SMS Lothringen

SMS Lothringen in the Kiel Canal passing under the Levensau High Bridge
History
Germany
Name	Lothringen
Namesake	Lorraine ("Lothringen" in German)
Builder	Schichau, Danzig
Laid down	1 December 1902
Launched	27 May 1904
Commissioned	18 May 1906
Out of service	2 March 1920
Stricken	31 March 1931
Fate	Scrapped in 1931
General characteristics
Class and type	Braunschweig-class pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement	Normal: 13,208 t (12,999 long tons) Full load: 14,394 t (14,167 long tons)
Length	127.7 m (419 ft) (loa)
Beam	22.2 m (73 ft)
Draft	8.1 m (27 ft)
Installed power	16,000 metric horsepower (15,781 ihp; 11,768 kW) 8 × water-tube boilers 6 × cylindrical boilers
Propulsion	3 × triple-expansion steam engines 3 × screw propellers
Speed	18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Range	5,200 nautical miles (9,600 km; 6,000 mi); 10 knots (20 km/h; 10 mph)
Complement	35 officers 708 enlisted men
Armament	4 × 28 cm (11 in) SK L/40 guns 14 × 17 cm (6.7 in) SK L/40 guns 18 × 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/35 guns 6 × 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes
Armor	Belt: 110 to 250 mm (4.3 to 9.8 in) Turrets: 250 mm (9.8 in) Deck: 40 mm (1.6 in)

SMS Lothringen^[a] was the last of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the Braunschweig class, built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy). She was laid down in December 1902, was launched in May 1904, and was commissioned in May 1906. She was named for Lothringen (now Lorraine), a province of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918. The ship was armed with a battery of four 28 cm (11 in) guns and had a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). Like all other pre-dreadnoughts built around the turn of the century, Lothringen was quickly made obsolete by the launching of the revolutionary HMS Dreadnought in December 1906; as a result, her career as a front-line battleship was cut short.

Lothringen's peacetime career centered on squadron and fleet exercises and training cruises with II Battle Squadron. Scheduled to be withdrawn from service in July 1914 and replaced by newer dreadnought battleships, the outbreak of World War I that month prevented her retirement. She spent the first two years of the war primarily serving as a guard ship in the German Bight. She and the rest of II Squadron joined the dreadnoughts of the High Seas Fleet to support the raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby in December 1914. In poor condition by 1916, she was withdrawn from fleet service in February. She thereafter patrolled the Danish straits until she was replaced by the battleship Hannover in September 1917. She spent the rest of the war as a disarmed training ship.

After the war, Lothringen was retained by the re-formed Reichsmarine and converted into a depot ship for F-type minesweepers from 1919 to 1920. After the task of clearing the wartime minefields in the North Sea was completed, she was placed in reserve in March 1920. The ship remained inactive for the next decade and was stricken from the naval register in March 1931 and sold to ship breakers later that year.
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