 ft).

The most important finding of the trials on Baden was that the 7 inches (17.8 cm) thick medium armor was completely useless against large-caliber shells. As a result, the British navy adopted the "all or nothing" armor pioneered by the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

. The "all or nothing" armor theory consisted of protecting the ship's vitals with extremely heavy armor, while leaving the rest of the ship completely unprotected. This system was used on Britain's first post-war class of battleships, the .