SMS Moltke

SMS Moltke

Moltke visiting Hampton Roads, Virginia in 1912
History
German Empire
Name	Moltke
Namesake	Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
Ordered	17 September 1908
Builder	Blohm & Voss
Laid down	7 December 1908
Launched	7 April 1910
Commissioned	30 August 1911
Fate	Scuttled 21 June 1919 at Scapa Flow, raised in 1927 and scrapped 1927–1929
General characteristics
Class and type	Moltke-class battlecruiser
Displacement	Design: 22,979 t (22,616 long tons) Full load: 25,400 t (25,000 long tons)
Length	186.6 m (612 ft 2 in)
Beam	29.4 m (96 ft 5 in)
Draft	9.19 m (30 ft 2 in)
Installed power	24 × water-tube boilers 51,289 shp (38,246 kW)
Propulsion	4 × screw propellers 4 × Parsons turbines
Speed	Design: 25.5 knots (47.2 km/h; 29.3 mph)
Range	4,120 nmi (7,630 km; 4,740 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement	43 officers 1,010 men
Armament	10 × 28 cm (11 in) /50 SK guns 12 × 15 cm (5.9 in) guns 12 × 8.8 cm (3.5 in) guns 4 × 50 cm (19.7 in) torpedo tubes
Armor	Belt: 76 to 280 mm (3 to 11 in) Barbettes: 230 mm (9.1 in) Gun turrets: 230 mm Deck: 25 to 76 mm (1 to 3 in)

SMS Moltke^[a] was the lead ship of the Moltke-class battlecruisers of the German Imperial Navy, named after the 19th-century German Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke. Commissioned on 30 September 1911, the ship was the second battlecruiser of the Imperial Navy. Moltke, along with her sister ship Goeben, was an enlarged version of the previous German battlecruiser design, Von der Tann, with increased armor protection and two more main guns in an additional turret. Compared to her British rivals—the Indefatigable class—Moltke and her sister Goeben were significantly larger and better armored.^[b]

The ship participated in most of the major fleet actions conducted by the German Navy during the First World War, including the Battles of Dogger Bank and Jutland in the North Sea in 1915 and 1916, respectively. She also took part in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in 1915 and Operation Albion in 1917 in the Baltic. Moltke was damaged several times during the war: the ship was hit by heavy-caliber gunfire at Jutland, and torpedoed twice by British submarines while on fleet advances.

Following the end of the war in 1918, Moltke, along with most of the High Seas Fleet, was interned at Scapa Flow pending a decision by the Allies as to the fate of the fleet. The ship met her end when she was scuttled, along with the rest of the High Seas Fleet in 1919 to prevent them from falling into Allied hands. The wreck of Moltke was raised in 1927 and scrapped at Rosyth from 1927 to 1929.
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