SMS Emden

Emden underway in 1910
History
German Empire
Name	Emden
Namesake	City of Emden
Builder	Kaiserliche Werft, Danzig
Laid down	1 November 1906
Launched	26 May 1908
Commissioned	10 July 1909
Fate	Disabled by HMAS Sydney and grounded off the Cocos Islands, 9 November 1914
General characteristics
Class and type	Dresden-class cruiser
Displacement	Normal: 3,664 t (3,606 long tons) Full load: 4,268 t (4,201 long tons)
Length	118.3 m (388 ft 1 in)
Beam	13.5 m (44 ft 3 in)
Draft	5.53 m (18 ft 2 in)
Installed power	13,315 ihp (9,929 kW) 12 water-tube boilers
Propulsion	2 × triple-expansion steam engines 2 × screw propellers
Speed	23.5 kn (43.5 km/h; 27.0 mph)
Range	3,760 nmi (6,960 km; 4,330 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement	18 officers 343 enlisted men
Armament	10 × 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK L/40 guns 8 × 5.2 cm (2 in) SK L/55 SK L/55 guns 2 × 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes
Armor	Deck: 80 mm (3.1 in) Conning tower: 100 mm (3.9 in) Gun shields: 50 mm (2 in)

SMS Emden ("His Majesty's Ship Emden")^[a] was the second and final member of the Dresden class of light cruisers built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy). Named for the town of Emden, she was laid down at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Dockyard) in Danzig in 1906. The hull was launched in May 1908, and completed in July 1909. She had one sister ship, Dresden. Like the preceding Königsberg-class cruisers, Emden was armed with ten 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns and two torpedo tubes.

Emden spent the majority of her career overseas in the East Asia Squadron, based in Qingdao, in the Jiaozhou Bay Leased Territory in China. In 1913, Karl von Müller took command of the ship. At the outbreak of World War I, Emden captured a Russian steamer and converted her into the commerce raider Cormoran. Emden rejoined the East Asia Squadron, then was detached for independent raiding in the Indian Ocean. The cruiser spent nearly two months operating in the region, and captured nearly two dozen ships. On 28 October 1914, Emden launched a surprise attack on Penang; in the resulting Battle of Penang, she sank the Russian cruiser Zhemchug and the French destroyer Mousquet.

Müller then took Emden to raid the Cocos Islands, where he landed a contingent of sailors to destroy British facilities. There, Emden was attacked by the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney on 9 November 1914. The more powerful Australian ship quickly inflicted serious damage and forced Müller to run his ship aground to avoid sinking. Out of a crew of 376, 133 were killed in the battle. Most of the survivors were taken prisoner; the landing party, led by Hellmuth von Mücke, commandeered an old schooner and eventually returned to Germany. Emden's wreck was quickly destroyed by wave action, and was broken up for scrap in the 1950s.
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