S138-class torpedo boat

The ''S138'' class was a group of sixty-five torpedo boats built for the German ''Kaiserliche Marine'' (Imperial Navy) and the Ottoman Navy in the early 1900s. Almost all of the boats served with the German fleet, with only four being sold to the Ottoman Empire in 1910. The German and Ottoman boats saw action in World War I, and several were lost. One Ottoman boat successfully torpedoed and sank a British battleship in 1915. In 1917 and 1918, the German members of the class were all renamed to replace the builder prefix with a standardized "T" prefix. Following Germany's defeat, many of the members of the ''S138'' class were scrapped, either after having been seized as war prizes by the victorious Allied powers or by Germany to comply with the naval disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles. Some boats continued in German service through World War II, after which the surviving vessels were all seized as war prizes.

Design

General characteristics and machinery

The boats of the ''S138'' class varied in dimensions, and they gradually increased in size as more vessels were built. The boats were long at the waterline and long overall. They had beam (nautical) of and a draft of forward. The hull for each boat was divided into thirteen watertight compartments, though after , they were reduced to twelve compartments. They had a crew of three officers and seventy-seven enlisted men, though from ''V150'' onward, they had larger crews, with eighty-one enlisted men aboard. When serving as half-flotilla flagships, the boats would have a flotilla leader's staff of four officers and nine enlisted men in addition to the standard crew. The vessels carried a yawl and a dinghy apiece, though later in their careers they carried up to three yawls and the dinghy.

The ''S138''-class boats had a variety of different propulsion systems. The first group of boats, from to , were propelled by a pair of vertical, 3-cylinder triple expansion steam engines that drove a pair of three-bladed screw propellers. Steam was provided by three coal-fired water-tube boilers. The rest of the members of the class received direct steam turbines of various manufacturers, including AEG, Schichau-Werke, Zoelly, Germaniawerft, and Parsons. All of the boats used the same two-shaft arrangement as the other members of the class, with the exception of the boats through , which were equipped with six Parsons turbines driving three shafts. Steam for both the reciprocating and turbine engines was provided by four water-tube boilers; the boats from ''S138'' through had four coal-fired models, while the remainder of the class had three such boilers and one oil-fired version.

The reciprocating engine-powered boats were rated at from . The two-shaft turbine boats were rated at and , while the three-shaft vessels were designed to reach and 32 knots, respectively. The boats had storage capacity for of coal and, for those boats with oil-fired boilers, of fuel oil. As a result, cruising radius varied significantly, from at . Each vessel was equipped with two 110-Volt generators for electrical power. Steering was controlled with a pair of rudders, one at the stern and the other in the bow, the latter being retractable.

Armament

The armament for the members of the ''S138'' class changed as more vessels were built. The first eleven vessels, from ''S138'' to were equipped with one SK L/35 gun and three SK L/55 guns in single gun mounts. They carried one hundred 8.8 cm shells and four hundred and fifty 5.2 cm rounds. The boats from ''V150'' to only carried two 8.8 cm SK L/35 guns with two hundred rounds. The remainder of the class carried two 8.8 cm SK L/30 guns, also with two hundred shells. Both versions of the 8.8 cm gun fired a shell weighing ; the shorter-barreled L/30 gun had a muzzle velocity of , while the L/35 version had a velocity of . The L/30 gun could be elevated to 20 degrees, for a maximum range of , while the L/35 gun could be elevated to 25 degrees, for a maximum range of . The 5.2 cm guns fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of . The guns could elevate up to 20 degrees, at a maximum range of .

Throughout their careers, the boats had their armament modified. All of the first eleven vessels had their two of their 5.2 cm guns replaced with a second 8.8 cm SK L/35 gun, with the exception of and had all three of their 5.2 cm guns removed. , , , , , , ''G172'' through , , , through , , , and through had their 8.8 cm guns replaced with newer 8.8 cm SK L/45 guns; these guns fired a shells at a muzzle velocity of . At an elevation of 25 degrees, they could engage targets out to . After World War I, many of the surviving vessels that still carried their older 8.8 cm guns had them replaced with the SK L/45 versions, and ''T185'', ''T190'', and ''T196'' received two SK L/45 guns.

All members of the class carried three torpedo tubes as their primary offensive armament; the first half of the class's tubes were in diameter, and they carried four torpedoes. From onward, they were equipped with tubes with five torpedoes. All of these tubes were in single, deck-mounted launchers. In their postwar refit, ''T185'', ''T190'', and ''T196'' had their original tubes replaced with four 50 cm tubes in double, deck-mounted launchers.

Ships

Service history

Several members of the ''S138'' class were lost during World War I in the North and Baltic Seas. was sunk during the Battle of Heligoland Bight on 26 August 1914, one of the first major naval actions of the war. accidentally collided with her sister ship while the pair were cruising in the Jade Bight shortly after midnight on 18 May 1915. ''V150'' sank and 60 of her crew were killed in the accident. On 26 July 1915, was torpedoed and sunk by the British submarine in the North Sea. On 17 December 1915, and the light cruiser ran into a Russian minefield off Windau; both vessels struck mines and sank, with heavy loss of life. Nearly a third of ''V191''s crew were killed, 25 men, along 250 out of ''Bremen''s crew of around 300. A week later, a British mine claimed on 23 December, though only seven men were killed in the sinking. While on patrol in the North Sea on 26 March 1916, encountered British naval forces, and the British light cruiser rammed and sank ''G194'', killing 93 of her crew. sank after striking a Russian mine in the Baltic on 15 August 1916; 15 of her crew were killed. Two boats struck mines and sank in the North Sea on 7 July 1918. ''T138'' was lost shortly after 01:00 and 32 of her crew were killed, and was mined and sunk a little over three hours later, killing 16 of her crew. The ''Muavenet-i Milliye'' in Ottoman service successfully torpedoed and sank the British pre-dreadnought battleship on 13 May 1915 during the Dardanelles campaign, killing 570 of her crew.

In 1917 and 1918, the members of the class were all renamed to replace the builder prefix with a standardized "T" prefix. Following Germany's defeat, many of the members of the ''S138'' class were scrapped, either after having been seized as war prizes by the victorious Allied powers or by Germany to comply with the naval disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles, which permitted Germany to retain only a small fleet that included just twelve destroyers and twelve torpedo boats. The older ''S138''-class boats constituted the bulk of those vessels that Germany was permitted to retain, while the more modern, turbine-powered boats were seized. Britain received the bulk of the class members, taking control of , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and . became a Brazilian war prize in 1920, and Japan received . All of the boats were scrapped in the early 1920s, with the exception of ''T189'', which ran aground off the English coast in December 1920. Among those stricken by the postwar ''Reichsmarine'' to comply with the Versailles Treaty were , , , , ; these boats were also scrapped in the early 1920s.

The boats that continued on in service with the German fleet were , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and . These boats served in a variety of roles in the 1920s and 1930s. Several of them were renamed and converted for training duties: ''T139'' became ''Pfeil'', ''T141'' became the radio control ship ''Blitz'', ''T153'' became the range-finding training ship ''Eduard Jungmann''. ''V151'' was converted into a fast tugboat and she received the name ''Comet''. ''T144'', ''T149'', ''T168'', and ''T175'' remained in active service and were scrapped in 1926–1927. ''Blitz'', ''T143'', ''T148'', ''T152'', ''T154'' joined them at the breaker's yards between 1930 and 1935. Others, including ''T156'' and ''T158'', continued to serve with the fleet through the 1930s, while ''T196'' became the flagship for the Minesweeper Command in 1938. In 1932, ''T185'' was renamed ''Blitz'' and converted into a radio control ship to replace her sistership in that role. ''T190'' was renamed ''Claus von Bevern'' in 1938 and was used in experiments.

By the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, only a handful of the class remained in service. ''T157'' was mined and sunk in Neufahrwasser on 22 October 1943 and ''T156''—which had been renamed ''Bremse'' in 1944—and ''T155'' were scuttled in the final days of the war. ''V185'' and ''V196'' were taken as Soviet war prizes and were renamed ''Vystrel'' and ''Pronzitelnyy'', respectively; their ultimate fate is unknown. ''Claus von Bevern'' was seized by the United States and was scuttled in the Skagerrak in 1946. ''T151'' and ''T153'' also became US prizes; they were scrapped in 1948–1949. ''T155'', ''Bremse'', and ''T157'' were all raised after the war and scrapped as well. ''T139'' was still in service with the 24th U-boat Flotilla as of 1944, but records of her ultimate fate have not survived.

Footnotes

Notes

Citations

References

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{{WWI German ships

Torpedo boats of the Imperial German Navy
World War I torpedo boats of Germany