S.M.S. König Wilhelm (1869)
SMS König Wilhelm was an armored frigate (or broadside ironclad) of the Prussian and later the Imperial German Navy.
The ship was built in 1868 by the Thames Iron Works in Blackwall, London. Initially ordered by the Turkish Navy as Fatikh, she was purchased during construction by Prussia after the Turks canceled their contract. The iron-hulled ship was launched on 25 April 1868, christened König Wilhelm after William I, monarch of Prussia, soon to become the first Kaiser of a united German Empire. She displaced 9,750 tons and was, in her original configuration (above), 112m (367'5") long overall, 108m (354'4") at the waterline, and 18.3m (60') in beam, with a draft of 8.56m, or 28 feet. She carried a full three-masted ship rig with 2,600 square meters (8,530 sf) of sail. A Maudslay horizontal simple-expansion steam engine of 1,150 horsepower (860 kW) nominal (8,000 ihp or 6,000 kW) drove her at speeds up to 14.5 knots (28 km/h). As built, her armament consisted of (33) 72-pounder muzzle-loading smoothbore guns.
The ship was built in 1868 by the Thames Iron Works in Blackwall, London. Initially ordered by the Turkish Navy as Fatikh, she was purchased during construction by Prussia after the Turks canceled their contract. The iron-hulled ship was launched on 25 April 1868, christened König Wilhelm after William I, monarch of Prussia, soon to become the first Kaiser of a united German Empire. She displaced 9,750 tons and was, in her original configuration (above), 112m (367'5") long overall, 108m (354'4") at the waterline, and 18.3m (60') in beam, with a draft of 8.56m, or 28 feet. She carried a full three-masted ship rig with 2,600 square meters (8,530 sf) of sail. A Maudslay horizontal simple-expansion steam engine of 1,150 horsepower (860 kW) nominal (8,000 ihp or 6,000 kW) drove her at speeds up to 14.5 knots (28 km/h). As built, her armament consisted of (33) 72-pounder muzzle-loading smoothbore guns.
Period woodengraving of the ship under full sail.
Gundeck of the Kaiser of 1875 gives an idea how the Wilhelm's appeared.
For years she was the most modern and powerful unit in the Prussian -- soon to be Imperial German -- Navy. In 1878 the Wilhelm collided with SMS Großer Kurfürst during fleet exercises off Folkestone, causing the Kurfürst to sink with the loss of 284 of her crew. This was the ship's deadliest act; she never came close to action against an enemy, but proved particularly deadly to 'friendlies' from her own service. In this she resembled other lethal ram-bowed ironclads such as HMS Camperdown and HMS Victoria.
Following the sinking of the Großer Kurfürst, Channel watermen assist the Wilhelm's boats in dipping out survivors.
At Blöhm + Voss in Hamburg, she underwent a major modernization in 1896 (below) as did most of the older units the German navy had decided to retain. Her sail rig was removed, to be replaced by military masts very similar in style to the contemporary Brandenburg class battleships, with large, cylindrical-shaped gunhouses mounted high up and long cargo booms lashed vertically to the masts when not in use; the mizzen was replaced by a stump carrying wireless aerials. A large bridge was carried aft before the mizzen and a searchlight platform and small superstructure forward. Boilers and engines were replaced with up-to-date triple-expansion machinery. Reclassified as an armored cruiser, the venerable ship now displaced 10,591 tons and carried a crew of 732. Her modernized armament consisted of 22 Krupp 24cm BLRs (9.4"/40), one 15 cm BLR (6"/35), and (18) 8.8-cm (3½") QF guns. In the refit the peculiar cubby that had held the heel of the bowsprit was plated over, carrying the ship's stem up to the deck level; but strangely the ornate scrollwork that had graced the bow sailing-ship style was not moved up to the top of the prow, but left in its original place, for all the world like an elongated mustache draped along the ship's cheeks. But then, the Kaiser always did have a thing about mustaches.
The König Wilhelm decked out for Victoria's Golden Jubilee at Spithead, 1897, by H. Graf. Enlarge
It was in this guise that the ship represented the Kaiser and the German Empire at the 1897 Spithead Review in honor of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee (above). The great Queen, it will be remembered, was Kaiser Wilhelm II's grandmother and he had imbibed his love of the sea and ships as a child visiting at her Italianate castle, Osborne House, on the Isle of Wight. The Queen's ties with Germany ran deep: aside from her own Hanoverian blood, her beloved husband, Prince Albert, had been a German: he had provided much progressive leadership for Britain and Europe before his untimely death, and had even designed Castle Osborne for the Queen. Victoria's eldest daughter, Vicky, had married Frederick III of Prussia, who died of a brain tumor only months after acceding to the Throne, allowing his son Wilhelm, nephew of the late Kaiser Wilhelm I, to inherit the crown. "Fritz," as he was known in the royal circle, was a progressive-minded monarchist very much in the mold of Prince Albert. Had his health allowed a longer reign, the history of Europe might have taken a markedly different course. But "Willie" was of quite a different character: moody, touchy, brilliant but flighty; at times charming, at others vainglorious, egotistic, overbearing, and self-absorbed.
At the time of the Jubilee, "Willie" was having one of his tiffs with his British cousins. Nevertheless, he made the gesture of returning this old ironclad to the land of its birth rather than sending one of his smart new pre-dreadnoughts. While relations between the two countries would resemble a roller-coaster track for the next two decades, on this occasion the Kaiser chose to de-emphasize his vainglory and not to flaunt his fleet in the faces of the British people. Had he remained consistently diplomatic over the next 15 years, it is quite possible the Great War would never have erupted -- or at least not in the devastating form it assumed in 1914-18.
But back to our old ironclad. Following her visit to England, she was demoted to harbor defense duties, serving mostly as a training vessel. She was decommissioned in 1904 and afterwards was used as an accommodation ship (i.e., a floating barracks), first at Kiel and later at Flensburg-Mürwik. Having survived the Great War in this humble guise, she was finally scrapped at Rönnebeck (Bremen) in 1921.
At the time of the Jubilee, "Willie" was having one of his tiffs with his British cousins. Nevertheless, he made the gesture of returning this old ironclad to the land of its birth rather than sending one of his smart new pre-dreadnoughts. While relations between the two countries would resemble a roller-coaster track for the next two decades, on this occasion the Kaiser chose to de-emphasize his vainglory and not to flaunt his fleet in the faces of the British people. Had he remained consistently diplomatic over the next 15 years, it is quite possible the Great War would never have erupted -- or at least not in the devastating form it assumed in 1914-18.But back to our old ironclad. Following her visit to England, she was demoted to harbor defense duties, serving mostly as a training vessel. She was decommissioned in 1904 and afterwards was used as an accommodation ship (i.e., a floating barracks), first at Kiel and later at Flensburg-Mürwik. Having survived the Great War in this humble guise, she was finally scrapped at Rönnebeck (Bremen) in 1921.
The König Wilhelm as a training ship late in her career.
