SMS ''V27'' was a of the

Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Wilhel ...

that served during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

. The ship was built by AG Vulcan at

Stettin Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ''Stetinum'') is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major s ...

in Prussia (now

Szczecin Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ''Stetinum'') is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major s ...

in Poland), and was completed in September 1914. The ship was sunk at the

Battle of Jutland The Battle of Jutland (german: Skagerrakschlacht, the Battle of the Skagerrak) was a naval battle fought between Britain's Royal Navy Grand Fleet, under Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet, under Vic ...

on 31 May 1916.

Construction and design

In 1913, the Imperial German Navy placed orders for 12 high-seas torpedo boats, with six each ordered from AG Vulcan (''V25''–''V30'') and

Schichau-Werke The Schichau-Werke (F. Schichau, Maschinen- und Lokomotivfabrik, Schiffswerft und Eisengießerei GmbH) was a German engineering works and shipyard based in Elbing, Germany (now Elbląg, Poland) on the Frisches Haff (Vistula Lagoon) of then-East ...

(''S31''–''S36''). While the designs built by each shipyard were broadly similar, they differed from each other in detail, and were significantly larger and more capable than the small torpedo boats built for the German Navy in the last two years.Gardiner and Gray 1985, p. 168. ''V27'' was launched from AG Vulcan's Stettin shipyard on 26 March 1914 and commissioned on 2 September 1914.Gröner 1983, p. 53. The "V" in ''V27'' refers to the shipyard at which she was constructed.Gardiner and Gray 1985, p. 164. ''V27'' was long

overall Overalls, also called bib-and-brace overalls or dungarees, are a type of garment usually used as protective clothing when working. The garments are commonly referred to as a "pair of overalls" by analogy with "pair of trousers". Overalls were ...

and at the waterline, with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy * Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy ** Laser beam * Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized g ...

of and a

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a ves ...

of .

Displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

was normal and deep load. Three oil-fired

water-tube boiler A high pressure watertube boiler (also spelled water-tube and water tube) is a type of boiler in which water circulates in tubes heated externally by the fire. Fuel is burned inside the furnace, creating hot gas which boils water in the steam-gene ...

s fed steam to 2 sets of AEG-Vulcan

steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turb ...

s rated at , giving a speed of . of fuel oil was carried, giving a range of at . Armament consisted of three 8.8 cm SK L/45 naval guns in single mounts, together with six 50 cm (19.7 in)

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed abo ...

s with two fixed single tubes forward and 2 twin mounts aft. Up to 24

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

s could be carried. The ship had a complement of 83 officers and men.

Service

''V27'' was deployed in the Baltic as part of the 17th Half-flotilla in October 1914, and took part in the

Battle of the Gulf of Riga The Battle of the Gulf of Riga was a World War I naval operation of the German High Seas Fleet against the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea in August 1915. The operation's objective was to destroy the Russian naval forc ...

in August 1915.Rollmann 1929, pp. 258, 270. ''V27'' participated in the

as part of the 17th Half Flotilla of the 9th Flotilla,Campbell 1998, p. 25. in support of the German battlecruisers.Campbell 1998, p. 13. The 9th Flotilla, including ''V27'', took part in a torpedo attack on British battlecruisers from about 17:26 CET (16:26

GMT Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...

). The attack was disrupted by British destroyers, and ''V27'' was immobilised by two 4 inch shell hits, one of which severed her main steam pipe. Her crew was taken off by which then scuttled ''V27'' with gunfire.Campbell 1998, p. 50. Three of ''V27''s crew were wounded.Campbell 1998, p. 339.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:V27 Torpedo boats of the Imperial German Navy 1914 ships Ships built in Stettin World War I torpedo boats of Germany Maritime incidents in 1916 Ships sunk at the Battle of Jutland