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  König Wilhelm  

Ships

Name	No	Yard No	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Comp	Fate
König Wilhelm (ex-Wilhelm I, ex-Fatikh)			Thames Iron Wks, Blackwall, UK	1865	25.4.1868	20.2.1869	large cruiser 1.1897, harbour ship 5.1904

Technical data

Displacement normal, t	10591
Displacement full, t	10761
Length, m	108.6 wl 112.2 oa
Breadth, m	18.3
Draught, m	8.56
No of shafts	1
Machinery	1 HSE, 8 rectangular boilers
Power, h. p.	8440
Max speed, kts	14.7
Fuel, t	coal 750
Endurance, nm(kts)	1300(10)
Armour, mm	iron; belt: 305 - 152, battery: 203 - 152, deck: 51, CT: 100
Armament	18 x 1 - 238/18 RKL/20 C/68, 5 x 1 - 209/20 RKL/22.5 C/68
Complement	730

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Project history

Reed-designed central battery ship, begun as the Turkish Fatikh. While still on the stocks she was purchased for the German Navy, originally under the name Wilhelm I, as an armoured frigate. She was for some time the largest and most powerful ship in the German Navy, and served as flagship.

Ship protection

Main wrought iron belt had 250-90mm wooden back and consisted from upper belt 305mm-thick amidships and 152mm fwd (aft from central battery there was no upper belt) and lower belt 178mm under battery and 127mm fore and aft. Battery had 203mm sides and was protected by 150mm transverse bulkheads. Main CT had 100mm sides and 30mm roof, aft CT had 50mm sides and 30mm roof.

Modernizations

1878-1882: reboilered with 8 rectangular boilers, ram was strengthened.

1880s: - 1 x 1 - 209/20; + 7 x 1 - 149/28 RKL C/88, 4 x 1 - 79/25 RKL/27 C/73, 6 x 5 - 37/27 RV L/30, 5 - 350 TT (2 bow, 2 beam, 1 stern)

1895-1896: - 4 - 209/20, 6 x 1 - 149/28, 4 x 1 - 79/25, 6 x 5 - 37/17; + 4 x 1 - 238/18 RKL/20 C/68, 18 x 1 - 88/27 SKL/30 C/89

Naval service

She was reboilered by Wilhelmshaven Dockyard between 1878 and 1882, as part of a thorough repair after the collision with Grosser Kurfürst, and was also given a stronger ram. In 1895/6 a major rebuild by Blohm & Voss converted her to a heavy cruiser, in the same way as several of her British contemporaries. Her ship rig was reduced to two military masts with fighting tops, and a small mizzen mast was soon removed. The refit could not prevent her from being obsolete, but there was still much life left in the strong old hull, and in 1907, after three years as a harbour ship, she became the school ship of the Naval Academy, with only the sixteen 88mm guns left, reduced by 1915 to only four guns.