SMS Friedrich Carl

Career (German Empire)	Kaiser
Name:	Friedrich Carl
Namesake:	Friedrich Carl von Savigny
Builder:	Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
Laid down:	April 1900
Launched:	21 June 1902
Commissioned:	12 December 1903
Fate:	Mined and sunk 17 November 1914
General characteristics
Class and type:	Prinz Adalbert class
Displacement:	9,087 long tons (9,233 t) normal 9,875 long tons (10,033 t) full load
Length:	415.33 ft (126.59 m)
Beam:	64.33 ft (19.61 m)
Draught:	25.5 ft (7.8 m)
Propulsion:	16,200 hp (12,100 kW), three shafts
Speed:	20 knots (37 km/h)
Complement:	586
Armament:	Four 8.2 in (21 cm) (2 × 2) ten 5.9 in (15 cm) (10 × 1) twelve3.45 in (8.8 cm) (12 × 1) four 17.7 in (45 cm) torpedo tubes
Armor:	6 in (15 cm) belt 8 in (20 cm) turret faces 2–3 in (5.1–7.6 cm) deck

Seiner Majestät Schiff Friedrich Carl was a German armored cruiser built in the early 1900s for the Kaiserliche Marine. She was the second ship of the Prinz Adalbert class. Friedrich Carl was built in Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg. She was laid down in August 1901, and completed in December 1903, at the cost of 15,665,000 Marks.

Service history

Upon commissioning, Friedrich Carl escorted the passenger ship König Albert as she carried Kaiser Wilhelm II on a Mediterranean cruise. Friedrich Carl joined the fleet in May 1904. She decommissioned in March 1908, but recommissioned in March 1909 as a torpedo trials test ship.

Friedrich Carl's participation in World War I was quite short. In August 1914, she was undergoing a refit. By September, she was assigned to the Baltic Sea. On 17 November 1914, she struck two mines laid by Russian destroyers west of Memel (now known as Klaipėda). Friedrich Carl stayed afloat for several hours, allowing most of the crew to be rescued by the cruiser Augsburg. Friedrich Carl capsized and sank with the loss of only 8 crew.

External links

• World War 1 Naval Combat