Odin-class coastal defense ship

The class was a pair of coastal defense ships built for the German (Imperial Navy) in the late 19th century. The class comprised two ships: , named after the Norse god Odin, and , named after the Norse god of the same name. The ships were very similar to the preceding s, and are sometimes considered to be one class of ships.

Like the preceding -class ships, and were obsolete by the time World War I had started. Regardless, they were still used in their primary role until 1915, at which point they were withdrawn from active service. The ships performed a variety of secondary duties until the end of the war. On 17 June 1919, both ships were struck from the naval register and sold to the A. Bernstein Company in Hamburg. The shipping company had the ships rebuilt as freighters; served in this capacity until she was scrapped in 1935, however accidentally grounded near the Karlsö lighthouse on the island of Gotland in 1929 and proved to be a total loss.

Design

In the late 1880s, the German 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 (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 (Imperial Diet) agreed that such vessels were necessary. The initial design, the , was based on the smallest proposal but 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 shielded barbettes side-by-side forward, as German naval theorists still favored ramming attacks that required a capability for end-on fire.

By the time the next group of ships were to be ordered to complete Caprivi's program in 1892, naval theorists had shifted away from end-on attacks toward traditional line-ahead tactics that required a heavy broadside. At the same time, the German navy had begun building the s that reflected this evolution in naval thinking. Caprivi had resigned in 1889, and following a reorganization of the German naval command structure by Kaiser Wilhelm II, Friedrich von Hollmann, the State Secretary of the (RMA), was now in control of naval construction. Hollmann considered proposals to redesign what was to become the class into a more traditional pre-dreadnought arrangement: a fourth 24 cm gun would be added, but rather than the individual barbettes, the guns would be carried in a pair of twin- gun turrets, one forward and one aft. The full length belt armor would be reduced to a short belt capped with armored transverse bulkheads to offset the weight of the additional gun. New, more effective Krupp armor would be employed to save weight as well, since less steel could be used to achieve the same level of protection.

The RMA initially planned to build four of the ships to complete the ten that the had authorized. The proposal came to nothing, however, as the cost of the s proved to be twenty-five percent higher than expected. As a result, the seventh and eighth coastal defense ships— and —were built to a modified version of the design that incorporated the updated armor layout, along with other minor changes that included the installation of military masts and the omission of anti-torpedo nets. The ninth and tenth vessels, provisionally named ''W'' and ''X'' were slated for the 1893–1894 budget year but were rejected by the .

General characteristics

The -class ships were long at the waterline and long overall. They had a beam of and a draft of forward and aft. Like the preceding class, and were substantially rebuilt from 1901 to 1903 and 1903 to 1904, respectively. The hulls were lengthened somewhat, to at the waterline and overall. The beam was also slightly increased, to . Forward draft decreased slightly, to , while the aft draft increased slightly, to . The two ships had a designed displacement of and a maximum weight of . After the reconstruction, displacement was increased to designed, and a maximum of for and for .

and used the same transverse and longitudinal steel frame construction as the -class ships. The ships had eight watertight compartments and a double bottom for about 60% of the length of the hull. As in the s, a ninth watertight compartment was added when the ships were lengthened. Their hulls featured a pronounced tumblehome. 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.

Propulsion

and were equipped with the same propulsion system that was in : two sets of 3-cylinder triple expansion engines, each in its own engine room. These engines drove a pair of three-bladed screws that were in diameter. had eight marine type boilers, while s engines were powered by eight Thornycroft boilers. The ships had similar maximum speeds, with , at , somewhat slower than her design speed of and slightly faster at . Their engines were rated at , though on trials managed only while reached .

had three electric generators that provided between 29 and 26 kilowatts at 67 volts, while was equipped with six generators that provided between 243 and 250 kW at 120 V. Because of her increased number of electrical generators, was nicknamed "" ("Electric Anna"). The ships stored up to of coal which enabled a range of at a cruising speed of . After the refit, fuel bunkerage was increased, to of coal. This increased the sailing range to at 10 knots. After 1909, capacity to store of fuel oil was added.

Armament

The ships' primary armament consisted of three K L/35 guns. In an arrangement that was very unusual for such large guns, two of the guns were mounted in a pair of MPL C/88 barbettes forward side-by-side, while the third was mounted in a single barbette 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 . The guns had an ammunition storage of 174 rounds, or 58 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 .

The ships also had a secondary battery of ten SK L/30 guns with 2,500 rounds of ammunition. The 8.8 cm gun fired a projectile at a muzzle velocity of . The guns could sustain a rate of fire of approximately 15 rounds per minute. The ships were also equipped with three torpedo tubes. Two were placed laterally in above water swivel mounts and the third was submerged in the bow. The torpedo tubes were supplied with a total of 8 torpedoes.

Armor

The ships used a similar Krupp compound steel and teak armor protection scheme as in the preceding class. The upper section of the main armored belt was thick in the central citadel of the ships, where the ships' vitals were located. Behind this was of teak, which gave a total thickness of . The bow and stern were unprotected. The lower section followed a similar pattern of steel armor distribution, although the thickness of the central portion of the belt was decreased to . The main armored deck was between and thick; more important areas of the ships were covered by the thicker armor. The conning tower roof was thick and the sides were . The barbettes for the main battery and cupolas for the secondary guns ranged in thickness between , backed by of teak.

Ships in class

Service history

and 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 -class ships, along with a number of other vessels, were to be replaced as soon as possible. and were replaced by the s and respectively.

As the new battleships were intended for offensive operations, the 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, along with their half-sisters of the class. After she was pulled from combat duties, served as a tender in Wilhelmshaven. She was struck from the naval register on 6 December 1919 and sold to A. Bernstein Co., a shipping company based in Hamburg. By 1922, the ship had been rebuilt as a freighter, and she served in this capacity until she was scrapped in 1935.

was also stationed in Wilhelmshaven after she was withdrawn from her coast defense duties, though she served as a barracks ship there. She was stricken from the navy list on 17 June 1919, and also sold to A. Bernstein Co. for use as a freighter. On 8 December 1929, the ship grounded off the Karlsö lighthouse on the Swedish island of Gotland. The situation proved to be unsalvageable. Her bow ornament is now on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial.

Footnotes

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Further reading

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Coastal defense ship classes