fourth pre dreadnought battleships class marine german_imperial_navy laid commissioned named state prussia sister ships served battle squadron german high seas fleet majority career participated fleet advance december support raid german fleet encountered briefly clashed detachment temporarily assigned guard ship duties baltic missed age rejoin fleet instead continued serve guard ship fleet tender war retained formed converted depot ship type stricken april sold ship breakers meter section hull retained target bombed sunk allied bombers end world war subsequently scrapped construction laid vulcan stettin construction number fourth unit class ordered contract new unit fleet ship cost marks launched october commissioned fleet july ship long overall beam draft forward ship powered cylinder vertical triple expansion engines drove screws steam provided naval cylindrical boilers burned coal powerplant rated metric horsepower ihp generated speed knots mph armament consisted main battery guns twin gun turrets fore aft central superstructure secondary armament consisted fourteen inch guns eighteen quick firing guns armament suite rounded torpedo tubes mounted submerged hull service history commissioning assigned german fleet joined sisters end new class dreadnoughts entered active duty squadron pre dreadnought remaining squadron sister seven class ships present fleet cruise norway july cut short assassination subsequent rise international tensions july ship crew aware austria-hungary ultimatum serbia left norway rendezvous rest fleet following day world war outbreak war august high_seas_fleet conducted series operations designed lure portion numerically superior destroy achieving rough equality forces german navy force decisive battle southern portion north_sea operation high_seas_fleet participated raid december main fleet acted distant support rear admiral battlecruiser squadron raided coastal towns evening december fleet came nmi isolated squadron british battleships skirmishes rival destroyer screens darkness convinced german fleet commander admiral entire grand fleet deployed orders von broke engagement turned germany assigned missed june temporarily transferred baltic serve guard ship sister ship missed battle deemed poor condition participate fleet advance jutland proved vice admiral fleet commander pre dreadnought battleships vulnerable major fleet action detached high_seas_fleet result remained service guard ship baltic end war served fleet tender based wilhelmshaven briefly held navy sailor captured ship sunk june escape german prisoner war camp win medal honor post war career treaty versailles ended war specified germany permitted retain battleships types ships chosen remain active service newly reformed ship converted parent ship type wilhelmshaven ship disarmed platforms holding installed served capacity newly reformed stricken naval register april sold ship breakers february subsequently broken scrap wilhelmshaven length hull retained testing target underwater weapons including torpedoes mines section hull nicknamed sms sms allied bombers attacked sank section hull april eventually raised scrapped late
SMS Preussen (1903)