The Brandenburg Class (1893)
Above, the battleship Wörth transiting the Kiel Canal. The ships and the Canal arrived at roughly the same time, and were subjects of national pride following the 1895 debut of the Canal. This view shows the tumble-home shape of the upper works, derived from French warship design: the 4.1" secondary battery was largely housed in the tumble-home deckhouse amidships, abreast the two funnels. In Imperial Germany, it was de rigueur for all warships to be photographed at this spot near Kiel, steaming majestically under the the Levensau High Bridge, but the big battleships filled the frame more satisfyingly than the small cruisers and U-boats could. You are looking at a battleship site; but there are hundreds of photos of smaller fry at this spot; take our picture editor's word for it!
The class was the first fruit of Adm. Alfred Tirpitz' crusade to rejuvenate and beef up the Imperial Navy, though it would take another decade's cultivation of public opinion and Reichstag deputies before the German buildup shifted to full throttle. That charge would be signaled by the passage of the first Navy Bill in 1898. Certainly a step forward for Germany, the Brandenburgs nevertheless had several awkward features which reflected Germany's newness to capital ship design and construction. Somewhat small at 10,000 tons, the ships were armed with Krupp 11" guns in three twin centerline turrets -- a copy of the layout of the French Amiral Baudin class. The gunhouses were a hold-over from 1880s practice, more of a shield than an actual turret, shaped like an inverted British "washbasin" helmet, with only 5" armoring -- on the first two ships, 5 inches of compound armor, at that. Runged ladders like those on a boxcar ran up the shield fronts, adding texture to the curved faces. The No. 2 or midship turret revolved in a special tunnel between two sections of the superstructure, with a hurricane deck running overhead; to decrease blast damage, the turret housed a shorter-barreled, 35-calibre version of the weapon, and the redoubt and after-house were constructed with obliquely angled ends to permit a wider arc of fire for the No. 2 turret. The placement still proved problematic, and blast damage was still present every time the No. 2 turret fired.
Like most early pre-dreadnoughts, the Brandenburgs were a strange mix of feudal tradition and Age-of-Steam technology. They reflected the ponderous decorative style of Imperial Germany; at right, the bow shield of the Wörth with its florid scrollwork. Another signature feature was the complicated masts, reminiscent of the French Amiral Duperrés with their round tops placed high atop the pole. These were not tripod masts. The extra spars on either side of the tube were actually cargo booms used to load coal, ammunition and supplies; since there are few photos of the ships working cargo, the booms invariably appear neatly caddied to the spotting tops in photos.
Armor scheme for the class afforded less coverage than was ideal: a narrow 12-4" waterline belt amidships and 4" armor on the extensive secondary armament mounts. In only the first two ships of the class -- Weissenburg and Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm -- improved Krupp nickel-steel armor was used. Delivery problems at the steelworks led to the substitution of compound armor (hardened steel facing laminated onto layers of iron armor) in the other two. Brandenburg had teething problems with her machinery: a steam pipe blew up in her engine room in February 1894, killing 43. The accident delayed the ship's completion and commissioning.
Specifications for the Brandenburg class:
Dimensions: 379'7" x 64' x 26' Displacement: 10,500 tons. Armament: (4) 11"/40 cal. (2x2) and (2) 11"/35 cal. (1x2), (8) 4.1"/30 cal., and (8) 3.4" 15-pdr guns; (3) 18" torpedo tubes. Armor: 16/12" belt, 12" barbette, 5" turret, 12" conning tower, 3"/2.5" deck. Armor was of nickel-steel type in Weißenburg and Friedrich Wilhelm; compound type, Brandenburg and Wörth. Fuel capacity: 600 tons of coal; 1,050 maximum. Propulsion: (12) cylindrical return-flame boilers; (2) vertical inverted triple expansion engines developing 10,000 HP, shafted to twin screw. Maximum speed: 16.4 - 17 kts, seldom attained in service. Crew: 568. Initial cost: 15 - 16,000 gold marks at 1892 valuation ($3,720,000 US).
Ships in class: Brandenburg · Weißenburg · Wörth · Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm
Metric Specifications:
Dimensions: 125m x 20m x 8.2m Displacement: 10,500 tons. Armament: (4) 280 mm/40 cal. (2x2), (2) 280 mm/35 cal. (1x2), (8) 104 mm/30 cal., and (8) 86 mm 15-pdr guns; (3) 45 cm torpedo tubes. Armor: 381/305 mm belt, 127 mm turret, 305 mm barbette and conning tower, 76/64 mm deck. Armor was of nickel-steel type in Weißenburg and Friedrich Wilhelm; compound type, Brandenburg and Wörth. Fuel capacity: 600 tons of coal (1,050 maximum). Propulsion: (12) cylindrical return-flame boilers; (2) vertical inverted triple expansion engines developing 7,457 kW, shafted to twin screw. Maximum speed: 30 - 31.5 km/hr, seldom attained in service. Crew: 568. Initial cost: 15 - 16,000 gold marks at 1892 valuation (£7,670,103).
Quarter view of Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm at sea. Note the oblique angled ends of the superstructure. The lighting on this shot models the tumble-home contours of the 'midships hull, extending to a near whaleback around the stern.
Bow view of Wörth at anchor provides an excellent view of the fore turret. The ships' turrets did not feature all-round loading and had to be rotated exactly fore-and-aft each round in order to reload. After ready ammo inside the gunhouse was used up, they had a very slow rate of fire.
A candid shot of the sailors at leisure, lounging about the Brandenburg's aft turret. Like sailors in any navy, Fritz showed a talent for finding a soft plank and curling up for a few winks. This shot is filled with intriguing turret details: the grab-iron ladders, the cylindrical barbette top supporting the dome-shaped shield, and the shutters coming down on top of the big guns. Clearly these ships were not equipped with blast bags. The aft armored bulkhead is well seen. Enlarge
This artist got the turrets right, but not much else. The Wörth leads the Brandenburgs in a fantasy battle against an unidentified enemy. Of course the home team is winning (rah! rah!) This drawing is typical of a generation of bad popular art on naval subjects, the 1890s equivalent of today's video games. Enlarge
The Brandenburgs' star turn came during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900-1901, when they were despatched to Beijing as part of the European punitive expedition. Kaiser Wilhelm II sent them off with a bloodthirsty charge to exact revenge for the one German diplomat killed by the Boxers, "so that the name of Germany will inspire fear a thousand years hence." Germany's soldiers, arriving too late to take part in the relief of the besieged Beijing embassies, nevertheless did their best to obey their Emperor's charge, killing and stringing up village headmen for hundreds of miles, indiscriminately shooting unfortunate peasants who strayed into the line of fire, raping and looting with the best of the Europeans. The battleships remained on station until recalled in August 1901, homeporting at the new German colony of Qingdao.
Two of the Brandenburgs at anchor during their China adventure. Detail of a chromolithograph done from a painting by Willy Stöwer. The entire canvas shows landing parties being towed into battle by steam launches. See it here.
After their return from Asia, the Brandenburgs were modernized and subsequently assigned to coast defense duty. The Friedrich Wilhelm and Weissenburg (the two with Krupp nickel-steel armor) were sold to the Sultan of Turkey, mustering into the Ottoman navy on August 31, 1910. Renamed Torgud Reis and Hayreddin Barbarossa after a pair of outstanding Turkish admirals, the two obsolescent pre-dreadnoughts participated in the Demonstration of the Ottoman Navy at Selanik, part of the abdication crisis of of May 25 - June 12, 1911 in which the Young Turks forced the reigning Sultan Reshad from power. The following year the ex-Germans did war service for their new master: In the First Balkan War of 1912-13, they were pitted against the new Greek armored cruiser Averof at the Battle of Elli and came off second-best. The agile, new Greek flagship out-shot and outmaneuvered the outdated ex-Germans, causing serious damage on the Hayreddin Barbarossa (ex-Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm), serving as the Ottoman flagship, before turning her attentions to the Torgud. Outmatched, the two Ottoman battleships fled before Averof's fury, with 56 casualties between them. The two fleets met again a month later at the Battle of Lemnos and the Hayreddin and Torgud were badly mauled once more, the flagship losing the use her No. 2 turret; the 1875 ironclad Mesudiye too suffered a serious hit and was released early to seek repairs. The Turks failed to inflict substantial punishment on the Greeks. In an effort to boost morale, the original war ensign of Hayreddin Barbarossa himself had been flown on this sortie; but the historic talisman was no substitute for accurate gunnery. The Ottoman battleships remained at base undergoing repairs and never again joined action in that war. In part, this resulted in a stinging defeat for the Osmanli cause. In the Treaty of London ending the conflict, Turkey lost all her Aegean island possessions and virtually all her remaining territory in Europe. The gainers were Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania on the Continent and Greece in the Aegean.
But there was one last act to be played out before the Ottoman Empire collapsed entirely: the disastrous war of 1914-18. During this conflict, the Hayreddin became the sole Brandenburg to make the supreme sacrifice. She was sunk in the Sea of Marmara by the British submarine E-11 on August 8, 1915. The Torgud provided timely emergency service when she escorted her wounded fellow-ex-German, the battlecruiser Yavuz, to Istanbul under tow after her disastrous raid on Imbros, Jan. 22, 1918. Meanwhile, the two Brandenburgs still in German service remained on active duty through 1915, afterwards becoming floating barracks and reception ships; their main armament was removed and shipped to Turkey for the prosecution of the War in the east. Both these ships went to the breakers in 1919-20. Their sister the Torgud survived through 1938. She was assigned to the Japanese as war reparations in 1919, but they declined her on condition she be disarmed. The thrifty Turks landed Torgud's big guns in the mid-Twenties, remounting them c. 1934 in a fort at the Dardanelles (above - one of her 11" turrets today). Torgud herself was remodeled as a training ship, in which rôle she survived to witness the beginnings of the spiral leading to a new world war.
A rarely-seen view of the Hayreddin Barbarossa's short 11" turret, showing the nesting arrangement. Pattern on the girder overhead (left) is not scales of rust but a graphic defect in the old Turkish navy newsletter from which this image was taken. The texture was left in place to give the viewer a hint of the amount of Photoshop work required to make this old halftone presentable!
Nemesis of the Brandenburgs: the armored cruiser Giorgios Averof, gift of a Greek millionaire to the Royal Hellenic Navy, was built by Orlando at Livorno, Italy in 1910. She furnished the spark and the nucleus for the Greek navy in two short but decisive actions against the Ottoman battle fleet, 1912-13. Her guns mauled Hayreddin Barbarossa on both occasions, jamming turrets, causing numerous casualties, and generally making for a one-sided battle. Averof personified Greek fighting spirit for many decades and is today preserved at Faliron, near Athens. Prudently withdrawing to the yard, both Brandenburgs survived the Balkan Wars to die another day.
Torgud during the Naval Demonstration of May 25 - June 12, 1911 off the sultan's palace in Selanik (Thessaloniki). The Demonstration appears to have been a low-key affair, at least the day this photo was shot.
Turkish Period Web Resources
- One of Torgud's 280 mm Turrets Preserved Today on Asiatic Fortification at the Dardanelles - Photos by Piotr Nykiel
- Navy of the Ottoman Empire - 1856-1918
- Turkey's Arch-Enemy: The Royal Hellenic Navy - 1832-1920
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