Light Cruisers: Königsberg Class 1906

[Brian James]

Königsberg Class Light Cruiser SMS Stettin pictured at Hampton Roads in June 1912...She had three sister ships: Königsberg, Nürnberg, and Stuttgart. Laid down at AG Vulcan Stettin Shipyard in 1906, Stettin was launched in March 1907 and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet seven months later in October. Like her sisters, Stettin was armed with a main battery of ten 4.1 in guns and a pair of 18 in torpedo tubes, and was capable of a top speed in excess of 25 knots.
In 1912, Stettin joined the Battlecruiser Moltke and Cruiser Bremen for a goodwill visit to the United States. After the outbreak of World War I, Stettin served in the reconnaissance forces of the German fleet. She saw heavy service for the first three years of the war, including at the Battle of Heligoland Bight in August 1914 and the Battle of Jutland in May – June 1916, along with other smaller operations in the North and Baltic Seas. In 1917, she was withdrawn from frontline service and used as a Training Ship until the end of the war. In the aftermath of Germany's defeat, Stettin was surrendered to the Allies and broke up for scrap in 1921–1923.