World One War: Germany's First Dreadnought
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In 1907, Imperial Germany responded to Great Britain’s ‘all big gun’ development of the Dreadnought with the Nassau Class Dreadnoughts.
This class of all new Dreadnoughts for Germany comprised of the Nassau, Rheinland, Posen and Westfalen. All four of these predators were laid down in 1907 and completed by 1910. Compared to Britain’s Dreadnoughts, this new Class were lighter, but were only fractionally slower. This is due to the German Navy retaining the vertical triple-expansion engines, compared to the high power turbine engines of the Royal Navy.
In looking at the ships, the ships were 146.1 meters long, 26.9 meters wide and gad a draught of 8.9 meters. Considered stubby compared to other ships, the reason for this was due to the four wing turrets, which necessitated a wider hull. The ships of the class displaced 18,570 tons with a standard load and 21,000 tons when fully laden. The three ships, excluding Nassau, had 19 watertight compartments, whereas Nassau had only 16. The ships carried a number of boats which included 3 admirals’ barges, 2 launches, 2 cutters, 2 dinghies and a picket boat.
The German ships propulsion was both a setback and an advance. The German Navy was incredibly slow to adopt the Parsons Turbine which was used in British ships. The resistance by the German Naval High Command resulted in the Nassau Class retaining the obsolete Vertical triple expansion engines. The ships designed top speed was 19.5 knots, but at sea trials the ships attained between 20 and 21 knots.
Steam was provided by 12 boilers, each with 2 fireboxes. The whole machinery was divided into 3 engine rooms and 6 boiler rooms. In particular, the wing turrets and their magazines further divided the machinery into 3 groups which increased survivability. This class of ship carried 2,700 tons of coal and was later modified to carry an additional 160 tons of oil which was designed to be sprayed on the coal in order to increase the burn rate. Electrical power was provided by 8 turbo-generators which produced 1,280 kW of power.
In terms of Nassau’s armament, the engines took that much space that the designers were compelled to place the 6 main turrets in a hexagonal configuration. Two twin turrets were mounted fore and aft, and two were mounted on either side of the ship. This meant that when firing directly forward and aft, all 6 guns could be targeted on the enemy and 8 on the broadside!
Each of the four ships carried 12 11inch SKL/45 guns. The main battery magazines were located above the shell rooms, with the exception of the centreline turrets of Nassau and Westfalen. These guns fired 666 lb. shells at a muzzle velocity of 2,805ft and had a maximum range of 22,400 yards. At an ideal range of 13,100 yards, the 11inch shells would penetrate up to 7.9 inches of ‘belt’ armour.
The ships were armoured with world famous Krupp cemented steel armour. The armoured belt was 12inches thick and as little as 3.1 inches in less vital areas.
In terms of action and active service, all four of the Nassau Class served with distinction during World War One. The ships of the class operated as a single unit in the High Seas Fleet, the II Division of the I Battle Squadron. All four ships participated in a number of fleet actions which included the Battle of Gulf of Riga in 1915 and the Battle of Jutland in 1916.
Following the armistice of November 1918, a significant percentage of the Imperial German fleet was interned at Scapa Flow. The Nassau and her three sisters were not earmarked for internment, so remained in Germany. On the 21st June 1919, rear Admiral Von Reuter mistakenly assumed that the armistice would expire that day and ordered the scuttling of Nassau and her three sisters.
However, the four ships were given to the various allies as replacements for ships that had been sunk. SMS Nassau was awarded to Japan in 1920, although the Japanese had no use for her. Subsequently, the Japanese sold the Nassau to British ship-breakers in June 1920 who eventually scrapped the ship.
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